Virgin Atlantic Global Booking Policy

1.1. Any repeated booking or cancelling of the same itinerary in the same class of service, across one or more passenger name records or GDS’s including, without limitation, to circumvent or extend ticketing time limits, hold inventory or to meet GDS productivity requirements.

1.2. This can include, but is not limited to:

a) All activity generated the same date as the initial booking

b) Repetitive booking and cancelling of Virgin Atlantic inventory with little to no change to the itinerary.

1.3. Churn will be counted f rom the 3rd “book” (5th transaction). Example being Book, Cancel, Book, Cancel, Book.

1.4. Agency systems are the agencies responsibility to ensure they do not generate GDS churn and will still count towards any churn calculations.

Example:

All inactive segments must be removed f rom the booking at least 72hrs before departure (agents should monitor their queues on a daily basis to ensure best practice).

3.1 All duplicate bookings generated by a single GDS subscriber or NDC subscriberare prohibited, this includes:

1. Multiple itineraries for any number of passengers for the same passenger, whether identical itineraries or not.
2. Reserving one or more seats on the same flight or different flights for the same time frame, regardless of the class of service or format used to make the reservations.
3. Creating a reservation where it is logically impossible to be used on each segment created across one or more PNR’s/Orders or GDS’s is not permitted. 

    4. Booking more than one reservation for the same passenger travelling on or about the same date to one or more of the same or nearby airport destinations, or creating another PNR for a passenger when one already exists in the Virgin Atlantic internal reservation system, or in a different GDS/CRS. 

    5. Duplicate bookings also include, but are not limited to a similar or same itinerary booked on both Virgin Atlantic and another carrier.

Should this occur, the original PNR/Order must be kept and then new PNR/Order cancelled.

4.1. Bookings with invalid names or speculative bookings are not permitted. This is defined as reservations where a booking is created in a GDS or NDC regardless of input codes, using invalid, fictional or fabricated names, with no intent for travel and is not directly related to a request from a passenger to purchase a ticket.

Example:
Schedule A/B/C
Mouse/Mickey
Smith/A/B/C
Test/Virgin

4.2. Additionally, creating a booking to hold or block reservations due to expected demand, customer indecision, or for any reason including, without limitation, to circumvent any of Virgin Atlantic’s fare rules or policies is not permitted.

4.3. Customer’s full first and last names, as they appear on their passport, are required in all bookings. Middle names and Titles are not required for travel, however if they are added to the ticket, they must be displayed in the correct order. Incomplete names will result in cancellation.

In the event an error is made on the customer name, Virgin Atlantic will allow corrections, please see full Name Correction Policy here

The training mode or non-billable segment status codes provided by the GDS/NDC must be used when testing procedures, setup and training employees. Creating PNRs/Orders for training purposes using active sell segment status codes is not permitted. Please contact your GDS for a list of codes. Please seek written permission for all NDC test bookings through NDC Portal.  

7.1. All bookings must be ticketed within the specified ticketing time limit. There are certain changes within the PNR/Order that can be taken into consideration when establishing the reservation date.

7.2. The PNR/Order create date is used as the reservation date for the TTL unless there are subsequent specified changes to the PNR/Order prior to ticketing. Below are the types of PNR/Order changes and if they affect a change to the reservation for TTL calculation

7.3. If the PNR/Order shows Flight Sectors have been cancelled and rebooked with the same information, the TTL will not be restarted and the original reservation creation date will be used for TTL purposes.

8.1. Virgin Atlantic prohibits the creation of reservations with the intent to circumvent inventory management controls.

8.2. Agents must not manipulate the Point of Commencement (POC) or itinerary construction to gain access to inventory or fares that would not otherwise be available.

Agents must book from the availability display, per Origin & Destination (O&D), in the chronological order of each O&D.

Changing, misrepresenting, or artificially constructing the Point of Commencement (POC), Point of Origin, or itinerary sequencing for the purpose of circumventing inventory control, fare availability, or pricing logic is not permitted.

For NDC bookings, the applicable POS logic is determined by the Point of Commencement (POC) of the passenger journey, as derived from the ticketed itinerary and validated against industry standards, rather than solely by seller location (e.g. TIDS or IATA office location).

8.3. Circumvention includes, but is not limited to:

a) Breaking married segment logic

b) Adding journeys or segments to enhance availability, which are subsequently removed

c) Creating or holding inventory for ticket sales that the agent does not intend to offer for the passenger’s actual itinerary

d) Manipulating the Point of Commencement (POC), routing, or itinerary structure to gain access to lower fares or inventory

8.4. Agents engaging in circumvention of Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Air France, or KLM inventory controls will be held accountable for these violations. An ADM may be issued for the applicable penalty, and such activity may result in the removal of ticketing authority across all JV carriers.

Virgin Atlantic confirms that this restriction is based on the need to protect inventory integrity and ensure fair commission practices, and is not intended to restrict lawful parallel trade or consumer choice, in compliance with applicable competition law obligations.

9.1. Virgin's base commission structure varies by country.

9.2. Virgin Atlantic appointed travel agents shall not, directly or indirectly, circumvent the Virgin Atlantic base commission rate and incentive structure applicable to sales in one country by collecting base commissions and incentives at rates applicable in other countries, which encompasses the following:

1. Through the establishment or use of an international branch office, satellite ticket printer or electronic transfer of ticketing data.
2. Through a commission sharing or referral arrangement with a travel agency in another country, or otherwise.

9.3. Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to collect any amount of inappropriately retained base commissions and terminate the Virgin Atlantic ticketing authority of any Virgin Atlantic appointed travel agents who participates in practices contrary to Virgin Atlantic’s rules regarding its base commission structure.

10.1. An acceptable passive segment is a segment entered into a GDS for the purpose of ticketing. It must match an existing booking.

10.2. GDS subscribers must use claim PNR functionality when it is available and can be used for ticketing instead of passive segments. The creation of passive segments when it is possible to claim a Virgin created PNR instead is not permitted.

10.3. In order to better control costs and eliminate abuse associated with the use of passive segments, Virgin participates in passive segment notification in GDS’s which offers this enhancement. This means that whenever a travel agent passively books a Virgin  Atlantic segment notification in GDS’s which offers this enhancement. This means that whenever a travel agent passively books a Virgin Atlantic segment, Virgin receives a passive segment notification message at end transaction.

1. Virgin Atlantic will automatically validate each passive segment notification message to determine that a matching segment exists in our internal reservations systems.
2. If an identical segment does not exist within Virgin Atlantic’s internal system a message will be sent back to the GDS PNR, changing the status code of the passive segment to "NO" (No Action Taken) .
3. An SSR will also accompany the rejected segment stating that the segment containing the passive is not valid. Passive segment(s) may be rejected by Virgin Atlantic for one or more of the following reasons:
    

i) Matching itinerary not found
ii) Matching name not found
iii) Matching number of passengers not found
iv) Matching class of service not found
v) Segment actively waitlisted by Virgin; passive waitlist not allowed
vi) Matching passive segment previously received
vii) Agency does not have ticketing authority or is on Virgin’s denied sales table
viii) Segment cannot be ticketed as booked or segment is already ticketed

10.4. Industry standards require that passive segments be used "for the purpose of ticketing" only after a booking has been made in an airline's inventory system. Virgin Atlantic does not allow passive segments to be used for other reasons, including the following:

i) To satisfy GDS productivity requirements
ii) To circumvent fare rules
iii) To fulfil administrative functions

10.5. Any costs incurred by passive sectors created for the use of an NDC booking, will be reverted to the seller.  

This does not currently apply to NDC bookings.

11.1. An acceptable group booking may include segments entered passively into a GDS. These passive segments must match segments already existing in Virgin Atlantic’s Reservation System.

11.2. Passive segments may only be entered at the time, and for the purpose, of ticket issuance.

11.3. Group bookings entered into a GDS that are not directly related to a customer request and are subsequently cancelled prior to ticketing are considered speculative.

11.4. Groups booked in a manner designed to circumvent these procedures are subject to penalties and/or cancellation by Virgin Atlantic. This includes, without limitation, creating hidden groups by making multiple, small bookings that are intended as a group. Virgin Atlantic prohibits creating speculative and hidden group bookings.

12.1. Claim PNR allows travel agencies to take control of Virgin Atlantic created bookings for ticketing purposes.

12.2. Virgin Atlantic created bookings that are wholly e-ticket eligible will be secured and unavailable for automated transfer of control until all Terms and Conditions are met.

If you have additional questions, please contact your Groups Team GDS Help Desk.

This does not currently apply to NDC bookings.

13.1. VS permits Wait-listing for a limited number of classes of service, these may also be capped.

13.2. It is prohibited to:

        a)Create duplicate waitlist segments for the same flight for the same passenger in the same cabin within

            the same PNR or with different PNR’s

        b)Waitlist on a lower booking class for a passenger already confirmed on the flight/cabin.

13.3. Agents should remove confirmed waitlist segments when the passenger no longer intends to travel.

Please refer to Virgin Atlantic’s Conditions of Carriage here

15.1. When changing itineraries in a PNR/Order, it is necessary to re-request any special service requests from the original booking.

15.2. When a name is changed in a PNR/Order the SSR documents will be removed from the PNR. This includes unaccompanied minors, special meal requests and Secure Flight Passenger Data.

15.3. When an SSR message is needed for only part of the itinerary, the special service request must be flight specific and not requested for all Virgin flights.

A GDS subscriber that uses more than one GDS in its business must book and ticket a specific passenger itinerary within the same GDS.

The booking and/or issuance and/or use of Flight Coupons from two or more different tickets at round trip fares for the purpose of circumventing applicable tariff rules (such as advance purchase/minimum stay requirements, or other restrictions) is not permitted.

18.1. We do not permit hidden ticketing, hidden ticketing means:

1. The booking and/or issuance and/or use of a reservation or ticket from:
2.  An initial departure point on the ticket which is before the passenger’s actual point of origin of travel.
3. To a more distant point(s) than the passenger’s actual destination being travelled even when the booking or purchase and use of such tickets would produce a lower fare.

We do not permit the booking and/or issuance and/or use of connecting and/or round-trip tickets for the purpose of one-way or partial travel only.

We do not permit inventory spoilage caused by the failure to issue tickets and/or cancel ticketed or un-ticketed reservations.

21.1. We do not permit impossible or illogical bookings, which includes but is not limited to:

1. Bookings for the same passenger on concurrent flights that fly in the same time period, on or near the same day.
2. Multiple bookings for the same passenger between the same origin/destination.
3. Duplicate bookings
4. Bookings with connections that depart before the arrival of the inbound flight.

IATA Resolution 830d requires all bookings to contain customer contact details so the airline can advise of any irregular flight operations.

Contact details must be entered as an SSR using the below codes.

CTCE – Customer email

CTCM – Customer phone number

In the event the customer does not wish to provide contact details, you are required to indicate the customer has declined to provide such detail and enter the refusal in the PNR. In this case, the customer will not receive information relating to flight changes.

CTCR – Customer has refused details

All collection, transmission and use of customer data under this policy must comply with applicable data protection laws, including the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU GDPR where relevant.

All bookings where you are acting on behalf of a third party as a commercial entity must be made through VAA approved Distribution channels (NDC or Edifact).  Any bookings made as an agent on our website directly are not allowed and are subject to cancellation as per our Website Usage Policy and fare rules.