Question: My husband and I were due to fly with Virgin Atlantic on 18 April to Havana to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Our daughter fell ill the day before and we had to cancel our trip. I contacted Virgin Atlantic on 17 April and told them about the problem. They advised me to do a “no-show and then re-book the flights. There would be a fee of £150 (about R3 000) which I understood was for both tickets. When I tried to re-book the fee was £150 per ticket plus a difference on the price of the ticket. That was £380-plus on top of the £1 740 I had already paid to fly on the 18 April.
I told them about our special circumstances, and I asked them to consider this but all I got was a wall of terms and conditions. They refer us to travel insurance, but I was going to arrange cover the night before we travelled and did not manage to do so.
All we want is a straight swap of our tickets to the new dates when we can travel without having to pay anything else. Is that too much to ask?
Name withheld
Answer: I am sorry to hear about your daughter's illness, and I hope she is recovering. Your frustration about the airline's attitude is understandable - but I am afraid that your expectations are out of line with practice in the airline industry.
Given the circumstances, Virgin Atlantic has been much more generous than it needed to be.
Assuming you were travelling on non-refundable and non-changeable tickets, an airline is entitled to keep your money simply refer you to your travel insurance - which, as you say, was not in place.
Most airlines sell highly restricted tickets knowing that a proportion of passengers will have to cancel. That is not an unreasonable practice, given that in most cases the passenger will claim on their travel insurance.
Normally a “no-show” would simply trigger an automatic cancellation of your tickets. In this case Virgin Atlantic allowed you to re-book. Again, it is reasonable to charge a fee (£150 per person is typical) and, crucially, any difference in price between the fare you paid and the prevailing fare on the flight you now wish to take.
If you believe you were misinformed during the telephone call, you could ask for the recording to be reviewed. But another explanation might be that, at a stressful and upsetting time, it is difficult to take in all the detail about a complicated re-ticketing issue.
In a case like this, I fear that all you can do is vow to insure your next trip as soon as you book the flights. Cancellation cover comes as standard with most policies, and I would urge anyone booking flights costing close to £2 000 to make sure they are insured.
Sorry I can't be more optimistic about the chances of avoiding the re-booking fees.
The Independent
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