Online check in with Virgin

[TESSIE]

a quick question about online check in? this might sound silly but when you check in online is it 24 hrs before the flight takes off (10.45) or 24 hrs before check in (8.45)?
thank you anyone who can help me!:purplejum:laughing:

[martin1]

as far as i can remember you can check in from 12 midday the day before i think but i could be wrong if u are on the 10.45 flight i would check it as im on thast one when we go adn it has been changed to 11.15

[LeonieM]

Well, when I did it last time I just did it during the evening the day before we flew (flight 12.30pm), which I suppose was about 17 hours before the flight.

I shall do the same this year before we depart for our guest house to spend the night near the airport.

[Tiggers Friend]

My recollection is that online check-in is available 24 hours before the scheduled departure of the flight and closes 2 hours before departure.

[pinkjoolz]

as far as i can remember you can check in from 12 midday the day before i think but i could be wrong if u are on the 10.45 flight i would check it as im on thast one when we go adn it has been changed to 11.15

Martin1 did Virgin inform you of the flight time change? As i was on Virgin Atlantic website and wanted update our booking and it wouldn't let me as the flight schedule had been changed and I will have to confirm the flight with Virgin Holidays.

[TESSIE]

HAVE JUST BEEN TO THE VIRGIN ATLANTIC WEB SITE AND THEY WOULD NOT LET ME GO TO UPDATE BOOKINGS AS IT ALSO SAID FLIGHT CHANGES. :confused:

[TESSIE]

have just phoned virgin and they have changed our flight from 10.45 to 11.15. they are sending out letters but mine has not come yet. looking at my booking form, when i booked in jan 07 the time was 11.15 so they must have changed it back.:)

[pinkjoolz]

HAVE JUST BEEN TO THE VIRGIN ATLANTIC WEB SITE AND THEY WOULD NOT LET ME GO TO UPDATE BOOKINGS AS IT ALSO SAID FLIGHT CHANGES. :confused:

I contacted Virgin Holidays who confirmed the flight change, then they had to inform the flights personnel who rung yesterday evening to confirm that we can now update our booking on Virgin Atlantic.

[martin1]

i finally found out from my travel agent who rang virgin holidays and had terrible trouble coz the person was i think indian and hardly spoke any english not veruy good for a customer service position if they cant understand you . my travel agent tried to explain that she wanted to check the flight time and the fool on the other end of the phone thought that i wanted to booka holiday the travel agent after 20 mins of trying to explain gave up and rang virgin atlantic instead and had similar problems but did manage to find out about the flight change. it is bad really if there is a flight change surely the customer shouldnt be the last one to know. but at least its only half an hour. they told my agent that you couldnt do the seat selection anymore on the website you had to phone up . i out in my booking ref the day after and it worked so they were talking rubbish. virgin holidays need to sort out there customer service it has got worse and its not just me thinking this . people who i know who have booked with virgin have had problems . i dont know what is causing the problems..

[LeonieM]

Strikes me there's a major lack of communication between the different departments. I rang the day before our flight last time as I'd seen there'd been a change to the security arrangements, and I could now take hand luggage again. The person I spoke to said there had been no change. I almost had a row with her - stupid cow! Turns out I was right and she was wrong - we could take one bag on board again.

[TESSIE]

i'm with you all. when i phoned, the same thing happened. i could not understand what the lady was saying and she could not understand what i was asking!! in the end she told me the flight had changed, but when i asked if i could now manage my booking she said "you want to upgrade your seats". it also took me ages on the phone before i got through.

i tried virgin atlantic to manage my booking and it still will not let me on:cry:

[martin1]

it is so frustrating. im not meaning this to sound racist in any way but how the hell can a company as big as virgin employ people who cant speak english is beyond me i mean it costs money to call them and when you have to spend ages on the phone to get them to understand you it is a complete joke. i believe that virgin do have a call centre in india so i have been told . they need to sort it out . maybe i will write to virgin. not that i will probably get a response. i have seen on another website that they are very bad in the correspondance department

[Tiggers Friend]

I had a similar problem recently with an insurance company. I wrote a short sharp letter, including a comment about the quality of spoken English and a threat to take business elsewhere. Subsequently I got a phone call from the Customer Complaints manager - I repeated my complaint and advised that the person on the phone (from India) was an embarrassment to their company. A week later I got another call to say my complaint had been upheld and as a result the insurance company had terminated there agreement with that call centre.

My advice, write to Virgin (copy Branson) and tell them you'll only fly BA or bmi in future.

[Banksy]

Try phoning the sales no not the customer service no. Sales generally go through to a UK call centre, support to an 'Off Shore' one.

BTW the online checkin is fantastic, once you get to the airport you just go to the bag drop which only takes a minute or two, if the queues are too long you can still go to the regular checkin.

My only advice would be to have all your documentation handy before you stand in the queue as you speak to security before you get to the desk.

[martin1]

will be doing online check in as we will get bonus miles for flying club and the twilight check in as we are staying at a traveldoge at gatwick the night before and we only paid£26.00 only basic but not far from airport quiick 5 min bus ride

[tabboo]

I'm thinking of doing the online check in for our Virgin flights the day before we fly as I'm presuming this may mean less queueing at the airport. Do you get your seats allocated when you do the check in online? I did try to use the "manage flights" option to pre-book our seats, to be sure we were all together, not long after booking the flights, but there were no blocks of 4 available. I understand that a large number of seats are kept for allocation on check in & just wondered if you get your allocation at the time you do an online check in?

(I've already pre-booked a block of 4 for our journey home as they were showing available!)

Another check in related question - has anyone used the Virgin check in at Downtown Disney & how does it work? What time can you check in from? Does it mean you can arrive later at the airport for your flight?? :confused:

[UK Deb]

Unfortunately, online check-in doesn't equate to less queuing at the airport. There is a separate line for bag-drop, but with so many checking in online these days, it's often as long as the queue for check-in. Unless you're flying UC/PE or you're a Gold/Silver Flying Club member (when you can check-in at the UC/PE desks even if you're flying economy), your best bet for avoiding queues is Twilight check-in (assuming you're flying from Gatwick and not Manchester). It's still worth checking in online, though, to guarantee your seat allocation. You are able to select your seats when checking in online (which opens 24 hours before scheduled departure time to answer the OP's question), but only from those not already pre-selected by others. As you haven't been able to get a block of 4, I'd suggest checking in online as soon as it opens in the first instance. If you're still not able to get what you want, then either opt for Twilight check-in, or arrive at the airport early and you shouldn't have any problems.

Downtown Disney check-in opens at 8.30am. It's free for Virgin Holidays' customers, Gold FC member and those flying UC. For everyone else, there's a charge of $10 per person. The check-in area is outdoors on the car-park side of Cirque du Soleil. You first get your luggage weighed at the rear of waiting lorries and then proceed to the check-in desks. You don't need your hand luggage. I'd still plan to arrive at the airport a good two hours before the flight to allow for any unforseen delays (and to have a pre-flight cocktail at McCoys :cheers:). And, if you're hiring a car, don't forget that you need to get that back within the pre-agreed time to avoid an additional day's rental charge.

Oh, and a heads-up for Flying Club members - we always use that phone number to avoid speaking with the Indian call centre. It's free to join for anyone who's not already a member.

[LeonieM]

Booking on line before you fly will save you having to be at the airport 3 hours before the flight. Last time we turned up around 11am, and were the only ones there! So, we went straight through, just handing over our cases and getting our boarding cards (I'd already booked our seats).

Coming back my seats were already booked. We used Downtown Disney, but unless you go quite early the queues can be horrendous. We waited over 45 minutes just to be relieved of our luggage and collect our boardig passes! Still, the main advantage is that you don't have to stay with your luggage all day, worry about all your bags being locked in the car in full sight, and you don't have to be at the airport until about 1.5 hours before you fly. It's good, because you arrive at the airport and after dropping off the hired car you can go straight through to departures.

This year will be different for us, as I can't book our seats until 24 hours before we go, and 24 hours before the flight home.

[Tiggers Friend]

Both OLCI and DTD check-in are very worthwhile. As LM says it does mean that you can get rid of your bags and not worry about them and arrive a bit later at the airport. :happy-thumb

[dolphingirl]

I forever seem to have to ring Virgin Atlantic on behalf of customers because they either hold VS tickets and fly with us or have some flights on VS on our ticket. First of all I have learned the hard way to ring sales rather than customer services. I had some downright surreal conversations with the customer service guys. Secondly, I have learned to ring Virgin Atlantic only weekdays between 9 to 5. During these hours I have always ended up at their UK call centre. After hours, it is over to India where everybody seems to be called Jim and Sarah and nobody has a clue. On one occassion I nearly forgot my good manners after the person at the other end told me repeatedly that I would have to buy a new ticket when all I wanted her to do is check if the changes I made on my system were reflecting on theirs and to cancel out the original flight if this had not happened automatically. Having said that, I occasionally get people from their UK call centre ringing us or when I have to ring them, they always seem to be competent and extremely customer focused.

dolphingirl

[martin1]

i agree totally with u. when i have got through to that damn indian call centre it is so difficult to be understood. i phoned up asking about our flight change and he was trying to take me through a new booking process! i am not being racist in any way but why the hell do virgin allow this to happen they hardly speak any english at all and u end up spending ages on the phone to get your point across . i have hung up before out of sheer frustration. virgin holidays are the same. why employ people in a customer service capacity when they dont even speak the language properly. i am thinking about writing to virgin but they probably wont even give 2 hoots about it and probably wont even reply!sory rant over

[palmer gang]

i have to agree with previous threads the operators at the indian call centres can be really hard work at times it would be my main grievance with virgin:tut-tut:

[Tiggers Friend]

Everyone with a complaint should write to Virgin and explain, threatening not to fly with them in future. With enough complaints they almost certainly will rethink.

[LeonieM]

Well, you want a tip? Don't ring the standard CS. Interestingly, when I rang them (and yes, they were 'fick') they weren' Indian - the accents sounded more thick African!

Anyway, I actually ring the number for 'Special Needs'. I get through to a very nice ENGLISH person after only a couple of 'select number x' presses, too!

Mind you, as I have special needs requirements, I suppose I can ring them with a clear conscious; but if it helps, you could try saying 'I've already organised my special needs requirements, but I've got a further problem I wonder if you can help me with' and see if that helps.

[tabboo]

Thanks for the advice on check ins. I'll deffinitely do the online check in the day before we fly to get seats together, & we'll probably head over to DTD for the check in coming back. We won't have a car to take back, but it will be nice to just wander about on the last day without luggage (although I suppose there must be a baggage desk at the hotel we could have left it at), & as it's an evening flight home we'll have most of the day out & about instead of having to head off to the airport mid afternoon.