Refund Policy

Refunds can be processed through your GDS if the following criteria is met:

• Ticket is un-used
• Ticket is partially un-used
• Cancellation of a reservation and refund of an original issued ticket before midnight the day after ticketing
• If a full refund is due - for death of the passenger or qualifying relative and adheres to the fare conditions
• Authorisation has been given by VS Account Manager or Sales Support
• If there is a full refund due to a Virgin Atlantic schedule change as per the Global Schedule Change policy, or authorisation has been given by VS Sales.

For BSP users who raise a refund application for any of the above criteria, Virgin Atlantic will charge a GBP30 administration fee.  This will be applied per ticket and will be deducted from the final refund amount.

Refunds should only be sent to Virgin Atlantic to process if:

• Tickets are over their 12 months validity
• Coupon status on the ticket prevents you from processing in your GDS
• Virgin Atlantic has re-issued the travel documents; therefore, coupons are under airline control. You should mention “VAA reissue” in the text field on the BSP Application or email.
• There is a technical fault with your GDS preventing the refund being processed, this must be stated on your application to us as the reason for refund request, along with the passengers’ reason for cancellation
• A ticket has been utilised but there is a refund due (e.g. downgrades, residual amounts to be refunded following a re-issue)
• The ticket has been reissued with a different form of payment (FOP) than the one used on the original ticket.

For ARC users unable to process via their GDS due to any of the above reasons:

Click on the below link to open the refund application form on the website

• https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/contact-forms/refund-form.html?webform=ticket-refunds

Instructions on completing the form can be found here:

• https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/partner-hub/policies/arc-refunds-application.html

There will be occasions when a customer may be entitled to a full refund of the entire ticket or specific sectors, so the below processes must be followed. Failure to do so may result in an ADM.

• Flight Cancellation – VSbulletin received regarding flight cancellation, follow the commercial policy shared including adding the OSI to the PNR
• Bereavement - If the passenger dies before using the ticket, a full refund of the ticket will be issued upon request. When a passenger is unable to travel due to the death of a member of his/her immediate family (traveling or not) or traveling companion. Prior to travel, you should send the death certificate to the Sales Support team. Sales Support will then add an OSI into the PNR and a full refund can be processed.
• Waiver – If you feel there is a genuine reason to waive the conditions, you must contact your Sales Support teams.  Each case will be assessed individually. If the conditions are to be waived, your Sales Support team will add an OSI into the PNR. Once the OSI has been added, a refund as per waiver can be processed. 

• Prior to processing the refund, please check if Government and/or Airport taxes are refundable.
• For all non-refundable tickets, both fare and YQ are non-refundable.
• For fully refundable tickets or refundable with a fee, the YQ will be refundable.

The cancellation fee should be applied as per fare conditions, in some instances this will be per fare component and in other fares the most restrictive conditions apply.  You should always refer to the specific fare conditions. Should any cancellation fee result to be higher than the fare, this should be deducted from YQ value. 

E.g.  Fare = 400, YQ = 200. Cancellation Penalty = -500, Refund = 100

YQ is the fuel surcharge – not a TAX - and the surcharge is part of what we refer to as the Tariff.

In the Virgin Atlantic Conditions of Carriage it states:

"Tariff" means the published fares, charges and/or related conditions of carriage of an air carrier filed, where required, with the appropriate authorities.

Therefore, YQ is not refundable because it is part of the Tariff not tax. YQ surcharge has been non-refundable since May 2010.

On ‘non-refundable’ tickets:

• Government and Airport taxes ARE refundable
• Fuel and Insurance surcharges are non-refundable: These are YQ, YR (other airline surcharge) and XF (airline fee)
• This will need to be processed as a manual refund in order for the applicable taxes to be refunded

On ‘refundable with a fee’ tickets:

• Fares that have a cancellation fee as a % will take a percentage off the actual fare and a percentage off the YQ surcharge 
• Fares that have a cancellation fee as a flat amount, i.e. £50, this will come off the FARE ONLY and YQ surcharge will be fully refunded
• This will need to be processed as a manual refund in order for the applicable taxes to be refunded.

On 'fully flexible' tickets:

• On a fully flexible ticket, the YQ and all other taxes will be refundable and processed as an automated refund.

• The Point of Sale (PoS) of the ticketing location is used to determine the time frame for refund
• Reservation must have been created and ticketed within 24hrs
• Cancellation and refund to be processed before midnight the day after original ticket issue
• Prior to processing the refund, please check if Government and/or Airport taxes are refundable.
• Fare and YQ will be fully refundable

If ticketing and departure are on the same day, the itinerary must be cancelled, and the ticket voided before midnight on the same day

• Refund calculations for un-used sectors will be based on deducting all fare and taxes that have been flown. E.g.  A customer has already flown from the UK before applying for the refund, all relevant fare component and taxes (i.e. UK departure tax) are not to be refunded.

• A refund of the carrier-imposed charge (YQ) may be made on unused flights in your itinerary, if permitted, by the fare rules and conditions applicable to your booking.