Quite a nice surprise this evening.

We're going to Barbados next week and we received a call from Barbados from the Virgin Holiday rep introducing herself and if we had any questions about the hotel and island. She then asked if she could email across some information on trips/excursions available which we agreed she could do. In mail box a few minutes later.

No hard sell or anything.

Good stuff.

Mark

Hi

Can anyone clear this one up fo me. I'm posting here and in airlines as we've booked a package wth virgin holidays to florida using virgin atlantic.

So we booked mid May 2009 for departure 16 October 2010, flying economy both ways.

Back when we booked the allowance was 2 pieces at 23kg each per passenger. So we'd be allowe3d 92 kilos allowance over 4 bags for 2 of us. Not that we're planning on using all of it.

Now the policy has changed and economy only get 1 piece if booked after 25th November.

Confusion starts here.

Been booked half a year by November, already thinking what presents i can bring home. Logged onto 'manage my booking' onloy 1 piece of luggage allowed.

Spoke to travel agent (Hays) who was told 1 peice by one adviser in the overseas contact centre but she phoned back a couple of weeks later when we wanted to add on extra bags to be told no need already allowed 2. But Virgin website still says 1.

Got a print off from a [age Virgin Holidays had on their website early december which has now disappeared which clearly shows we have 2 pieces also.

Who or what is right?

Cheers

You get the old 2 piece allowance. See here http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/passengerinformation/baggage/baggagebypiece.jsp

Anyone had problems getting a seat Locator Number from Virgin Holidays this it seems is needed to allow you to access Manage my Booking on Virgin Atlantic if you book though a Travel Agent,both myself and the Travel Agent are getting fobbed off everytime we call,latest excuse the Volcanic Ash is delaying everything.
Just to update I called today to a different number and low and behold I got the number.

Qatarman(i know you now have your number,but for anyone else) heres what I found(by trial and error the day after booking)-I have booked a Virgin Holiday to Barbados through Thomas Cook.To access the seat plan for your flight go to Virgin Airways website,select manage my booking,key in the booking ref number that you have from the travel agent its should be something like 12345/S10,key in your first and last name,search for 'your booking'.
At that point it says booking not found but I just selected the flight number and date from the drop down box,as at this point it holds your name/ref and the seat map appears.

Hi goalkeeper,
Did that over and over again but it would not accept this is how it has always worked but it seems now you have to get a a Seat Locator Number.Maybe the booking ref number i got was only ----/w-- it seems that all other numbers get 5 numbers before the /.
Anyway all sorted now,thanks for the input.

A big pat on the back to Virgin. I lost my holiday to St Lucia because of the ash they offered me an alternative 10 days later but I was unable to accept due to work commitments so had to cancell. Full refund appeared within 5 days into my bank account and credit card account and letter arrived form them saying sorry I had lost my holiday but then offering me a 15% discount if I rebooked any holiday with them by 14th May. Great customer service.

Agree with you colinj Virgin getting in early with custome service as next year will be tough for everyone after the election.

We have decided to go to mauritius in september 2011, we have looked at Virgin holidays website and they do the holiday we are looking for, my question is, can anyone tell me of any problems I might encounter booking sooooo early. I have thought it would be an advantage as far as prices are concerned, it will be an air mauritius flight.
No one else is booking this early they all say 11 months prior is the earliest we could book.

The best suggestion is to pay the price if you're happy with it and don't check back. You will be extatic if the price goes up but may be a little or more disappointed if the price goes down. And either can happen as it almost certainly is a question of supply and demand.

Mark

Virgin returns to profit

Virgin Atlantic is to invest £100 million in product development after reporting a strong year of trading and a return to profit.

Its full-year pre-tax profit was £18.5 million, compared to a loss of £132 million a year ago.

Meanwhile, 2010/11 revenues were up 13% to £2.7 billion with load factors of 82%.

Despite the winter closure of London Heathrow and the ash cloud crisis costing the business a combined £40 million, the airline said strong growth in business traffic and solid load factors across all cabins delivered a good recovery.

The performance of its tour operator business, Virgin Holidays, was also driven by high demand for its core Orlando and Caribbean holidays.

The operator is doubling its UK retail network to 120 stores, creating 200 jobs nationwide.

Chief executive Steve Ridgway said: "We have demonstrated the resilience of our business by weathering the toughest economic period for aviation and have now returned the business to profit.

"A sharp recovery in the first half of the year has been tempered by more challenged trading in the latter period due to increased capacity in the market and high fuel prices.

"Since the turn of the year, market conditions have become tougher with increased capacity, faltering consumer confidence and high fuel prices.

"We are also seeing softer trading in the areas that are hit hardest by the continued rises in Air Passenger Duty, particularly the Caribbean routes and Premium Economy cabins. Whilst business traffic remains strong, demand in the economy cabin is more challenged."

With permission from Travelmole

can anyone offer some advice please, my husband and i have booked a package holiday via virginholidays.com online, we are travelling to thailand in 2012, our flights are operated by Qatar and not Virgin atlantic, is there any way I am able to contact the airline in order to express our seating preference, as we have a 7 digit reference number at the moment that neither qatar.com or virgin atlantic will recognise online. i understand that when virgin holidays use partner airlines instead of virgin atlantic, there is no way to pre book allocated seats, but we are only able to make a general request- is this correct? any help is very much appreciated, thanks to all in advance.

Does anyone know how much in money you will get off a Virgin economy flight for 2000 miles