Virgin Australia Changing My Flight - Annoyed

TEER3X on 06/03/2023 - 17:56
Last edited 10/03/2023 - 19:37

Used points to get reward's seats for the family so probably SOL. Booked through Virgin Australia, flying via United.

In October last year I booked MEL-LAX direct, depart 9.40am arrive 6.40am.

Today I received an email showing an e-ticket for my flight being MEL-SFO-LAX

depart MEL 10.55am arrive SFO 8.25am
depart SFO 10.41am arrive LAX 12.22pm

Anything I can do except feel sorry for myself. Wouldn't be that bad if I was by myself, but I think the youngsters are going to be an even bigger nightmare now.

Thanks for the responses, will update late tomorrow (Tuesday)

Virgin (via an outsourced call centre) would only offer to put me on another flight if it had Reward Seat availability

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Comments

  • Ghost47 on 06/03/2023 - 18:00
    +3

    Have you contacted them about it?

    • jjjaar on 06/03/2023 - 18:41
      +3

      Don’t go suggesting logical things here…

    • TEER3X on 06/03/2023 - 19:01

      Yep will do that just gathering info.

      When I look at flights, it appears that one is completely cancelled for that day

      • Ghost47 on 06/03/2023 - 19:17

        I would call up and complain first.

        But not sure what the T&Cs are for reward flights, it’s possible there’s a condition they can put you on another flight if the flight is cancelled.

        • Thrawn on 07/03/2023 - 09:59
          +4

          Reward flights has better conditions than discount fares. And in this case since they cancelled, you can ask and very likely will be approved any rerouting changes. As long as it's not crazy.

          Do flight searches with United and check out the various options (earlier, later, different transit city, longer/shorter stops, etc). You may even be able to add a stopover for a few days in SFO. Then call in and ask for the exact flights you want. Do not rely on the agent to do the searches for you as the standard options often aren't great.

          On Sunday Jetstar cancelled a PER-SYD flight booked with QF reward points. The automatic rebooking was to another Jetstar flight the next day. Called in to Qantas and got it rebooked to a Qantas flight 30-min later.

          Airlines are very understanding when they're the ones that forced the change.

          • Ghost47 on 07/03/2023 - 10:35

            @Thrawn: Good to know, thanks. I thought since they were reward flights that paid flights would take priority or something.

          • Trance N Dance on 07/03/2023 - 11:55

            @Thrawn: Was the cancellation within 24hrs of departure? (Also QF and VA are significantly more flexible in regards to flights on their own metal (and more so when it's domestic flights), when it's an award on a different airline, it's a whole different ball game)

            • Thrawn on 07/03/2023 - 16:27

              @Trance N Dance: Yes, cancellation within 24-hours. But I don't think it matters that much.. I usually get what I want even when it's cancelled a month in advance.

              Also agree that non-own metal could make things more tricky. Like switching from own-metal to a non-JV codeshare would be much more difficult. But switching like for like (United to United) shouldn't be too hard. Though it depends on Virgin's booking systems integration with United I suppose.

              • Trance N Dance on 07/03/2023 - 20:01

                @Thrawn: QF are less likely to rebook pax on award tickets from JQ onto QF with sufficient notice. The 24hr thing is that once it goes under airport control at 24hrs before the flight, rules are essentially thrown out the window and pax are treated alike regardless of type of ticket.

          • TEER3X on 10/03/2023 - 16:38

            @Thrawn: Only options I'm offered are reward flights. I've found some economy flights that I'm happy to go on, even departing Sydney, but they won't budge

  • Donaldhump on 06/03/2023 - 18:15

    whats the big deal, extra hour sleep in, extra cherry tomato and 20 grams of chicken meal, still land in LAX at a time you can book into a hotel.

    unless you got immediate plans in LA you would just be waiting to check in anyway.

    if makes u feel better, qantas changed my flight from bali to brisbane to go via cairns two days earlier and I have to stay in cairns two days.

    crooks

    sorry just read the thing about kids…. they will sruvive

    • dust on 06/03/2023 - 18:25

      extra cherry tomato and 20 grams of chicken meal,

      What does this mean?

      • jjjaar on 06/03/2023 - 18:42
        +4

        I think they’re suggesting the extra flight = another meal, but knowing domestic US flights, they’ll be lucky if they get water on the SFO-LAX leg.

        • SBOB on 06/03/2023 - 18:49

          they’ll be lucky if they get water on the SFO-LAX leg.

          It's a united flight, they'll be lucky if they board without getting confused about which boarding group they are in and why the us has such convoluted boarding processes :)

        • bdl on 06/03/2023 - 21:04
          +1

          It's UA, they'll just get dragged down the aisle a second time :)

  • Muzeeb on 06/03/2023 - 18:18
    +1

    Flights - sucks to be you
    Disneyland with the kids - wish I was you

  • brokenglish on 06/03/2023 - 18:43

    They did that to my Bali flight last year too.
    It was supposed to be direct MEL-DPS but on the day before, they made it MEL-DRW-DPS.
    F.
    We need OzB Airline.

  • Mechz on 06/03/2023 - 19:19
    +3

    Skip the second leg and hire a car, Drive down the coast and enjoy the views.

    • SBOB on 06/03/2023 - 19:38

      100% agree with this idea.
      Spending several days driving SF to LA along the coast was definitely an enjoyed part of a holiday when I did it

    • mbck on 06/03/2023 - 20:46

      Even with kids?

      • SBOB on 06/03/2023 - 21:24
        +5

        Did it with one kid. They loved it.
        Activities down that stretch included aquarium, beaches, boardwalks, national park walks.

    • Thrawn on 07/03/2023 - 01:21
      +1

      If you skip the second leg, any further legs on the ticket cancelled automatically..

      But you can ring the airline to drop the SFO-LAX leg since they were the one that changed your itinerary

      • Trance N Dance on 07/03/2023 - 11:55
        +1

        You would need a waiver in place for them to do that otherwise it would need a reprice. Considering the original ticket was to LAX it's highly unlikely they'll waive a destination change. They however might contemplate an origin change so you maintain a direct flight, eg moving to SYD-LAX, or contemplate a re-route via SYD as MEL-SYD-LAX.

        • Thrawn on 07/03/2023 - 16:40

          Yes normally if the passenger initiates the change it would definitely be a reprice.

          But with airline doing the cancelling, you'd probably get a waiver. Worth asking if you wanted it.

          I seen this once where airline cancelled the 2nd leg PHX-FLG when he arrived in PHX and the passenger opted to get a rental car from PHX instead to get to his destination, without telling the airline. On the return check-in in FLG, his ticket was already automatically cancelled and the check-in agent had to get waivers to restore his ticket.

  • Autonomic on 06/03/2023 - 19:40
    +1

    They can probably re-book you by a day to a MEL-LAX flight, Saving that, they can probably put you on an earlier LAX-SFO flight.

    • Trance N Dance on 06/03/2023 - 19:49
      +2

      An earlier SFO-LAX flight would be a bigger problem. The issue here other than a later arrival into LAX is the 2hr16min connection and the need to clear immigration and customs.

      • Autonomic on 06/03/2023 - 20:06

        Ah. I read your SFO departure as 10.41PM, not AM.

        If you miss your connection they'll put you on the next flight as it's all one PNR.

  • pharkurnell on 06/03/2023 - 19:53
    +3

    Wave a fist at a cloud… beyond that SFA

  • cameldownunder on 07/03/2023 - 09:20
    +1

    Put simply: you can accept, or cancel all related flights ( when I say cancel, it should be fully refundable, as they changed terms and conditions )

  • TEER3X on 07/03/2023 - 17:32

    Called them today, seemed very helpful, offered a few options. I haven't decided yet since I need to rearrange a few things, ideally we go earlier with a proper stop over somewhere.

    • TEER3X on 10/03/2023 - 16:39

      Only options offered are to change to another reward flight, very limited availability. A holes.

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