Agents call for Virgin to scrap COVID credit expiry date, offer refunds

Agents call for Virgin to scrap COVID credit expiry date, offer refunds
Edited by Travel Weekly


    In September, Virgin Australia announced that it was extending the expiry date on COVID credits from the end of this year to mid-2025.

    The change was welcomed by many in the industry, particularly at a time when Qantas received widespread criticism for its credits system. However, many agents still believe that the expiry date should be axed altogether.

    Holly Velardo, the director of her own business Hollyday Travel said that Virgin should axe its expiry date, especially considering Qantas did.

    “I think if Qantas is being forced to do that, then I think Virgin absolutely should follow,” Velardo told Travel Weekly.

    “This was clients’ money and a lot of clients had business-class flights.”

    Velardo commended Virgin for providing informative documentation for agents and allowing clients to transfer points into a travel bank so that they could book flights when they wanted.

    Diane Yates, a TravelManagers agent with mainly corporate clients, expressed a similar sentiment to Velardo, but outlined a problem she had faced when booking via the global distribution system (GDS) Amadeus.

    Yates said that many of her corporate clients had a private fair arrangement with Virgin and she could use credits for clients whose name the ticket was not in and not incur a fee. However, this only applied when making a booking up until the end of this year.

    This issue was exacerbated by the automatic purging which happens to tickets in a GDS after 12 months. Meaning Yates had to contact Virgin every time she wanted to use one of these purged credits and said that she had “about 24 hours to reissue the ticket”. She isn’t able to reinstate a batch of them, meaning she has to do it one at a time.

    “I’ve had to have a big record of everything and take notice of everything in the bookings. Then I have to call Virgin every time I want to check a credit to see if it’s still valid or not. And that can be a bit of a nuisance because I’ve got a big list,” she said.

    Yates continued: “To have these credits expire at the end of December is really quite painful, because I’ve got quite a few there that will lose a lot of money if they’re not re-issued before then.”

    In a statement, Virgin told Travel Weekly: “The Virgin Australia assists agents to use the value of the tickets, which may be by reactivating valid tickets that are on file in our system (including COVID credits, which are Standard Credits issued between 21 April 2020 and 31 July 2022) or by other methods, depending on the age of the ticket.”

    Neither Yates nor Velardo said they had received direct reminders for these COVID credits, but Yates mentioned that she had some forwarded to her by clients.

    “It would be lovely if they would refund these credits,” Yates said. “I understand Qantas was under pressure to do that and that’s made life a lot easier.”

    Latest News

    • Cruise

    P&O rescues Rotary volunteers after collapse of Air Vanuatu

    P&O Cruises Australia has answered a plea for help from a group of young Australian Rotary volunteers, stranded in Vanuatu following the collapse of Air Vanuatu. The students, many of them teenagers from Albury, NSW, were volunteering for a youth project run by the Hive Rotary Club Australia when the airline abruptly cancelled all flights, […]

    • Destinations

    Intrepid continues expansions with launch of first DMC in Jordan

    Intrepid has increased its presence in the Middle East with the opening of its first destination management company in Jordan. Based in Amman, the local team will operate Intrepid’s range of nine experiential small group tours in Jordan from this summer, with a view to expanding the range for 2025 and beyond. Zina Bencheikh, managing […]

    • Appointments

    Minor hotels appoints Puneet Dhawan to key Asia role

    Global hotel owner and operator Minor Hotels has appointed Puneet Dhawan as head of Asia as the group plots its growth in Asia and India. From July, Dhawan will be responsible for the performance of all Minor Hotels properties in Asia, working in close collaboration with the Minor Hotels senior leadership team and will report […]

    • Appointments

    Abercrombie & Kent and Crystal appoint Evon Ler to director of sales, Asia

    Abercrombie & Kent Travel Group have announced that Evon Ler will join them in the new role of director of sales, Asia. She will work closely with Tony Archbold (VP, Sales, APAC, Crystal) and Susan Haberle (VP, Sales & Partnerships, APAC, A&K) with trade support across the region. Ler comes to the A&K family with more […]