Virgin end summer flights to Tobago

[Hugh S]

Good news! The bearded skunk comes through! Who's cuckoo now?

Hugh

[Paul Tallet]

Latest ...

Just had an email from Virgin Executive Office, in response to my queries, confirming the cancellations.

But no proposals at all about refunds or re-bookings.

Needless to say I have emailed them back to ask, 'OK but you still have my money and what about your proposals?'

But, for goodness sake, what sort of response is that?

Why should I be prompting them for solutions?

This is an example of complete and utter disregard for Customers that have planned their holidays and paid in advance in good faith.

As I type, they have asked me to ring them.

Back soon ...

Regards

[Paul Tallet]

Result !!

Virgin have switched us to BA at no extra cost.

Given that 3 of us are over 6 feet tall and BA have an inferior seat pitch, they are considering an upgrade too for the BA 38" pitch Premium Economy (but no promises).

I am very satisfied with the outcome and Virgin deserve credit for that.

But ... I have responded to this very quickly and I sense that those who are dealt with later could end up with Monarch being the only option ... not to suggest that Monarch are a bad option ... but please be aware that the Monarch flights are cheaper and you should expect a refund or Premium Economy at the very least.

So ... thank you Virgin for sorting it out ... my jury is still out on whether to choose Virgin for next Christmas ... I am inclined to support operators that support Tobago's tourism all year round.

Regards

[Steve Wooler]

A further update from Virgin.

I can confirm that from late October 2013, it is Virgin's intention to operate a twice weekly service to Tobago with flights on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The big change is that whereas the current service is via Grenada on the UK return, from next winter the service will be via St.Lucia on the outbound service.

The Virgin fleet is currently being upgraded and so it is envisaged that the new service will operate via a new Airbus A330-300s rather than the current Boeing 747.

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Steve

Thanks for that ... but having booked BA for a Friday flight through Virgin in June I notice on your Flight information page that you believe BA are switching all flights to a Monday from 29th April 2013.

Is this a typo? BA does not seem to be doing flights on Mondays on their website after this date although if I look as far as next December they do. So a bit confused.

I am just wondering if my flights in June are going to be changed again.

As for Virgin, I have lost faith with them ... they altered my flights last year and it was an agent's fault for me not being told until 2 months before the trip and, although they have made good, they have taken the licence to disrupt my dates for 2013 ... that's 2 years on the trot so I don't have any inclination to support Virgin unless desperate.

I certainly do not feel excited about sitting in St Lucia's airport for a couple of hours en-route either.

That leaves Monarch ... cheap and faithful, or BA ... expensive and reliable.

Virgin are In-between, they used to operate the most comfortable and fastest flights but they are now VERY unreliable.

Bit of feedback for you Mr Branson !!

As far as UK visitors are concerned I feel sure that all this confusion (and Virgin's unreliability) could lead to some choosing to go elsewhere for the sake of simplicity and the need to avoid upheavals on expensive holidays ... some in Tobago will be pleased with this and some won't and, as Steve says, I am sure there are some political factions in Tobago that are not helping the cause for tourism without actually knowing whether it is the right or wrong thing to do for their country.

Bonkers!! I heard a US Stockbroker today say that if we ran our households like the US Government runs it's household then we would all lose our homes ... a brilliant observation that probably applies to the Governments of most of the World ... not just the THA.

Regards with a wry smile

Regards

[Robert T]

Hi Paul,

I totally agree with you on this as we have lost fate with Virgin too. They've been messing around quite a lot in the past 2 years. We'll probably pick BA for future trips.

Rob

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Paul

With reference to the BA flight changes, I've deleted that comment from our Air Service page listing for BA. It was a comment in one of the local papers and is unconfirmed, so based on what you say, I've removed it. Unfortunately, there's no point in me wasting time trying to contact BA's Press Office - they don't reply and/or simply refer me to the information on their website, which is basically zilch and ambiguous.

[Paul Tallet]

Thanks Steve

If anything changes from my point of view I will send an update.

Regards