Virgin Atlantic Arvostelua 

Virgin prices for Ryanair standards—Zero duty of care on our anniversary
I booked our flight through Virgin Atlantic to use my points and was passed to Virgin Holidays to book our accommodation. What should have been a special trip for our anniversary turned into a complete nightmare. We paid premium Virgin prices, but we received absolute Ryanair standards of service and comfort.
Our flight to Washington DC was scheduled for 8th September at 15:50. We boarded at 15:00, but the second we sat down in the incredibly cramped economy cabin of the Airbus A330-300, we were informed of a delay. The legroom was shockingly tight, with my knees pressed directly against the seat pocket in front of me. One hour later, we were told we were behind a staggering 85 other planes. To top it off, the pilot openly admitted over the tannoy that once the air traffic problem was eventually sorted, it would still take two hours just for the queue of planes ahead of us to take off. It begs the question: why on earth did they pack us onto the aircraft in the first place? Despite the pilot and aircrew trying their best, we were left trapped in those claustrophobic, restrictive seats on a stationary plane for about 5 hours before the flight was ultimately cancelled.
We were reassured that Virgin staff would assist us once we deplaned, but the moment we stepped off, the "service" vanished. We were told that because it was an air traffic control issue, Virgin would not provide any duty of care whatsoever—no hotels, no cabs, nothing. What made it so much worse was hearing the British Airways announcements over the airport speakers right next to us, openly reassuring their passengers that BA would be covering all cabs, hotels, and expenses upon receipt. Meanwhile, Virgin left us completely stranded.
To make matters worse, we were told our luggage would arrive on belt 3. After waiting there for an hour, we discovered our suitcases had been dumped further down on a completely different belt. Desperate for support, I walked back round to the check-in desks. When I asked for help, a Virgin staff member callously pointed out that there were disabled people in wheelchairs and they weren’t helping them either—as if that justified their total abandonment of passengers. Another staff member suggested I go to the Virgin lounge instead of sleeping on the floor, only for the lounge staff to turn me away, stating: "You’re not business class, so you can’t come in." Because our flight was pushed back 24 hours, we were left with no choice but to sit on the airport floor for most of the night.
The nightmare continued when we finally arrived in Washington. We got to The Watergate Hotel only to be told they had given our room away because Virgin Holidays failed to notify them of our flight delay. After a stressful argument explaining we had already paid and demanding a refund, they magically found us a room—but then hit us with a $1,000 security fee that we had never been made aware of.
We lost a whole day of our holiday, slept on an airport floor, endured knee-crushing seating, faced hidden fees, and had our anniversary completely ruined. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays showed zero accountability or compassion. I will never book with them again.

Bait and Switch Tactics

We have been trying to book flights to Orlando, every time there is a price drop we get an alert and we go to book. We get through passenger details, seat selection and even pay! and then instantly we get refunded and a message pops up saying that the seats are no longer available at that price. The flights stay at the same price on the website for hours after this. But the process just repeats itself every time.

Speaking to customer services who even confirm the booking cost which then changes just say oh sorry its a software glitch..... but yea the new price is the actual price.

Ridiculous!

I am genuinely shocked and extremely upset by the way my mum and I have been treated by Virgin Atlantic, particularly after paying a considerable amount extra to upgrade our flights to Premium Economy.

A major reason we chose to pay for Premium Economy was to make this journey as comfortable and stress-free as possible and for us to travel together. We have now found ourselves not seated together and were told it would cost approximately another £64 PER PERSON – around £128 in total – to select seats together.

After already paying the significant additional cost of Premium Economy, I simply do not have another £128 available just so my mum and I can sit beside each other.

What has upset me even more is the way we have been made to feel throughout this experience – almost as though we are trying to obtain a free upgrade or something we haven't paid for.

We are NOT asking for a free upgrade. We have ALREADY paid to upgrade to Premium Economy.

We simply want to sit together.

There is also a genuine and sensitive personal reason why it is particularly important that my mum and I sit together. What I find incredibly upsetting is that my mum should not have to repeatedly explain or announce private and sensitive circumstances to different members of staff simply to demonstrate why sitting beside her daughter is important.

She is already embarrassed enough by her situation without being made to feel she has to disclose it to strangers just to receive some understanding and compassion.

Lisa in Swansea was most helpful in resolving my issue this morning. Thank you!

Do not book Virgin Atlantic l was very disappointed l booked 2 window seats and put me in the middle aisle the food is very horrible, it’s better to try British airways , this is the worst airline which I have used for the rest of my life, never using them again, if there was zero stars I could put zero, the staff are bullies.

We booked our party of 4 Premium seats to Orlando and less than 3 weeks later the seats were on sale and were coming in hundreds of pounds cheaper. I called virgin to see if there was anything that they could do as a gesture of goodwill as this left a bad taste in my mouth but they just quoted their cancellation terms and policies to me which I was already well aware of and I was just hoping for them to have some understanding of my situation and how it felt for us. They made no attempt to help me and basically told me well that's tough... Next time we will go with an alternative airline instead. Customer service was non existent.

Don't waste your money on flexible tickets.
I Bought flexible tickets for return flights to/from the Caribbean. however later in my travels I wanted to return home a couple of days earlier, so i contacted customer services. they quoted me £1717 each for flights home from Grenada. I googled flight checker the return flight only to find that the virgin flight was £1717 (incidentally BA was less than £500) I pointed out to Customer services that i had paid extra for flexible tickets insisted the on full exorbitant fare. Needless to say i didn't take them up on there offer!

Do not book if you have a neuro divergent child no empathy when they resell seats you have booked 7 months ago as you booked 3 in a row to cause less disruption to others . Cannot speak on the phone to a human . Do not believe all their hype about being champions for hidden disabilities and diversity absolutely disgusted

Bad service

Virgin are the worse airline I have ever used, its a shame you can't use minus stars. they cancel flight, downgrade you on to another company, don't tell you new flight information until you call them, incurring costs they say will refund then don't. its not one star from me its -5. please use another flight company.

We had a positive experience with Virgin. Seats were comfortable enough with enough leg room in economy. Food was a typical airline food, nothing special but sufficient. Customer service received from checkin agents and cabin crew was mixed. Could be improved. More smile and empathy.

On trying to secure seats in economy class I could not get payment to go through but online had a pleasant representative who organised for me but put the payment through in British sterling instead of South African Rands. At 22 to the Pound that was enough to upgrade to upper/business but was an unpleasant surprise. In calling and being pushed from one to another, eventually got a supervisor to acknowledge and refund was agreed. Received email confirmation that within 7 working days refund would be confirmed …14 workings days later nothing! Customer care as bad …promise of response in 5 working days and only social media grumble resulted in response of the matter being “escalated”. Clearly their escalator has lost power! More than 10 days after initial mail to customer care, I’m no longer holding my breath. I have more faith in my bank retrieving money that is earning no interest for me than I have in Virgin Atlantic. First time flying this airline and at this point no wish to fly with them ever again!

For some reasons, virgin Atlantic had to amend my flight timing, so I called and spoke to Customer Care agent Wyatt if he can help me with the timing change, He was very polite, and helped me change the timing to the one that suited me. I spoke to few people before that not from virgin Atlantic but no one helped me other than Wyatt. He is a gem of a person, always willing to go the extra mile. He gets the job done. All along he knew exactly what he was doing, congratulations virgin Atlantic for hiring such a wonderful person.

When flying from Atlanta to Manchester on August 5th 2026 Virgin Atlantic switched flight operator to Wamos Air. I was very disappointed to say the least.
After being on board for 2.5 hours I received approx 70ml of room temperature water. The staff were rude and unwelcoming. The plane was absolutely disgustingly dirty. The food was so bad I couldn't eat it. It was a horrible experience. I will never book with Virgin again after this.

First time treating myself to Virgin Flights, a company I've always regarded as a superior Airline and initially a company I was looking forward to travelling with.

My views are now unfortunately very low about Virgin Atlantic, due mostly to their poor customer care services. You can't get hold of anyone to talk to, get given misleading information from the team you can talk to and they do not seem bothered about keeping your custom. You're at the mercy of emails and waiting for them to call you (not in the specified 24 hours I was told on 2 occassions I add)...

Thankfully, I should be now getting a full refund for the 2 flights I booked a couple of months ago, that were both changed and that I could get cheaper elsewhere. I chose instead to go with British Airways, who too were cheaper and offered better times direct.

I fully understand that sometimes flights get cancelled or the times change, but how you deal with customers says the most about a company and Virgin clearly need to work on this. I would not feel confident in booking with them again, let alone flying with them.

A very disappointing transaction overall, that's caused 9 days of stress and alot of time wasting.

It's horrible. Would request everyone never take virgin s flights. Their staff is arrogant. While taking a flight from mumbai to toronto via london, they denied me boarding from London to toronto flight as their mumbai to London flight was delayed. Hence they left me in London as they do overbooking. Wasted my 24 hrs. Their customer service is horrible. They damaged my entire baggage. Their air hostess are rude swines.

I would give Virgin Atlantic zero stars if I could.

My checked suitcase disappeared during an itinerary involving Virgin Atlantic and Delta. Virgin has since confirmed that the bag was loaded onto its Mumbai–Heathrow flight and that its records place the break in the journey at Heathrow, where the bag was not recorded as transferring onward to Atlanta.

What followed has been considerably worse than the original baggage mishandling.

For an entire week I have been bounced between Virgin and Delta. Virgin repeatedly tells me to contact Delta because Delta was the final carrier. Delta tells me it has repeatedly contacted Virgin for tracing assistance and is waiting for Virgin to respond. Virgin itself has now acknowledged in writing that I have spent “an entire week being redirected” between the two airlines without substantive resolution.

Meanwhile, Virgin has repeatedly told me that it is contacting its Heathrow baggage team to determine whether the suitcase is still there — but after a week it still cannot tell me whether a physical search has actually been completed, what was searched, or what the result was. Its own representative has stated that Virgin has not yet received a response from Heathrow.

The customer-service experience has been appalling. Every WhatsApp interaction seems to involve a new representative, forcing me to explain the entire case again and resend previous correspondence. I was initially told Virgin could not send a photograph of my suitcase to Heathrow because Delta controlled the baggage file. After I challenged this, Virgin suddenly confirmed that it could — and did — send the photograph and my contact details to Heathrow. Basic tracing actions have happened only after sustained pressure from me.

Most remarkably, Virgin has repeatedly closed conversations while the fundamental question remains unanswered: has anyone at Heathrow actually searched for this suitcase?

Bags sometimes get mishandled. What tells you whether an airline deserves your business is what happens afterwards. Virgin Atlantic has shown me an operation in which no one takes meaningful ownership, airport teams apparently fail to respond even to the airline’s own tracing requests, partner airlines point at one another, and the passenger is left to coordinate the investigation herself.

My confidence in Virgin Atlantic has been comprehensively destroyed. I have no intention of flying with the airline again. After seeing how Virgin responds when something actually goes wrong, I would actively avoid entrusting it with either my baggage or my journey.

Very poor service. I have no idea why the staff think they can be so rude. I fact I would say they are aggressive and combative. I won’t be flying virgin if they gave it away.

Told I'd get a refund, seven weeks of silence, then told I'd get nothing

I cancelled booking [99651433]. On that call, a Virgin Atlantic agent told me I would receive a partial refund, processed within roughly two weeks. I confirmed the cancellation on that basis.

Seven weeks passed. No refund, no email, no update.

When I called on I was told I am entitled to nothing at all. No explanation for why I'd been told otherwise, no acknowledgement that the original advice existed.

The issue isn't the fare rules. It's that I made a decision based on what Virgin's own staff told me, and Virgin now takes the position that this simply doesn't count. Seven weeks of silence, then a flat no.
Copy of email from Virgin below
" Our Reference: 99651433

Hello,

We’re getting in touch to confirm that we’ve received your refund request. We appreciate your patience as we process your refund as quickly as possible.

Here are some key points to help manage your expectations:

Processing Time:
You will receive an email from us within the next 7 working days to confirm that we have processed your refund. Following this, it can take up to 14 additional working days for your payment provider to transfer the funds to your account. The exact time frame depends on your payment method and card issuer. While the majority of payment providers typically return the funds within 3-5 working days, some providers can take up to 14 working days.

Bookings including Points:
If your booking was made with Flying Club points, all points paid will be refunded to your account within the same time frame (as per Fare rules).

Flights with Other Airlines:
If your booking includes flights from other airlines, the refund process may extend up to 30 days, as we need to coordinate with the other airline(s).

Payment Method Details:
The refund will be credited to the original payment method(s) used for your purchase.

Thank you for choosing Virgin Atlantic, and we look forward to welcoming you onboard when you decide to travel again.

Sincerely,
Virgin Atlantic Refunds Team"

Very poor experience with Customer Service when trying to close my Flying Club account. The link to a form I was provided by Customer Service to request that my Virgin Red Flying Club account be closed did not work (received an error message that my request form was not submitted on both of two attempts). I therefore contacted Customer Service again, via the web chat, and typed in my request to close the chat. When I did not get a response, I wasn't sure if I was still connected so I typed again, only to receive a response back from the person in Customer Service that I would need to give her "more than 30 seconds to respond." I pointed out that there was no need to be rude, to which she acknowledged that her, "give me more than 30 seconds" response was "rather direct" and apologized by saying, "My bad." Really, Virgin Atlantic? "My bad" and rude comments are the level of customer service one can expect from you? Incidentally, I was trying to close my flying club account after 14 years because of a terrible experience with Virgin Atlantic, and this interaction with Customer Service today reinforces that I have made the right decision to close my account and not fly with them again.