It’s tough to be a traveling Virgin nowadays.
The Virgin family encompasses over 50 divisions in the entertainment, health/wellness, leisure, money, people/planet/space, telecom/tech and travel industries. In one form or another, they can be found on nearly every continent.
Some of Virgin’s divisions are strong and doing fine. But their travel industry? Not so much…
- Virgin Australia, one of the largest operating airlines in Australia, went into voluntary administration in April.
- Virgin Trains USA, operating as Brightline for just a bit longer (it’s awesome, by the way), and potentially a replacement for Disney Magical Express, has suspended operations since March.
- Virgin Orbit, part of Virgin Galactic, recently had to abort its first orbital launch.
- Its UK-based airline, Virgin Atlantic, just announced it won’t resume flights until at least August because of the U.K.’s latest quarantine news, and in recent weeks has been struggling to find funds to keep it afloat.
And speaking of keeping afloat…
Virgin Voyages, the Virgin family’s cruise line division, has just announced they’re canceling sailings through October 15.
This wouldn’t be quite so painful, if it weren’t for the fact that the brand-new cruise line’s inaugural sailing was supposed to be in April. Coronavirus took care of that. So it got pushed to August. And now October.
Virgin is making good on the change – if you already had reservations for a sailing that’s now canceled, they’re auto-crediting double the amount you’ve paid to date toward your voyage fare. If you’d rather have a refund, they can do that, too, and still give you a 25% credit towards your next cruise. And if anyone books their sailing before June 30, they’ll give you up to $500 to spend onboard.
Virgin Voyages has also announced a brand new (thanks, COVID-19) “Smooth Sailing” program for 2020. “We recognize the difficult economic environment that many people are experiencing, so we’re bringing new introductory pricing to sailors—while offering (even more) flexible booking policies,” said Tom McAlpin, president and CEO of Virgin Voyages. For sailings through December 16, 2020, Virgin Voyages is moving it’s guests’ final payment dates from 120 days to 60 days before you sail, and you can cancel up to 48 hours before your voyage and receive a 100 percent voyage credit.
They should do OK in the end – it’s just a matter of their finally being able to get started. But meanwhile, yeah…it sure is tough to be a traveling Virgin right now.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
