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Mmm, while Virgin Australia is busy trumpeting the appointment of its new top team with only one member of the old top team remaining, it appears that thousands of consumers are very agitated that they are still waiting for a refund of the money they paid to Virgin Australia through agencies and online for international flights, with Virgin Australia only offering domestic flight credits and it also appears very little chance of them getting any of their money back.

This discussion has been ongoing for some time, continuing on Facebook, with posts giving an insight into how frustrated and angry these customers are with Virgin Australia, with a call to by me to Virgin Australia and their response below revealing that they think they are doing the right thing, when clearly it is not and Virgin Australia needs to rethink this damaging policy, as when Bain Capital acquired Virgin Australia it also acquired these bookings and the company’s reputation, which as a result is becoming damaged.

The bottom line is that these customers booked international flights, which Virgin Australia, whoever owns it, cannot now provide, therefore their money should now be refunded, not just being offered domestic flight credits which I am advised have rather restrictive conditions, which many have no interest in using.

This is Virgin Australia’s response to my question:-

Hi John, 

Thanks for the call just now.  

Please see a statement and some background below.  

The following statement can be attributed to a Virgin Australia Group spokesperson:

Virgin Australia is unable to provide refunds to customers with flight or holiday bookings made on or before Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration on 20 April 2020.

We’re committed to helping affected customers and so we’re pleased to have provided them with a Future Flight credit equal to the value of their impacted booking, which can be used to book flights on Virgin Australia-operated services up to 21 July 2022 for travel until 30 June 2023.

We’re hopeful that international travel will resume in this time and customers will be able to use the credits for any future service operated by Virgin Australia. 

We’re pleased to see many of our customers already using their Future Flight credit to redeem flights across the Virgin Australia network and we expect this to continue as travel restrictions ease. 

On background: 

  • Virgin Australia Future Flight credits can be used to make bookings up to 21 July 2022, for travel until 30 June 2023 and can be used in the fare class available for Future Flight credits on all Virgin Australia services (domestic and international flights, when available). 
  • More than 80,000 flights have been booked by customers using Future Flights credits to date. 
  • Bookings made after 21 April 2020 are subject to standard fare rules.  
  • Virgin Australia exited administration on 17 November 2020.  
  • More information on Future Flight credits can be found here.

What do you think?

A report by John Alwyn-Jones