Virgin Airlines Dispute - Not Honouring Extended Expiry

OzBargainMan on 26/01/2023 - 17:47
Last edited 26/01/2023 - 18:13 by 1 other user

Hello, I seek the wisdom of OzBargain because I'm not sure what to do!

Sequence of events:

  • My partner received a $800 Virgin Airlines gift card as a gift in ~Dec 2018. the expiry of the voucher was ~Dec 2021
  • Due to COVID lockdowns we were unable to use the voucher for most of this time (I was in NSW during this time)
  • ~Sept 2021 my partner attempted to extend the expiry date: the team member told her that the expiry had been extended by a year due to COVID lockdowns (till ~Dec 2022)
  • We attempted to use it the gift vouchers ~May 2022 but it had expired!?
  • Called Virgin and told us they had only extended it by a month instead of a year… some lockdowns were still going on through Dec 2021 in NSW…
  • Spent several hours of attempting to resolve the matter with Virgin essentially saying they would do nothing at all to rectify it and we should escalate to an external body it if we want a different resolution.

The Virgin Airline team responsible with these claims took ~6 weeks to reply to our original complaint email and we had been fairly busy for the remainder of 2022, so we hadn't chased anything up until now.

I don't know where to escalate this matter and if it's even worth doing… We didn't receive any paper communication throughout the entire ordeal (despite explicitly asking for an email confirmation re. the extended expiry, to which the team member told us we didn't need it)

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Travel Gift Card Virgin

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Comments

  • Hybroid on 26/01/2023 - 17:55
    +1

    If you don't have any confirmation in writing then you're SOL unfortunately. Just a classic he said, she said scenario.

    If you really want to, you can raise a Fair Trading complaint but I imagine first thing they'll ask is evidence of the extension.

    https://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/help-centre/online-tools/…

    • OzBargainMan on 26/01/2023 - 18:09

      Thank you for the link! I did assume this would just be an expensive lesson, still seems unfair to have only extended it by only a month regardless :/

  • kerfuffle on 26/01/2023 - 18:03

    As a fellow NSW resident, what mandatory lockdowns were still going in December 2021? I do not recall.

  • bobbified on 26/01/2023 - 18:11
    +5

    We attempted to use it the gift vouchers ~May 2022 but it had expired!?

    …we had been fairly busy for the remainder of 2022, so we hadn't chased anything up until now.

    Nine months later… geez

    • OzBargainMan on 26/01/2023 - 18:16
      -2

      To be fair the extremely slow correspondence, genuinely weeks at a time, took us well into July/August 2022, the remaining 4 - 5 months was personal matters (and giving up hope)

  • AndyC1 on 26/01/2023 - 20:24

    May 2022 is a long time ago……zzzzz…zzzzzzzz

  • USER DC on 26/01/2023 - 21:05

    Just another reason why I dont really see using domestic flights within australia for shorter (0-24 hr driving distances)

  • itx on 27/01/2023 - 11:11

    Try the ACA: https://www.airlinecustomeradvocate.com.au/General/Default.a… - I understand they've been inundated in recent times so not sure how the experience is now, but they used to be quite helpful at facilitating solutions with the airlines (I think mainly because the issue gets sent to someone who's a little higher up than the agents you get on the phone).

    I do think you've left it a little too long to resolve though!

  • Sinnerator on 28/01/2023 - 08:36
    -1

    STRIKE BACK.
    Start your own airline and call it SLUT.

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