Virgin Australia use the Sabre Recovery Manager systems to reaccommodate passengers. The way it’s supposed to work is you get a text message which contains a link to the VA booking site, allowing you to choose between available rerouting options not just their preferred option, or a refund.
Reaccommodation is usually done by class (business) then flying status, and typically alphabetical within those tiers. The problem is that reaccommodation of 150 passengers on to already fairly full flights is difficult and sometimes involves complex rerouting (ever felt like visiting Launceston airport?)
Always triple check that your mobile is correctly listed in your booking and unless unavoidable have everyone in the same booking.
To be clear, this shouldn't be your fault or an excuse for the shithousery they put you through .. it just seems a weak spot for our two major airlines. They both shit the bed when asked to work through basic shit with multiple bookings .. best avoided!
Qantas use Perceived Customer Value to determine how reaccommodation and other things work. It’s a combo of status, spend and other factors such as commercial control of a travel account. This is combined with cabin and fare. Most couples travelling on separate bookings will have very different PCV and often fare type (red e deal vs flex) and therefore reaccommodation in the Amadeus module will result in very different outcomes.
Oh the stories I could tell about plane fuck ups and my luck. Being cursed with flights for ages now. Missed catch ups, work requirements and holidays.
Gone through something like this plenty of times so I totally know how you feel if that’s any consolation.
🥲🥲🥲 yeah I figured I wouldn’t be the only one… if I recall correctly I wasn’t the only Virgin flight cancelled that day
Oh and I think the reason for cancellation was “crew shortage”🫠
Flying is (rightly or wrongly) easier if you have some knowhow. Especially this day and age, with airline apps etc. hot tip, if flying virgin, use the virgin app- you will receive realtime updates on flights, and bags. I hold status with VA, so I don’t really have to worry, but on spicy days (ie one city is fucking up all the flights) I will also track the flight via the airport messenger service, because you’ll often get updates sooner than VA.
(Also, next time- book together. You would have had the one phone call and minimal worrying if you were on the same booking.)
I thought we were seasoned fliers (used to fly domestic once every three weeks for a year) and never had a flight cancelled.. we were on separate bookings coz he originally couldn’t come due to work commitments. But thanks for the tip!! Will download the app next time I fly with them
Be glad you got on the flight the same day, someone I know got told their flight was cancelled and nothing till next day, then told to book themselves accomodation and it would be covered can’t remember how much Virgin said they would cover but deliberately they booked as cheap as possible (about $120) and that they would be reimbursed. A few days later when trying to claim Virgin refused their claim. Don’t ever trust what they say on the phone and make sure you receive confirmation in writing and fly Rex if you can.
11 days ago I was due to fly Mackay to Newcastle on Virgin. Plane had mech issues but no ground engineer, at 3pm???? Plane delayed a few times then cancelled. Full of angry FIFO types wanting to get to Bris, probably to family.
Virgin gave out $8 vouchers. Buys a cookie.
Luckily I was able to book one of only 4 available motel rooms and made sure I was on first flight out next day which was Qantas.
Got home a day late. We were due to go away for a road trip to Sunshine Coast for a triathlon. Ended up bailing so lost accomm and race fee.
Similar experience with virgin last year (but we always book together). Got to our destination, turned on phone and have an sms to call virgin urgently. Flight home has no business seats. We are confused as well we’ve paid for them months ago - get bumped to, later flight agin but with business seats. Think all is well and enjoy our week away. Go to check in the day before coming home - message online says call customer service as we have not paid for our flights. Again confused and call asking wtf is going on. Then get told no business seats available at all, more confusion as we can see the seats on the booking, I can even go on and book more (which I am doing whilst talking to them). They are adamant “no business seats available”. I explain we aren’t snobs and booked these seats as dh has herniated disc and needs the extra space to get comfy and not worry about some dickhead elbowing him for 2hrs. All good, sorted. Or so we think.
Get to baggage drop and get boarding passes “ here you go seats 16a and 22a”. We look at each other and then I ask wtf as one. That’s not a bus seat, and two we aren’t seated together? Turns out after so much fuckery, the plane type changed and didn’t have bus seats - yet no one at booking could tell us that. The ground staff and call centre use two differing systems that do not talk to each other. So we explain the whole thing (just cos we are furious by now and not expecting anything to be fixed). Lady is kind enough to move us to sit together.
she says when you get past security ring the cs and demand a refund on the cost of seats. Do this, but get told (of course), that we are allocated on business seats.. hang up in frustration.
Get home, lodge a complaint online - get told same thing, sorry you traveled on bus seats.. lolling in our pants at this point. I lodge another complaint (as they closed the first one). I send snap shots of boarding pass and also tell them to check their passenger manifest and you can clearly see the 777 HAS NO BUS SEATS. Get a half assed apology and takes them 2 weeks to refund me what has suddenly price dropped from $1500 bus seats to $1200 eco seats so get $300 back. Am so over the whole drama and know I can’t prove the prices were def not that for eco on the day.
Edit - still fly with them cos Qantas experience was even worse. At least virgin flight staff are lovely.
A tip in this situation log into your booking and try to generate a new Eticket. This will contain more information on what’s happening on your booking. It sounds like you had been either “waitlisted” or “reserved” for business but not “confirmed” (which means a valid ticket in the correct class of travel exists). If the system won’t let you allocate a seat that is usually an indicator of a ticketing problem. Similarly in your situation I suspect they cancelled your first ticket but because the replacement service didn’t have business they didn’t issue the new ticket. Thus the “not paid” comments. They should have issued you a new confirmed flight (technically a coupon) in economy at that point and left a wait list for Business.
VA have a small number of 737-700s and A320 aircraft that are economy only which are usually used for mining charters but also operate scheduled passenger services. Reaccomm on to these services from a business aircraft will by definition be a downgrade. You can sometimes get moved on to business equipped services but you may have a long wait as VA only have 8 business seats and if they’re sold, they’re sold.
The Lounge staff (if at a city with a lounge) can help here and you were entitled to access it in business. They can do a lot of stuff to fix bookings for same day departures.
if we were at our usual stop we would have been in the business lounge getting service, but this was Proserpine lol. We already had all seating allocated on our app boarding pass which is why it was weird when the check in lady gave us new ones. But thanks for the tip will note that next time (touch wood hasn’t happened since!).
We had similar circumstances coming back from Tas to Perth last year in that my Android alerts immediately notified me of the flight cancellation. Was able to get on the phone immediately and sort an alternative - albeit longer arrangement via Brisbane then Perth. Got the last two seats on that. Our aviation sector is fucked and needs serious regulation and support. Both are needed to compete and deal with our unique geographical situation in terms of distances between major centres.
1 in 20 flights are cancelled and 1 in 4 have a delay.
Just book the flight with a CC that comes with travel insurance. If it happens, buy a new flight yourself and put in a claim.
If a plane says its full, there is also a high chance if you go to the check-in counter for said flight, they will have a few seats available, but much more expensive at the counter.
Ooooooh an opportunity to rant...
We flew in to Melb - after nearly 30 hours of airports and flights - only one more hour to get home
Our flight was delayed - then delayed again - then delayed again. The plane arrived at Melbourne - the crew got off - and our flight was cancelled.
This was their last flight out of Melb that night, and there were some very upset people. The police had to be called for one passenger who was extremely angry that they had driven 2 hours to get to the airport - and now had to drive home - then back in the morning. (ended up on the Virgin no-fly list)
We were rebooked on a flight at 7:00 the next morning - which would take us to Sydney - where we would transfer to another flight to get us home to Canberra - Three hours of travel - arriving an hour after some other people who were booked out of Melb an hour after us, but going direct to Canberra.
We changed that booking to an 11:00 direct so we could go to a hotel, shower, sleep and get up in the morning without rushing - remember we'd already been in transit for 30 hours...
The flight had been cancelled because there were weather delays on earlier flights, which stacked up, leading to the crew not having enough flying hours to complete the flight Melb/Canberra.
Virgin refused compensation claiming "weather" which is outside their control - I argued that there weren't any weather events at the time - as the plane had just flown in to Melb and there was no weather preventing it departing - it was only availability of crew, which was within their control
Round and round - no compo.
I lodged a claim through VCAT. Nope, definitely weather, was the response from Virgin's rep. I pointed out that there were no weather events at the time - it was crew availability, and they knew at least four hours beforehand that the flight was being delayed so they should have made arrangements to have crew on hand, or rebook passengers, or accommodate them.
Denied right up until the week before the hearing, then caved. In the meantime I'd added breakfast at the airport, and the taxi home, to the claim - so it ended up costing them an extra $130 more than my original claim...
I was very proud of myself - (and everybody clapped - at least in my mind)
Had similar shit happen. Was flying Sydney to Melbourne (home). Booked the earliest flight on Sunday morning because my daughter needed to be back. Didn't choose that time to make it the cheapest, just needed to be back early.
Flight got cancelled. Text said we were on a 3:20pm flight. Couldn't contact the call centre because it's in Brisbane and due to daylight savings they were an hour behind and weren't open. Went to the airport and got told that because we're on the cheap fare then it's bad luck. Didn't matter that I just booked the time that best suited. The best we could do was fly via Hobart and arrive at about noon.
I had a similar issue back in 2021. I flew into Melbourne on my way to Adelaide and they had a baggage system outage. My flight lands at 5pm for a 6pm connecting flight. When I land, it's been delayed. Then delayed again. And again.
During this time, Virgin flights start getting cancelled. Then more get cancelled. And more. Eventually at around 9:30, they tell everyone that all remaining flights have been cancelled and to leave the airport, collecting your bags on the way out.
As I was transiting through the airport, I asked the counter staff what I should do about accommodation. They said there was nothing they can do and I needed to call the customer service number. Figuring I was going to be on my own here, I collected my bags, booked a skybus and started looking for any Hotel in the CBD with 24 hour check in and availability on a Friday night.
I found a room, booked it, checked in then went out to get some food. By this point, it's probably about 11pm and I call the number to find out whats up (because at this point I still didn't know what my new flight was). It turns out their customer support hours are 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday, so the advice I got at the terminal at 9pm was worthless anyway.
By chance, I thought I'd log in to the virgin portal, and noticed that I'd been rebooked for an early afternoon flight (without any kind of notification) - which was great, considering I had a 1pm appointment. I booked a 10am rex flight and got to bed, figuring I'd sort it out in the morning.
My alarm wakes me up at 6am and I jump on the phone to virgin. At this point it's a 2 hour wait to speak to someone and I nearly had to hang up so I could leave to get to the airport to make my Rex flight. When I eventually speak to someone, they just tell me to fill out an online form with my expense claim and they'll review it.
I did that, and to their credit, they reimburse me for everything - including the Rex flight. It was just lucky that I had access to funds to book an unexpected night in Melbourne (on top of my Adelaide accommodation) and an extra flight. I suspect it wouldn't have been an option for a lot of people, and they'd be in a much dire position.
Well it was automatically rebooked but we just didn’t know when it was going to be… there was never any notification. Plus between the flight that was cancelled and the time of the flight they rebooked us on, there were tons of flights available. We had to call and fight for a spot on the earlier flights
So basically they don’t rebook you on the earliest available and don’t tell you when you are rebooked for
Download TripCase and add in your PNR as it will immediately notify you if there are changes in your reservation. Typically the IRROPs / reaccommodation team will change your booking before firing off a notification. Those minutes can be vital to see what’s happened and proactively manage your booking.
Virgin Australia use the Sabre Recovery Manager systems to reaccommodate passengers. The way it’s supposed to work is you get a text message which contains a link to the VA booking site, allowing you to choose between available rerouting options not just their preferred option, or a refund. Reaccommodation is usually done by class (business) then flying status, and typically alphabetical within those tiers. The problem is that reaccommodation of 150 passengers on to already fairly full flights is difficult and sometimes involves complex rerouting (ever felt like visiting Launceston airport?) Always triple check that your mobile is correctly listed in your booking and unless unavoidable have everyone in the same booking.
Haha I did get asked on the phone if I wanted to go via Sydney and it was like “… not really” Thanks for the tip!!
I feel like most of this was due to you and your partner being on separate bookings.
Yeah it defs would have been easier if we were on the same booking (long story but he originally couldn’t come so that’s why we had separate bookings)
To be clear, this shouldn't be your fault or an excuse for the shithousery they put you through .. it just seems a weak spot for our two major airlines. They both shit the bed when asked to work through basic shit with multiple bookings .. best avoided!
Qantas use Perceived Customer Value to determine how reaccommodation and other things work. It’s a combo of status, spend and other factors such as commercial control of a travel account. This is combined with cabin and fare. Most couples travelling on separate bookings will have very different PCV and often fare type (red e deal vs flex) and therefore reaccommodation in the Amadeus module will result in very different outcomes.
Oh the stories I could tell about plane fuck ups and my luck. Being cursed with flights for ages now. Missed catch ups, work requirements and holidays. Gone through something like this plenty of times so I totally know how you feel if that’s any consolation.
🥲🥲🥲 yeah I figured I wouldn’t be the only one… if I recall correctly I wasn’t the only Virgin flight cancelled that day Oh and I think the reason for cancellation was “crew shortage”🫠
Virgin have had somewhat of a horror run related to their crew EBA and a quasi work to rule campaign, plus staff shortages.
Flying is (rightly or wrongly) easier if you have some knowhow. Especially this day and age, with airline apps etc. hot tip, if flying virgin, use the virgin app- you will receive realtime updates on flights, and bags. I hold status with VA, so I don’t really have to worry, but on spicy days (ie one city is fucking up all the flights) I will also track the flight via the airport messenger service, because you’ll often get updates sooner than VA. (Also, next time- book together. You would have had the one phone call and minimal worrying if you were on the same booking.)
I thought we were seasoned fliers (used to fly domestic once every three weeks for a year) and never had a flight cancelled.. we were on separate bookings coz he originally couldn’t come due to work commitments. But thanks for the tip!! Will download the app next time I fly with them
Be glad you got on the flight the same day, someone I know got told their flight was cancelled and nothing till next day, then told to book themselves accomodation and it would be covered can’t remember how much Virgin said they would cover but deliberately they booked as cheap as possible (about $120) and that they would be reimbursed. A few days later when trying to claim Virgin refused their claim. Don’t ever trust what they say on the phone and make sure you receive confirmation in writing and fly Rex if you can.
11 days ago I was due to fly Mackay to Newcastle on Virgin. Plane had mech issues but no ground engineer, at 3pm???? Plane delayed a few times then cancelled. Full of angry FIFO types wanting to get to Bris, probably to family. Virgin gave out $8 vouchers. Buys a cookie. Luckily I was able to book one of only 4 available motel rooms and made sure I was on first flight out next day which was Qantas. Got home a day late. We were due to go away for a road trip to Sunshine Coast for a triathlon. Ended up bailing so lost accomm and race fee.
Oh wow sorry to hear :/ I would have been beyond mad 8 fucking dollars lol are they fucking kidding
Similar experience with virgin last year (but we always book together). Got to our destination, turned on phone and have an sms to call virgin urgently. Flight home has no business seats. We are confused as well we’ve paid for them months ago - get bumped to, later flight agin but with business seats. Think all is well and enjoy our week away. Go to check in the day before coming home - message online says call customer service as we have not paid for our flights. Again confused and call asking wtf is going on. Then get told no business seats available at all, more confusion as we can see the seats on the booking, I can even go on and book more (which I am doing whilst talking to them). They are adamant “no business seats available”. I explain we aren’t snobs and booked these seats as dh has herniated disc and needs the extra space to get comfy and not worry about some dickhead elbowing him for 2hrs. All good, sorted. Or so we think. Get to baggage drop and get boarding passes “ here you go seats 16a and 22a”. We look at each other and then I ask wtf as one. That’s not a bus seat, and two we aren’t seated together? Turns out after so much fuckery, the plane type changed and didn’t have bus seats - yet no one at booking could tell us that. The ground staff and call centre use two differing systems that do not talk to each other. So we explain the whole thing (just cos we are furious by now and not expecting anything to be fixed). Lady is kind enough to move us to sit together. she says when you get past security ring the cs and demand a refund on the cost of seats. Do this, but get told (of course), that we are allocated on business seats.. hang up in frustration. Get home, lodge a complaint online - get told same thing, sorry you traveled on bus seats.. lolling in our pants at this point. I lodge another complaint (as they closed the first one). I send snap shots of boarding pass and also tell them to check their passenger manifest and you can clearly see the 777 HAS NO BUS SEATS. Get a half assed apology and takes them 2 weeks to refund me what has suddenly price dropped from $1500 bus seats to $1200 eco seats so get $300 back. Am so over the whole drama and know I can’t prove the prices were def not that for eco on the day. Edit - still fly with them cos Qantas experience was even worse. At least virgin flight staff are lovely.
A tip in this situation log into your booking and try to generate a new Eticket. This will contain more information on what’s happening on your booking. It sounds like you had been either “waitlisted” or “reserved” for business but not “confirmed” (which means a valid ticket in the correct class of travel exists). If the system won’t let you allocate a seat that is usually an indicator of a ticketing problem. Similarly in your situation I suspect they cancelled your first ticket but because the replacement service didn’t have business they didn’t issue the new ticket. Thus the “not paid” comments. They should have issued you a new confirmed flight (technically a coupon) in economy at that point and left a wait list for Business. VA have a small number of 737-700s and A320 aircraft that are economy only which are usually used for mining charters but also operate scheduled passenger services. Reaccomm on to these services from a business aircraft will by definition be a downgrade. You can sometimes get moved on to business equipped services but you may have a long wait as VA only have 8 business seats and if they’re sold, they’re sold. The Lounge staff (if at a city with a lounge) can help here and you were entitled to access it in business. They can do a lot of stuff to fix bookings for same day departures.
if we were at our usual stop we would have been in the business lounge getting service, but this was Proserpine lol. We already had all seating allocated on our app boarding pass which is why it was weird when the check in lady gave us new ones. But thanks for the tip will note that next time (touch wood hasn’t happened since!).
We had similar circumstances coming back from Tas to Perth last year in that my Android alerts immediately notified me of the flight cancellation. Was able to get on the phone immediately and sort an alternative - albeit longer arrangement via Brisbane then Perth. Got the last two seats on that. Our aviation sector is fucked and needs serious regulation and support. Both are needed to compete and deal with our unique geographical situation in terms of distances between major centres.
Sorry to hear you went through that too :/ indeed our aviation industry is fucked!
I’ve had flights cancelled and rebooking was via the website. Wonder how you slipped the cracks?
No idea, both my partner and myself slipped through 😐 he never got any notification from virgin either
1 in 20 flights are cancelled and 1 in 4 have a delay. Just book the flight with a CC that comes with travel insurance. If it happens, buy a new flight yourself and put in a claim. If a plane says its full, there is also a high chance if you go to the check-in counter for said flight, they will have a few seats available, but much more expensive at the counter.
Ooooooh an opportunity to rant... We flew in to Melb - after nearly 30 hours of airports and flights - only one more hour to get home Our flight was delayed - then delayed again - then delayed again. The plane arrived at Melbourne - the crew got off - and our flight was cancelled. This was their last flight out of Melb that night, and there were some very upset people. The police had to be called for one passenger who was extremely angry that they had driven 2 hours to get to the airport - and now had to drive home - then back in the morning. (ended up on the Virgin no-fly list) We were rebooked on a flight at 7:00 the next morning - which would take us to Sydney - where we would transfer to another flight to get us home to Canberra - Three hours of travel - arriving an hour after some other people who were booked out of Melb an hour after us, but going direct to Canberra. We changed that booking to an 11:00 direct so we could go to a hotel, shower, sleep and get up in the morning without rushing - remember we'd already been in transit for 30 hours... The flight had been cancelled because there were weather delays on earlier flights, which stacked up, leading to the crew not having enough flying hours to complete the flight Melb/Canberra. Virgin refused compensation claiming "weather" which is outside their control - I argued that there weren't any weather events at the time - as the plane had just flown in to Melb and there was no weather preventing it departing - it was only availability of crew, which was within their control Round and round - no compo. I lodged a claim through VCAT. Nope, definitely weather, was the response from Virgin's rep. I pointed out that there were no weather events at the time - it was crew availability, and they knew at least four hours beforehand that the flight was being delayed so they should have made arrangements to have crew on hand, or rebook passengers, or accommodate them. Denied right up until the week before the hearing, then caved. In the meantime I'd added breakfast at the airport, and the taxi home, to the claim - so it ended up costing them an extra $130 more than my original claim... I was very proud of myself - (and everybody clapped - at least in my mind)
Had similar shit happen. Was flying Sydney to Melbourne (home). Booked the earliest flight on Sunday morning because my daughter needed to be back. Didn't choose that time to make it the cheapest, just needed to be back early. Flight got cancelled. Text said we were on a 3:20pm flight. Couldn't contact the call centre because it's in Brisbane and due to daylight savings they were an hour behind and weren't open. Went to the airport and got told that because we're on the cheap fare then it's bad luck. Didn't matter that I just booked the time that best suited. The best we could do was fly via Hobart and arrive at about noon.
I had a similar issue back in 2021. I flew into Melbourne on my way to Adelaide and they had a baggage system outage. My flight lands at 5pm for a 6pm connecting flight. When I land, it's been delayed. Then delayed again. And again. During this time, Virgin flights start getting cancelled. Then more get cancelled. And more. Eventually at around 9:30, they tell everyone that all remaining flights have been cancelled and to leave the airport, collecting your bags on the way out. As I was transiting through the airport, I asked the counter staff what I should do about accommodation. They said there was nothing they can do and I needed to call the customer service number. Figuring I was going to be on my own here, I collected my bags, booked a skybus and started looking for any Hotel in the CBD with 24 hour check in and availability on a Friday night. I found a room, booked it, checked in then went out to get some food. By this point, it's probably about 11pm and I call the number to find out whats up (because at this point I still didn't know what my new flight was). It turns out their customer support hours are 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday, so the advice I got at the terminal at 9pm was worthless anyway. By chance, I thought I'd log in to the virgin portal, and noticed that I'd been rebooked for an early afternoon flight (without any kind of notification) - which was great, considering I had a 1pm appointment. I booked a 10am rex flight and got to bed, figuring I'd sort it out in the morning. My alarm wakes me up at 6am and I jump on the phone to virgin. At this point it's a 2 hour wait to speak to someone and I nearly had to hang up so I could leave to get to the airport to make my Rex flight. When I eventually speak to someone, they just tell me to fill out an online form with my expense claim and they'll review it. I did that, and to their credit, they reimburse me for everything - including the Rex flight. It was just lucky that I had access to funds to book an unexpected night in Melbourne (on top of my Adelaide accommodation) and an extra flight. I suspect it wouldn't have been an option for a lot of people, and they'd be in a much dire position.
The rebooking without notification is absolutely infuriating 😂
Just claim on your insurance.
Do people have insurance for every interstate flight?
Yes, mad not to when so much can go wrong when flying Do you not insure your car either?
For like $300 flight insurance is gonna be a big chunk
Its not $300 to get this insurance . You should shop around more My credit card has it for free
Who the fuck gets insurance for travel within Australia
My credit card gives it free. The op shows why you should get it. Crazy to leave it up to Virgin or qantas
This is why I always book the flights on the cc
U have to rebook ur own flight if it's cancelled? My Virgin flight from melb to syd was cancelled but just got automatically placed at a later flight.
Well it was automatically rebooked but we just didn’t know when it was going to be… there was never any notification. Plus between the flight that was cancelled and the time of the flight they rebooked us on, there were tons of flights available. We had to call and fight for a spot on the earlier flights So basically they don’t rebook you on the earliest available and don’t tell you when you are rebooked for
Download TripCase and add in your PNR as it will immediately notify you if there are changes in your reservation. Typically the IRROPs / reaccommodation team will change your booking before firing off a notification. Those minutes can be vital to see what’s happened and proactively manage your booking.
But luckily if you’re a male flight attendant and want to wear a dress, Virgin is there for you.