My wife booked a flight through Makemytrip.com (an Indian site with zero customer service), from Canberra to India.
Virgin Australia formed the Canberra to Sydney part of the itinerary. A few months ago, we got an email saying this flight was re-scheduled and had moved forward. We didn’t think much of it as she was happy to make the new time.
On the morning of departure, we saw 4 missed calls. When we finally were able to call back (after waking up), Virgin Australia told us that the new flight time they had allocated to us would mean that she would miss her international connection. There was only 35 minute transit time; the flight landed at 3:35pm and the international flight was scheduled to depart at 4:10pm. The Virgin representative offered my wife an earlier 10am Virgin flight instead, but since we only called back 9:45am it was too late to make that flight.
So I drove my wife to Sydney so she could make her connection. And she didn’t take the flight from Canberra they had originally put her on.
My question is - is anyone responsible to refund us for the flight and/or my costs in driving to Sydney? They could have put us on the earlier flight in the first place. We didn’t question it at the time because it was booked in one transaction so we assumed that the connecting flight would wait for my wife if she was slightly late. We also checked the night before with a Singapore Airline representative who assured us it would be fine. Virgin knew our itinerary, and knew about the international connection with Singapore Airlines. But apparently their staff only checks these things on the morning of departure. The lady on the phone said she can’t give us a refund but didn’t explain why. Makemytrip, being Indian, is just ignoring us.
She does have comprehensive travel insurance, but not sure if they will cover this.
I trust Choice’s travel expert @JodiBird will join this topic as there are a number of related issues and we members trying to extract or address one or the other in isolation could confuse rather than give coherent advice.
a salient question is although
was it a single PNR (a single booking code for all flights) or was it multiple tickets with multiple PNR’s purchased at once? The answer will make a significant difference and information @JodiBird will need to reply.
FWIW those days are generally gone. Flights close boarding some minutes prior to scheduled departure and more often than not latecomers are denied boarding these days. It is not only the pax who is late, it is their baggage that follows along even later, and being on-time is important for the airlines potential compensation liabilities for the entire load of passengers (dependent on locale) as well as their position on the ‘good airline league tables’ that report such things.
I have even experienced an occasional flight departing early when all ‘available’ pax were on board even though the airline was aware of incoming pax on late inbound flights, be they minutes or hours late! The latter were automatically rebooked on the ‘next available flights’ to their destinations and advised only after running through an airport to the now empty gate - not even advised on de-planing!
Air travel is an adventure, but not the same adventure it once was.
Virgin’s compensation policy states if they cancel or change the flight and are unable to make suitable alternative arrangements they will refund the flight.
Thanks we’ll give it a shot by calling Virgin and reciting their policy. Although I’ll have to wait until my wife gets back from India in a few weeks as I don’t think I can speak on her behalf and she doesn’t have international dialing facilities.
was it a single PNR (a single booking code for all flights) or was it multiple tickets with multiple PNR’s purchased at once?
It was the same PNR, according to the eticket we received from Makemytrip (however, when Virgin contacted us on the day of departure to reschedule, they sent us an email with a different PNR - showing just the domestic flight from Canberra to Sydney. No idea why).
Unfortunately Virgin denied my wife’s request and emailed us the following standardised response. Their response does not address the fact that a Virgin customer service agent called her on the day of departure and effectively told her not to board the Canberra to Sydney Virgin flight because it would mean that she’d miss her international connection. I will ask for an internal review, then I’ll try the Airline Customer Advocate mediation service.
Thank you for taking the time to write to us about your recent flight reschedule with Virgin Australia and we’re really sorry to hear of the disruption to your travel plans.
Occasionally, we may need to revise flights due to operational requirements. In some instances, we regrettably have no other option but to reschedule some services. We understand that by doing so it may significantly affect many of our guests, so we always ensure all alternatives are considered first.
Further, I can confirm that we had notified your travel agent about the schedule change. As such, it was your travel agencies responsibilty to make you aware of the changes.
I understand that your booking was made via a travel agent. When you book via a travel agency, it is that travel agency’s responsibility to manage or make any changes to your booking and ensure you are aware of their restrictions in regards to processing requests for you. So, in relation to your query regarding the refund of your flights, you can contact the agency directly.
Virgin Australia has an agreement with the travel agency that they manage all elements of your booking via their system which communicates directly with the Virgin Australia reservation system. If the agency requires assistance they can contact our industry helpdesk.
The travel agent is based in India and refuses to contact Virgin on her behalf. They keep contacting Singapore Airlines because the PNR is Singapore Airlines (Virgin was operating the Canberra to Sydney connection on their behalf). Apparently, Virgin has falsely told Singapore Airlines that my wife boarded the Canberra to Sydney flight and hence a refund is not possible - even though we have petrol receipts of our drive to Sydney and (potentially, if I can find it) a call recording of their customer service agent agreeing to mark her name off the manifest and/or let Singapore know the situation.
Virgin has responded by blaming her Indian travel agent MakemyTrip:
I would like to advise that your flights were booked by a travel agent and it is booked on a Singapore Airlines ticket stock and not on Virgin Australia. As such, it is either your travel agents or Singapore Airlines responsibility to make you aware of the connecting time.
MakemyTrip accepted the schedule change without informing us that it would cause her to miss her international connection in Sydney and without her explicit permission. We will attempt to seek redress against Makemytrip under Indian law (although that might take 10 years given the backlog of cases) and have also lodged a complaint with the Airline Advocate against Virgin given they are the ones who initiated the schedule change without checking her itinerary.
