Flight delays and cancellations - advice on what to do and refunds

Travel
20

Whilst strike action didn’t occur, we were impacted by the cyclone and our flight was cancelled as we were going via Cairns. We were told there was no capacity to move us and we were given no option other than to have our points refunded, so we were left high and dry. So we had the option of cancelling our first overseas family holiday in 15 years, or pay a lot of money for last minute flights. We opted for the latter, and are waiting to see if we can claim any compensation from our travel insurance. The flights were obviously much cheaper when we booked the reward flights, so it will be interesting to see what the insurance will pay, if anything. We also now still have all those points with Virgin, having transferred them from our credit card rewards program for the flight.