Virgin Australia Reviews

The only airline stealing our money. Absolutely refuse during Covid to do anything. Terrible customer service and crooks too. Fly anyone but this airline.

Horrible. They cancelled our flights and didn't even notify us....Then we asked why they said they don't fly on a Friday to our destination...But we have the confirmation of booking and our itinerary says leaving Friday? How did we book on that day if you cant fly on that day? then we asked for some compensation because we have had to change our accommodation and miss one of our events and they said no......... Virgin you are ridiculous. I am so disappointed.

Good pricing. More flights between sus and NZ please

Nice customer care service

Well our recent experience during the COVID-19 debacle has been precisely the opposite of Christine O'Connell's somewhat suspicious and fanciful ripping yarn.

Virgin flat refused to refund us for flights in March 2020 that never took place and now they have gone into voluntary administration. Handy that. So our travel insurance won't pay out because Virgin have sent us a confirmation letter stating that they will not be giving a refund but have offered travel vouchers instead that are valid for 12 months and our travel insurance class them as recompense. These short term vouchers are about as useful as a yoghurt football as we are based in the UK and don't plan to go to Australia again for a good while.

So we paid Virgin Australia for a service that never actually happened and they’ve just kept our money.

I’m trying to imagine a pub you stop at on a road trip with your friends doing the same thing. You order a round of beers but there’s something wrong with the pipes and they can’t pour them, yet instead of giving you your money back they turn around, put it in the register and wander off to serve someone else. Then when you complain they say “it was the pipes, nothing we can do” and give you a beer voucher that’s valid for an hour starting next month. Then they politely tell you they won’t be discussing these missing beers with you again or giving you a refund.

This is an extract from Virgins final correspondence:

“Thank you for your email and follow up response. We have considered your response and your booking. Regretfully, we advise that we are not able to assist you with your request and no further action or follow up will be provided.”

You should canoe, swim, kite surf, wing suit to your next destination rather than fly with Virgin Australia. Our flights never happened yet Virgin trousered all of our money and their customer service pretty much told us to take their vouchers or get stuffed. Not good Virgin, not good at all.

Hubby and son were booked to go to Melbourne in Jul. received an email advising their flight has been cancelled and there will be no refunds. They offered a conditional domestic travel credit to use. If we choose not to have the credit, there isn’t anything they can do. Well, we don’t live in Australia! What is domestic travel credit going to achieve? The worst thing is they are taking bookings from Aug on their website!
Wish the flight had been booked using our Visa card. To date, Virgin AU have been the worst airline we have ever dealt with. This will be remembered by many of your customers.

You really know a GOOD and bad company when things go wrong, like COVID-19.
Virgin Australia were outstanding in their support during this difficult time for thousands of travellers.
We didn't buy our tickets direct from Virgin, we UNFORTUNATELY went through Expedia. Expedia took us through a debacle in trying to obtain a refund for Domestic flights - they gave us misleading information. Fortunately Virgin provided prompt courteous assistance, put our tickets on Hold and confirmed that Expedia had the money and any refund would have to come from Expedia.
Virgin Australia – are outstanding, do yourself a favor, next time you fly book direct with Virgin. You can still select your seats and meals online just like other airlines, and they back up with someone you can talk to on the phone (in Australia).
I really hope the government can help Virgin stay in Australia because we need honest reliable competition that offers that rare quality - Customer Service! Well done Virgin you have our vote for life.

Booked flights SYD/SIN/LHR tickets after Singapore had closed its borders to foreigners in transit. There were no warnings about booking on their website stating this and they also continued to take bookings on this route for a further 5 days after my booking leaving hundreds stranded and out of pocket for the exorbitant one way economy fares they were charging.
Contacting CS for a refund is impossible and I have filled in several of their feedback forms, as advised by their website, to claim my money. To date the only communication I have received back is an email stating that they will only issue a flight credit and not cash. Have told them several times since that I reject their flight credit and want a full refund of all my cash paid for flights they deliberately mis sold to me and hundreds of others.
Avoid this company like the plague they treat their customers like trash.

Virgin are not refunding even though THEY are cancelling the flights! DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM they will ignore you, hang up on yu when you phone and do not respond to complaints submitted 2+ months ago! You cannot trust this airline! Please sign this petition to get our money back - make this public world-wide known that this airline CANNOT be trusted!!!

Customer service were rude and dismissive when we were trying to get our money back for international flights they cancelled due to covid-19. We were hung up on and after 3 attempts we were finally told there were no supervisors in any country In the world that we could speak to? and the only way we could escalate was to lodge some feedback online and someone “might” get back to us. Just disappointed.

I've been trying to contact them about a flight for tomorrow but their phone is off and Facebook chat is no use. I can't find anything else like an email. I need to contact them before my flight tomorrow at 7.15 am!!

Thanks Virgin Australia for your flexibility in amending our reward flights due to the Coronavirus.

I appreciate this is a difficult time for the airline industry, however the way you handled the situation is commendable. You have a loyal customer in me.

Cats on the plane! Granted it wasn't the airlines fault that someone managed to get a cat on the plane but the way they handled the situation was just terrible. I know that cats can move fast and are pretty hard to catch with barehands on a sunny day but I do think that the stewards could have at least tried, instead of shouting "release the hound" and then to let the captains angry dog out from his secret dog bed in the cockpit to chase the cat with in an inch of its life. A few people got scratched and a clean up was needed on the middle aisle. As a cat lover I demand a response

Extortionate baggage fees. I was charged an additional $90 to carry my surf board, in addition to a small bag for a 1 hour flight (between Ballina and Sydney) even though the combined weight was under the allowable weight of 23kgs. This was not made clear at the time of booking. Scammers! Avoid them

Absolute disgrace. Travel companion hurt his back day before flight, asked for pillow and blanket, not supplied. This was overnight flight from Bali to Brisbane. Atrocious service had to work hard to get a cup of water.
Why do they need cabin crew, they don't supply food or drinks unless it's paid for. The crew basically sat at rest of airplane and did nothing for 5 and a half hours.
This was a relatively short flight, can't imagine anything much longer with these clowns. First and last time I fly with Virgin.

A terrible experience. The check in kiosk failed to print one of our boading passes and printed one baggage tag twice instead of two separate tags. We then had the "cust service" person accussing us of using duplicate tags. Took 30 minutes to get it all fixed. Not a word of apology.
Then I left a laptop on FLOOR of a return flight to Melbourne. They only found and recovered it on return to Christchurch. Great cleaning between flights obviously. Now they refuse to get it back to Melbourne so I can recover it. Told me I have to engage a pack and send courier to pick up the item, package it up and courier it back. Gee that will be cheap. I appreciate we left the item on the plane, bu we left in Melbourne, not Christchurch. Virgin was the one that shipped it across to New Zealand, so they should bring it back.
Apparently they CAN'T send unaccompanied baggage. And yet that is exactly what that do all the time when they lose items and its a service they offer for excess baggage.

Worst airline Company!
Bad arrogant service.
Split up a family with small kids bevares they overbookes a flight. Followed by the must arrogant service.

So helpful, way more than other airlines!

I booked a ticket for one of our staff through a 3rd party booker. When she went to the airport for the flight she was told that there was no flight for her, despite her showing the confirmation papers with booking number for both Virgin and the 3rd party booker. Virgin made her pay for another flight at the gate.

I am trying to get a refund as we are not paying twice for the same flight. The Virgin Customer Service team can now find the original booking but cannot find the new booking they made her pay for at the gate. They also did not give her a receipt at the gate nor try and sort out why they couldn't find booking number.

I have called and emailed on many many occasions. This has been going on for 2 1/2 months and I am getting no resolution from Virgin. Poor poor customer service. Still waiting on a refund.

Recently I flew Townsville - Sydney Return via Virgin. Ms. Monica CLARKE was my Cabin Supervisor for Flt VA1520 down with Mr. Lee MELONI on the return, VA1519. I'd like to say these two employees were excellent ambassadors for the Virgin brand. Both were efficient, professional, friendly & made my flights the best flying experiences I've had in a long time. I hope Virgin appreciate & value these employees. I'll only fly Virgin in future if this is how I'm treated on my flights! can't speak highly enough of them. Cheers
Brad.

What a joke. Our company has always booked Qantas but recently, unable to get a seat on the QF flight I wanted, I had the misfortune to travel with Virgin Australia. WHAT A MISTAKE. Although I was in what they loosely term Business Class they provided no entertainment devices or headsets. Apparently passengers are required to bring their own. This is on a 5 hour flight from Perth to the east coast! Before take off I was offered a glass of champagne, very nice, however because they could not serve it until all the passengers passing through to the rear of the plane had boarded I barely had 2 or 3 sips when the flight attendant appeared saying they had to collect all the glasses because they were ready for take off. Qantas may have their faults but at least they are a full service airline and you get value for what you pay.. NEVER AGAIN.

I have had a mixture of good and bad experiences with this airline. All depends on the staff you get on the day I guess.
Often the problems relate to checking in with my kiteboarding gear. In my opinion, they should be much more friendly and accommodating with sports gear considering Sir Branson is a strong advocate of kiteboarding and watersports.
The strict weight restriction on baggage has never made sense or sat well with me. Clearly it is only there for making money and nothing to do with the safety/fuel consumption of the aircraft (otherwise you would also be weighing your passengers).
It's also a budget airline disguised as a full service airline.
When given the opportunity, I always fly qantas these days, even if its more expensive.... but I would still pick Virgin over jetstar!

I can emphatically state in over 50 years of flying Virgin Australia tops the list of worst carriers worldwide . My last flight with VA was 7 hours 58 mins delayed with no communication to passengers and even though I was in the Virgin lounge the staff provided no updates whatsoever.My flight from Sydney to
Melbourne should have been 50 mins, in total it took 9 hours , no apology , no reason , no offer to transfer to an operational flight on the same route.
If I had of chosen Qantas on this route at this time I would have arrived 8 hours 19 mins earlier !
The airline is simply incapable of handling a delay with any competence or professionalism. Further the lounge was worst than a crowed railway station . Nothing cleaned , no available seating and complaining staff . The Virgin lounges are a very unpleasant environments ...a waste of space.
In comparison to Qantas the wait for luggage to arrive is considerable .
This airline is a low cost carrier in disguise . Avoid even if the cost point is lower it’s simply NOT a “ good flying “ experience!!

I booked two flights on the same day. They sent me the ticket for one flight only. I have emailed them three times. They resent the ticket I already have twice. I am still waiting for the ticket I have requested three times. Shambolic!

I was due to return back to Sydney from Gold Coast after a short weekend getaway. My flight was at 8:05 pm on Sunday night. We got to the airport before 7pm and was told to check in all bags as they had a delay earlier in the day and would like to get everyone on board ASAP. I had 2 lounge passes with Virgin (expiring in 2 weeks) and had planned to use that before flying, hence why I booked with Virgin. But when we got to the lounge entrance we were told that the flight will be cancelled. We went to the info desk after an hour wait in line and was told that nothing will be paid as it is not their fault because Sydney airport is closing.
But the issue here is not that Sydney Airport is closing but it is that Virgin's earlier flight was delayed hence they can't make it on time. I know that if it was out of their control, I am expected to pay for all expenses but this was definitely something within their control if they had not delayed prior flights earlier in the day. So, all together accomodation and transfers costed $200, I only made it to work half a day so was out of pocket for that, I lost my lounge passes because the flight next day was too early to come in early. NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIRGIN AND BUDGET AIRLINES!