Thank you EZ Air

[dickinson]

We are leaving tomorrow.  Yesterday morning I got up extra early (ugh) and checked my email.  I had a message from Virgin Atlantic that my flight, scheduled to take off Monday night to London was already cancelled (operational issue) and they rebooked me on same flight 24 hours later.  No, that will not work as we are meeting someone in London (who is flying in from elsewhere in US) and have tickets to different places for our stay in London.  I called EZ Air and at the prompt where it asks if you are leaving within 48 hours I pressed it (even though it was more than 48 hours).  The rep checked and saw it was cancelled and then offered me another flight.  Only thing is it was not a non stop but a one stop where we have to change planes in Atlanta.  It is a code share with Delta (I have checked and they have not cancelled this flight since the meltdown just over a week ago).  We have to leave much earlier Monday than our original flight but we get in to London several hours earlier.  Score!  EZ Air said they had to keep us in our same category, Premium Economy when booking new flights. She may have also said she had to keep us on Virgin Atlantic or their code share partners.  I am more than happy on how this turned out as the Virgin Atlantic original flight is constantly late (I had been checking flight aware for a couple of months).  

 

I must say that yesterday morning for about an hour was a stressful time!

[PacnGoNow]

7 minutes ago, dickinson said:

We are leaving tomorrow.  Yesterday morning I got up extra early (ugh) and checked my email.  I had a message from Virgin Atlantic that my flight, scheduled to take off Monday night to London was already cancelled (operational issue) and they rebooked me on same flight 24 hours later.  No, that will not work as we are meeting someone in London (who is flying in from elsewhere in US) and have tickets to different places for our stay in London.  I called EZ Air and at the prompt where it asks if you are leaving within 48 hours I pressed it (even though it was more than 48 hours).  The rep checked and saw it was cancelled and then offered me another flight.  Only thing is it was not a non stop but a one stop where we have to change planes in Atlanta.  It is a code share with Delta (I have checked and they have not cancelled this flight since the meltdown just over a week ago).  We have to leave much earlier Monday than our original flight but we get in to London several hours earlier.  Score!  EZ Air said they had to keep us in our same category, Premium Economy when booking new flights. She may have also said she had to keep us on Virgin Atlantic or their code share partners.  I am more than happy on how this turned out as the Virgin Atlantic original flight is constantly late (I had been checking flight aware for a couple of months).  

 

I must say that yesterday morning for about an hour was a stressful time!

So happy they were able to protect you offline.  Great.  They came through for us also on a similar issue.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

[ebeluga]

1 hour ago, dickinson said:

We are leaving tomorrow.  Yesterday morning I got up extra early (ugh) and checked my email.  I had a message from Virgin Atlantic that my flight, scheduled to take off Monday night to London was already cancelled (operational issue) and they rebooked me on same flight 24 hours later.  No, that will not work as we are meeting someone in London (who is flying in from elsewhere in US) and have tickets to different places for our stay in London.  I called EZ Air and at the prompt where it asks if you are leaving within 48 hours I pressed it (even though it was more than 48 hours).  The rep checked and saw it was cancelled and then offered me another flight.  Only thing is it was not a non stop but a one stop where we have to change planes in Atlanta.  It is a code share with Delta (I have checked and they have not cancelled this flight since the meltdown just over a week ago).  We have to leave much earlier Monday than our original flight but we get in to London several hours earlier.  Score!  EZ Air said they had to keep us in our same category, Premium Economy when booking new flights. She may have also said she had to keep us on Virgin Atlantic or their code share partners.  I am more than happy on how this turned out as the Virgin Atlantic original flight is constantly late (I had been checking flight aware for a couple of months).  

 

I must say that yesterday morning for about an hour was a stressful time!

What is the EZ Air contact # so I can keep it as a reference? Thx!

[akaCruiser]

Given that the cost of a flight using Virgin is similar to other airlines, I think that for my next year cruise to the around the British Isles, I will look at the other airlines, as I originally was looking a Virgin. If they are cancelling a lot or usually late in the arrivals or departures, it doesn't make too much sense in choosing Virgin. Has anyone had good experience with Virgin Atlantic airlines? 

[dickinson]

2 hours ago, ebeluga said:

What is the EZ Air contact # so I can keep it as a reference? Thx!

If you look at your Travel Summary from the personalizer (I print it and take a copy) it lists your travel info and give you the phone numbers to call if you are in US and another for outside US and another for Australia.  In the US is 1-800-545-0008.  It says it is the enroute desk. 

[dickinson]

1 hour ago, akaCruiser said:

Given that the cost of a flight using Virgin is similar to other airlines, I think that for my next year cruise to the around the British Isles, I will look at the other airlines, as I originally was looking a Virgin. If they are cancelling a lot or usually late in the arrivals or departures, it doesn't make too much sense in choosing Virgin. Has anyone had good experience with Virgin Atlantic airlines? 

I don't know anything about the Virgin Atlantic flights where you are, but the one near Washington DC going to London is what I was looking at.  You can go to flightAware.com with a flight# and see the last few weeks.  

[akaCruiser]

16 minutes ago, dickinson said:

I don't know anything about the Virgin Atlantic flights where you are, but the one near Washington DC going to London is what I was looking at.  You can go to flightAware.com with a flight# and see the last few weeks.  

Virgin is not serving Canada until early 2025, so I'm not able to leverage performance based on existing flights. By that time there will be some evidence of Virgin's flight performance, I would have booked EZAir flights already, given that I am going to book as soon as the booking window opens up for my cruise in August 2025 (which will be late September 2024).

[travellingnana]

2 hours ago, akaCruiser said:

Given that the cost of a flight using Virgin is similar to other airlines, I think that for my next year cruise to the around the British Isles, I will look at the other airlines, as I originally was looking a Virgin. If they are cancelling a lot or usually late in the arrivals or departures, it doesn't make too much sense in choosing Virgin. Has anyone had good experience with Virgin Atlantic airlines? 

We had booked a non-stop Virgin flight from SFO to London in June. The night before they emailed to say flight had been canceled (again, operational issues). I called EZ air, but their system didn’t show the plane had been cancelled, and I had to deal with it myself. After 2 hours on hold Virgin finally picked up. Got to London in time, and return to SFO was fine, but will never fly them again. 

[Teechur]

2 hours ago, akaCruiser said:

Given that the cost of a flight using Virgin is similar to other airlines, I think that for my next year cruise to the around the British Isles, I will look at the other airlines, as I originally was looking a Virgin. If they are cancelling a lot or usually late in the arrivals or departures, it doesn't make too much sense in choosing Virgin. Has anyone had good experience with Virgin Atlantic airlines? 

 

Based upon what I had read, I really thought I would love Virgin... I didn't.

We flew in Premium Economy from LAX to London on United and returned on Virgin. United, hands down, was more luxurious, comfortable, and had better food. (I did like Virgin's larger restroom.)

Sorry Virgin, we won't be flying with you again if there is another choice.

[akaCruiser]

Thanks for the feedback. Hopefully, my question about flying on Virgin is not meant to dump on Virgin. I'm just wanting to not have to spend time need to reroute or rebook flights, if I don't need too. Of course all airlines will change their flights and times, but minor delays to arrival or departure I can handle, just needing to rebook is not something I want to do.

[paradiselivin1]

2 hours ago, akaCruiser said:

Has anyone had good experience with Virgin Atlantic airlines? 

Yes! I've heard about others experiences but we had absolutely no issue and had a great experience when flying with them last month from NYC (JFK) to Heathrow (LHR). Early arrival in LHR & on time in NYC. We flew Premium Economy but chose the side with only 2 seats which was perfect. It was a code share with Delta as many are but I expect we'll use them again next summer when flying JFK-->LHR again. Much less expensive via EZAir than if we'd booked with Delta on our own..

[akaCruiser]

19 minutes ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Yes! I've heard about others experiences but we had absolutely no issue and had a great experience when flying with them last month from NYC (JFK) to Heathrow (LHR). Early arrival in LHR & on time in NYC. We flew Premium Economy but chose the side with only 2 seats which was perfect. It was a code share with Delta as many are but I expect we'll use them again next summer when flying JFK-->LHR again. Much less expensive via EZAir than if we'd booked with Delta on our own..

Just curious, then was it a Delta plane or Virgin plane for your inbound and outbound flights from JFK and LHR?

[paradiselivin1]

Virgin Atlantic. Again, code share with Delta but it was all Virgin Atlantic from check-in to flight. 

[dickinson]

Our new flights are outbound Virgin but on a Delta plane.  Return is Delta but on a Virgin plane.  We'll be able to compare Delta and Virgin premium economy.  When we purchased the flights through EZ Air we could have bought the tickets for about $20 less on Virgin website but would have had to pay then and not have the capability to cancel at no charge.  At the time the flight times were good although ultimately they changed their schedule by four hours.  

[paradiselivin1]

Happy travels. Not sure if you're doing a "live from" or not but hope you post your experience with the airlines. We can't book EZAir flights for another month so have time to look around.

[dickinson]

1 hour ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Happy travels. Not sure if you're doing a "live from" or not but hope you post your experience with the airlines. We can't book EZAir flights for another month so have time to look around.

Thanks.  No live from.  We are going on Sky Princess and there are a few Live from's now.  If we have any issues with airline I'll update.

[paradiselivin1]

Enjoy! We were on the Sky last month for our 2 week voyage along Norway on the Land of the Midnight Sun cruise. Loved it!

[gerig]

7 hours ago, akaCruiser said:

Given that the cost of a flight using Virgin is similar to other airlines, I think that for my next year cruise to the around the British Isles, I will look at the other airlines, as I originally was looking a Virgin. If they are cancelling a lot or usually late in the arrivals or departures, it doesn't make too much sense in choosing Virgin. Has anyone had good experience with Virgin Atlantic airlines? 

Virgin Airlines is quite nice.    The clubhouse is also fantastic.

[trvlwrld]

Virgin cancelled our outbound and return flights last month at the last minute also.  Thank goodness for EZAir enroute # that rebooked us.  1-800-545-0008 was a lifesaver…will NEVER book a Virgin or Delta flight again!

[dickinson]

13 minutes ago, trvlwrld said:

Virgin cancelled our outbound and return flights last month at the last minute also.  Thank goodness for EZAir enroute # that rebooked us.  1-800-545-0008 was a lifesaver…will NEVER book a Virgin or Delta flight again!

Why not Delta if Virgin cancelled the flight?

[trvlwrld]

Delta codeshares with Virgin, so if you book a Delta flight as a codeshare, it is cancelled also

[MoreyCreek]

Beware of Virgin Atlantic canceling flights last minute for "operational reasons".  I purchased 2 business class seats from SEA to LHR using credit card points (not EZ Air).  Virgin cancelled our flight 3 days prior to departure and booked us on the same flight the next day.  That gave us one less day sightseeing in London before our cruise.  A lady I met on one of our excursions told me that Virgin cancelled her flight ("operational reasons") from SFO to LHR after she had left for the airport with her young son.  She was re-routed through Atlanta with about a 12 hour layover and she almost missed the cruise.  I would be very hesitant to book anything with Virgin Atlantic in the future.

[dickinson]

17 minutes ago, MoreyCreek said:

Beware of Virgin Atlantic canceling flights last minute for "operational reasons".  I purchased 2 business class seats from SEA to LHR using credit card points (not EZ Air).  Virgin cancelled our flight 3 days prior to departure and booked us on the same flight the next day.  That gave us one less day sightseeing in London before our cruise.  A lady I met on one of our excursions told me that Virgin cancelled her flight ("operational reasons") from SFO to LHR after she had left for the airport with her young son.  She was re-routed through Atlanta with about a 12 hour layover and she almost missed the cruise.  I would be very hesitant to book anything with Virgin Atlantic in the future.

We won’t either. Do they only fly to LHR?  All the stories involve flights to Heathrow. We made it to London this morning. Our connecting flight in Atlanta was an hour late. No big deal. I did notice that coach was half empty. The person we were meeting up with at Heathrow flying in from Boston said the same thing on her American Airways flight. Now I just have to hope that our return flight is not real delayed or cancelled!

[dickinson]

On 7/29/2024 at 7:37 PM, trvlwrld said:

Delta codeshares with Virgin, so if you book a Delta flight as a codeshare, it is cancelled also

You are entitled to your opinion but if a Delta flight is on Virgin Atlantic metal and Virgin cancels the flight then of course it is cancelled too. Not Delta’s fault. All the airlines seem to code share to some extent.  

[ChrisG_Bristol]

19 hours ago, dickinson said:

We won’t either. Do they only fly to LHR?  All the stories involve flights to Heathrow. 

Virgin Atlantic's only London base is LHR. They also have a few flights from MAN.