Virgin Atlantic Holidays Reviews 

What was meant to be a once-in-a-lifetime family holiday to Orlando has turned into one of the most disappointing travel experiences we have ever had.

We booked and paid approximately £14,000 for what Virgin Holidays advertised and sold as a luxury family holiday. Unfortunately, from the moment we arrived, it became clear that the accommodation provided was not the accommodation we had booked, and the overall experience has fallen dramatically short of the standards promised.

The most frustrating aspect is that Virgin Holidays appear unable or unwilling to address the central issue: we did not receive the villa we booked. Instead, we were placed in a different property in a different area of the resort, surrounded by much larger groups, resulting in repeated disruption and antisocial behaviour that is completely unsuitable for a young family holiday.

Throughout our stay we experienced:

• Loud music, pool parties and excessive noise continuing well beyond the resort’s stated curfew.
• Multiple complaints to security, including having to call at 10:40pm after our young son was woken by loud music.
• Vehicles racing around the resort roads.
• E-bikes travelling at speed around pedestrian areas.
• A rear patio door that did not lock correctly.
• Non-functioning air conditioning in the games room.
• Damaged and poorly maintained games equipment.
• Poor standards of cleanliness and maintenance.
• Damage to the pool screening which I temporarily repaired myself to protect my family.
• Wildlife entering the pool area through gaps in the screening, including having to remove a snake.

What has made matters worse is the customer service. Communication from the local Virgin representative has been virtually non-existent, and responses from customer services have focused on auditing the condition of a villa we never booked in the first place rather than addressing the fact that we were not provided with the accommodation we paid for.

To add insult to injury, after specifically instructing that no maintenance work should take place until we had provided a list of issues, we returned from a day out to find contractors inside the villa replacing items without permission. When challenged, they expected to continue working while we fed our children and put them to bed.

This holiday was funded using money left to me by my late mother and was intended to create special family memories. Sadly, the memories Virgin Holidays have created are of frustration, disappointment and stress.

We are currently pursuing a formal complaint seeking a full refund, reimbursement of additional hotel costs incurred, and compensation for the significant loss of enjoyment caused by Virgin Holidays’ failure to provide the holiday that was sold to us.

Based on our experience, I would strongly advise anyone considering booking through Virgin Holidays to carefully review exactly what is being provided and to be prepared for a lengthy battle if things go wrong.

A very expensive lesson and a hugely disappointing experience.

This is the second year running that we’ve used Virgin Travel in the Morfa store in Swansea, and once again the service has been absolutely first class.

Last year we received outstanding service from Gemma, and this year was no exception. Communication throughout was perfect, with emails answered incredibly quickly, and nothing was ever too much trouble.

We also visited the Swansea store in person and dealt with Caitlin, who gave us truly exceptional service from start to finish. Friendly, professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely helpful throughout the whole process. Shout out to Leanne too who was fabulous and a wealth of knowledge.

We are absolutely delighted with everything and can’t wait for our holiday to Florida.

A huge thank you to the whole team — customer service exactly as it should be!

From the outset, Miriam was so helpful and her knowledge and experience of the holidays helped enormously. Thank you Miriam, I had a good experience, dealing with Virgin Atlantic Holidays.

Just back from 2 weeks in USA. Flew with Virgin and also booked Hert rental car with them. All good. Helpful staff on the phone too when checking book in etc. Very attentive cabin crew and all seemed happy.

I went in to the Chelmsford branch on the 18th of May and was immediately helped by Katie, she found the cheapest and best flights for me and took time understanding my needs, I sent lots of follow up email requests and questions and these were answered immediately. I did lots of research myself to try and get a cheaper price but I couldn’t get anywhere near where what had been quoted! I went back in today and Emily helped me through the actual booking, everything was ready to go thanks to Katie. The booking process was simple and slick!! There was no hard sell, no trying to upsell - just 2 amazing enthusiastic Virgin holiday advisors wanting to make my holiday dreams come true! Thank you so much. 😊

The professionalism and dedication to high quality customer service was exemplary. Many thanks Heather!

Booked holiday to Vegas. No issues with flight there. On the way back we specifically paid extra to upgrade to Premium expecting an elevated onboard experience, however the service fell significantly below the standard advertised and expected.

Issues included:

- Welcome drinks service was poorly handled and sparkling wine had already run out
- Cabin crew were noticeably rude and dismissive, including eye-rolling and unpleasant facial expressions when basic requests were made
- When requesting water, we were given only half a cup in a dismissive manner
- On a half-empty flight, breakfast options had already run out, with no English breakfast available and only a cold salmon bagel or granola offered
- Cabin service standards were poor throughout, including rubbish not being collected during the flight

Overall, there was nothing “Premium” about this experience, and it did not reflect the level of service we paid extra to receive. In fact our economy flight was far better.
Given that we paid specifically for an upgraded Premium experience that was clearly not delivered we’ve complained to Virgin but they didn’t see the problem with our experience and offered pathetic amount of travel points.

Safe to say i wont be rushing to fly with them again.

Booked a package holiday to Jamaica by calling Virgin Holidays directly, as the website would not allow me to book part of our group in Upper Class. The sales representative arranged the booking for us over the phone.
However, upon arrival at the airport in Jamaica, we discovered there was no transfer waiting for us. After around half an hour of confusion and having to prove the transfer booking using our documentation, transport was eventually arranged to the hotel.
When we arrived, we then found that our party had been split across two separate neighbouring hotels within the same chain, but with no reciprocal access between them. (IBEROSTAR Rose Hall Suites and IBEROSTAR Rose Hall Waves). This meant our parents were unable to visit us and spend time with their grandchildren in our hotel. We had specifically booked this as a family holiday, so after receiving no resolution from Virgin via. Whatsapp conversation, and also no response from the sales rep who had booked us, we ended up paying ourselves to move them into our hotel.
I would like to add that the airport staff and Virgin Atlantic flight crew were excellent throughout. However, this situation appears to have resulted from an error made by the sales representative, and I would still have expected Virgin to provide some form of resolution or compensation for the inconvenience and additional cost caused by their mistake.

Very warm welcome, really knowledgeable explaining all our questions

Amazing experience from initial enquiries to booking to the actual holiday itself. Will always book our WDW trips with Virgin. Thank you for the perfect holiday!

Extremely patient extremely helpful explained everything to me. Couldn’t help me enough.

Easy to book with, Shane is very knowledgeable and made it easy.

Has helped with all aspects of things after we had booked too.

Abi in Customer Services did a great job in finally sorting out a credit I was due for a February trip that was cancelled due the flight out being cancelled due to snow. Nothing happened until I rang last week and she sorted it out in 1 week so that was great

Booking this holiday was a very pleasant experience made all the easier by the knowledge, understanding, helpfulness and patience of Kate Hester. She was excellent providing a level of customer care which is almost impossible to find in todays world.
Using the information and advice that she very kindly provided I have now been able to sort out and book my itinerary for my stay in New York.
Thank you Kate

Booking this holiday was a very pleasant experience made all the easier by the knowledge, understanding, helpfulness and patience of Kate Hester. She was excellent providing a level of customer care which is almost impossible to find in todays world.
Using the information and advice that she very kindly provided I have now been able to sort out and book my itinerary for my stay in New York.
Thank you Kate

2 weeks ago I returned from a holiday in Florida celebrating my grandsons eighth birthday, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic. Firstly the flights and the car hire were exactly as we expected from a company I thought were renowned for quality customer service. We booked a 6 bedroom villa in Paradise Palms and expected a 1st class quality accommodation. Wow were we in for a shock. The place was a hovel absolutely disgusting. It had certainly not been cleaned the back doors were off the runners and the front door would not lock at all. Two of the toilets did not work and were blocked. For two days I rang Tropical Escapes who Virgin had used to book the villa. I eventually gave up and went direct to Virgin Atlantic who sent someone to check out the villa, give them their due they tried to find us a different villa but said none were available. We were 3 days into the holiday I had unblocked one of the toilets which was disgusting I had reattached the wiring to the front door system and we had to take all our valuables with us every time we left the premises as the back door was not lockable we did not feel safe or secure. Virgin then had the cheek to ask us to stay in the villa and we could have the pool heated free of charge. This place really was a hovel and I asked them to send us home. At this point Some four days into the holiday they moved us to a different property much more in line with what we expected. The property was smaller further from the parks and lacked the amenities we had booked. I reasonably asked for 4 fourteenth of the cost of the holiday to be refunded for the 4 days they ruined and the inconvenience they had put us through. They offered us 1/12th of the cost as a refund. Trying to deal with customer service has been a nightmare but am quite willing to escalate the complaint and will not be fobbed off. Be aware they are still sending people to this accommodation and it could be you. I have only touched on some of the issues and thankfully took a load of photos. What I thought was a company with a reputation for quality service has come up short in every aspect of customer service. I am still dealing with Virgin and will update this feedback as it transpires. I really would not wish this to happen to anyone else so check your accommodation address before setting off.

Today I had the delight of having Miriam assist me with my booking. Her customer service was second to none and she sorted out the wee issue I had when trying to book online and followed up by contacting the flight centre to ensure everything was in place for our family holiday. I have never experienced such a professional but friendly and knowledgeable holiday advisor. She went above and beyond. It was such a pleasure speaking dealing with her and I will never use another company as long as you keep Miriam please, she is a credit to your organisation. 11 out of 10

A fantastic service as always from Virgin Atlantic holidays as always. This is why choose them every time over their competitors

I recently booked my holiday with Stephanie who is located in the Cardiff branch. She was brilliant, nothing was too much trouble. I felt all my questions were answered and the booking process was seemless. I will definitely be booking with her again.

The service that we received from Leia at the Merry Hill branch whilst booking our trip to the US has been fantastic. Nothing was ever too much trouble even when we changed our itinerary a few times! Will definitely use again for future trips. Highly recommend!