Virgin Atlantic Suspended Ticket
I had a very stressful start to my last trip, and since it was only a one night trip it almost never got off the ground. It wasn't quite as stressful as the disastrous start to my Asia trip earlier this year. The one which finished with a kind of poor experience on the world's longest flight. This experience came pretty dang close though, and it was all thanks to Virgin Atlantic. All thanks to a Virgin Atlantic suspended ticket I should say.
The Trip
The plan was to fly out to San Diego for one night to return the I Bar on Coronado's base. This is the bar that inspired the bar scenes in the Top Gun Maverick movie. The one where Tom Cruise has to pay the bar tab for putting his phone on the bar – yeah that is a real thing. You can also get caught with a ringing of the bell for touching one of the model planes or wearing a hat (coming in covered) into the bar. You may be surprised to know that the bell gets rung 7 or 8 times a night!
It is a really fun experience that we thoroughly enjoyed last year. So much so that we planned a return trip a few weeks after getting home, or about 11 months out. And Virgin Atlantic almost messed our return trip up with their stupid suspended ticket rule.
My Booking
I had originally booked some American Airlines flights that I didn't really love to San Diego. A few months out I found decent space on a non-stop Delta flight thanks to some Virgin Atlantic miles. I booked that and then promptly used some Delta Skymiles (thanks to my 250K windfall) to upgrade my seat. I knew it would be a working flight for me, so I wanted some extra space. By taking advantage of both programs I was able to book the seat I wanted for less than it would have cost if I used Skymiles alone. That is one of the nice perks of the Virgin Atlantic partnership. The other would be using your Delta status on the flight, even when booked with Virgin Atlantic miles, should you have Delta Medallion status. I am only a lowly Delta Medallion Silver this time around, so I decided to just pay for the upgrade.
Virgin Atlantic Suspended Ticket Snafu
Everything was sunshine and rainbows until the day before my flight. I had booked the flight I wanted, and the seat I needed, all for less than most people would pay because I leveraged two programs. I had a big fat grin on my face while checking in for the Delta flight the day before. Taking a moment to revel in my awesomeness…
Error! What? Error again! Let me try the Delta website instead of the app. Nope. What the heck?!
Delta Is Unable To Help On The Partner Booking
I couldn't check in for my flight. Normally I would think this was from needing to add in some passport info etc. This was for a domestic flight though, so that wouldn't be it. I decided to check with Delta via chat in the app. After a few minutes the rep informed me that Virgin had suspended my ticket. Because it was a partner booking they weren't able to help me at all – I needed to contact Virgin Atlantic. The Delta rep did reach out to their counterpart at Virgin but they were unable to figure out why the ticket was suspended.
I followed up with a question of how I was able to upgrade my seat with Skymiles if I didn't have a ticketed flight. She said that it is still ticketed, just suspended. Something most have happened between when I upgraded my ticket and when I went to check in. I couldn't see Delta's system letting me buy an upgraded seat on a suspended ticket after all.
The Ugly Side Of Partner Bookings
This is the downside of using partner airlines to book flights. While it adds another chef to the kitchen, just like booking through travel portals, the juice is usually worth the squeeze here. Unlike the travel portal, where you are getting 25% – 50% more, these partner awards can offer 100%+ more in value.
What I Think Happened
I was chatting with Derrick and Rick about this all in real time. Derrick asked if I had any type of flight change for this booking. I didn't think I had, but if I did I probably accepted it on Delta's end. Derrick told me that he had his flight suspended by Virgin Atlantic for a Delta booking before because he hadn't accepted the flight change on Virgin's end. Virgin suspending a ticket over a flight time change sounded completely preposterous, but I logged into my account anyway. There was no request to approve anything in the Virgin Atlantic app. To be thorough I went to the website and logged in too. Wouldn't you know it, they asked me to approve a departure time change. I am still not really sure what the change was since the flight times were the same as I had originally booked. Maybe the flight numbers or plane type changed or something? Derrick had said his ticket was unsuspended shortly after accepting.
I was doing this all while I was on the chat with the Delta agent and hoped it would update on their end shortly after. No luck there. I waited a few more hours while doing some work, but struck out trying to check in then too. Time to pick up the phone I guess.
Virgin Atlantic Was No Help
I called Virgin Atlantic in the early afternoon, which was around 8PM their time. The agent was nice, but pretty unhelpful. She could see that it was suspended but there were no notes as to why it was. She asked I had asked for a refund on the flight or if my credit card wasn't charged for the taxes and fees? I said no to both of those things. She said should would forward this to the proper department but said that they were short staffed since it was so late there. Wait, 8PM is late for an international airline that flies to all kinds of different time zones? Is this the twilight zone?
I was then told that I should call back at 8AM their time (3AM my time) to see if they could help out. The problem was that the flight left at 8AM. She said she understood this, but that there was nothing else she could do. I am guessing the problem likely needed a manual review at this point, even if it was for not accepting the flight change.
American Airlines Back To The Rescue
I was not willing to get up at 3AM with a hope and prayer that my ticket would be all set. That meant it was time to move on to plan b. The Delta flight I had originally booked was too expensive to really look at that now. Plus, I didn't know if my Virgin Atlantic suspended ticket would melt down their systems if I tried to book another ticket. That is when I decided to check the Alaska Atmos and American Airlines program. Maybe I could snag that first class seat I had previously booked? Unfortunately there was nothing good showing on Alaska's site, but there was a first class seat showing on American's for 31,000 AAdvantage miles. Being mere hours from the flight at this point I jumped all over that.
Trying To Cancel My Original Booking
It was now 11PM and I had just booked myself into an even earlier 7AM departure. At this point I wanted nothing to do with Virgin Atlantic anymore. The problem was I had enough of an investment in the flight that I didn't want to just walk away from it.
Delta Airlines Cancellation
I reached out to Delta first and asked if I would get my upgrade miles back if I cancelled the booking since the ticket was suspended and I had no control over missing the flight. The Delta chat rep seemed to understand what was happening and she said she would open a ticket detailing my situation. She said that I “should” get my Skymiles back since it was a suspended ticket. She informed me that I would hear back in a week or so after the flight. That sounded promising, but I was willing to take one out of two if I had to.
Virgin Atlantic Booking
After getting somewhat squared aware with Delta I reached out to Virgin Atlantic about my suspended ticket and told them I just wanted to cancel it. The phone rep said they were unable to process it since it was under investigation. They promised that I would get my miles back once they figured out what exactly was going on if I missed my flight.
The Morning Leaves Me With More Decisions
I had to wake up an hour before intended to get on my new American Airlines flight. I was pretty worn down by now from the stress of the last day too. The first I thing I did was check my emails and text messages for anything from Virgin Atlantic about my suspended ticket. Shocker – nothing there. I decided to fire up the Delta app anyway just to see what happened. Wouldn't you know it – I was able to check in for my flight. Virgin Atlantic must have figured out what was going on in the back end and corrected. It is strange that they never informed me of this in any way though.
I was left with a decision at this point. Do I try to take the Delta flight now and cancel the American Airlines flight? The American flight left first so I couldn't sit on it until I boarded the Delta flight. My cancellation request the night before had me a little apprehensive about going this route. What if they processed it before the flight?
I decided to see if there were any backup options in case the Delta boarding went poorly. There was a flight on United and Frontier that wasn't priced too poorly that I could hop on 30 minutes after the Delta boarding time if I was denied boarding for the flight. I decided to risk it and cancel the American Airlines flight about an hour before departure. Luckily, everything worked out with the Delta flight and I got there as originally booked. Just like I drew it up all along…
Virgin Atlantic Suspended Ticket: ToP Thoughts
This Virgin Atlantic suspended ticket story is a weird one. It seems strange to suspend a partner ticket booking if a time change is expected. I don't think any direct booking has ever worked like this, at least not in my experience. Heck, I know many people never accept them in case they want to change their flight for free later. If you have a flight booked with Virgin Atlantic miles I would suggest checking the flight online like a week out to see if there is anything you need to approve. Get that locked in before the day before so you don't have to deal with a suspended ticket like I did. Let me know if you have ever experienced something similar over in the ToP Facebook Group.
