Swiftski From Australia, joined Dec 2006, 2701 posts, RR: 2 Posted (6 years 3 months 3 weeks 8 hours ago) and read 955 times:
Just a heads up for other VS pax...
I am on VS009 [LHR-JFK] on March 15th.
My ticket was booked on Jan 09 at the Hong Kong office.
VS Website is misleading as it states that flights booked after Dec 13th do not require this payment, however when I log in, I am told that I owe £20.
Now, Virgin are very fair about it, as they state that next time I book I can have £20 off my airfare to balance out this retrospectively applied duty, however the inconsistency is sub-standard.
I contacted VS and the lady on the phone told me.. well.. not much. She "wasn't sure" if I would owe the money, as my ticket was purchased in HK she said she didn't have access to the equiv. UK Tax breakdown to see if I had paid the duty.
I am a massive Virgin fan and FF onboard their routes, and this is the first time they have given me conflicting info.
I will need to speak to someone else @ VS call centre to get a second opinion to be 100% sure what to do. Don't get me wrong, I'll pay the fee if they want me to, but right now it just isn't clear.
A heads up then to others in this situation to be cautious.
Demoose From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2001, 1952 posts, RR: 26 Reply 1, posted (6 years 3 months 3 weeks 6 hours ago) and read 908 times:
If you booked after December 13th your flight with Virgin Atlantic then the increased rate of tax will have been already applied to the fare you paid.
I'm flying VS009 in a few weeks time and I booked my flight on 28th November and hence Virgin have sent me an email stating I must pay the additional taxes as I booked before the annoucement was made. I have paid the extra, but Virgin Atlantics method of collecting the APD is not done very professionally in my opinion.
Firstly the link on the website doesn't appear to link booking references to the calculation for APD, as even though I have paid the extra it still states I have an extra £80 to pay on my booking. Secondly it is all being collected via PayPal and the only way it appears you can prove you have paid is by showing a paper print out from PayPal when you check in, otherwise you will still have to pay the extra tax.