Virgin Atlantic: VSbulletin - COVID-19 Ongoing Travel Disruption 4 Nov

It remains a dynamic time for international travel and we’re continually reviewing our flying schedules.

As we consider our longer-term flying programme, we’ve taken the decision to restart our Manchester-Los Angeles flights later than originally planned, with our expectation that these flights will now resume in 2023. We remain committed to serving this seasonal transatlantic link from our home in the north, which launched in May 2019, and apologise for the inconvenience caused to our mutual customers due to travel in summer 2022.

In the meantime, we look forward to restarting our popular New York-JFK and Orlando services from Manchester on 8 November, as the US reopens to fully vaccinated international visitors, to be followed by Atlanta services from 2 December. Barbados and Islamabad services are already in operation three times per week, as part of our unique intercontinental network from Manchester.

Before customers travel, please ensure they are checking the countries entry requirements for their destination. Everything they need to know before they head to the airport can be found here, but it’s also important to check the latest government travel advice and entry requirements here.

Our flexible booking policy gives customers the freedom to book with confidence for departures up to 30 April 2023. Everything you need to know to assist our customers with date changes and refunds can be found here.

Our partner Delta Air Lines is also offering expanded flexibility and extended ticket validity through December 31, 2022. Visit Delta’s Waivers & Flexibility pages on Delta Professional for more information.

As a result of the fast-moving travel environment, we continue to make schedule changes which will affect our flying programme for the coming weeks.

We are reducing frequencies on several routes, however to ensure impacted passengers can continue with their travel plans, they will be reprotected to the most suitable alternative departure.
Where a flight is cancelled, and due to limited operations to these destinations, there will be no reprotection option available, these sectors will appear as UN.

Bookings affected by these changes will be updated in your GDS on Saturday 6 November 2021.

We are also making some frequency updates on selected routes. We will continue to keep our website up to date with all the latest updates to schedule and travel restrictions.

During November we plan to maintain operations on the following routes, subject to late changes:

Our partners are also back in the skies, and here's a reminder of where they are flying long-haul from the UK in November.

Please check here regularly for updates and here for specific flight status.

Please ensure the latest traveller contact information is available within the booking so the latest instructions reach the traveller via SMS and email.

Face Masks

For most flights, we expect all customers aged 12 above to wear a facemask. On a flight to or from the United States, customers aged 2 and over must wear a face mask, in order to comply with slightly different rules set by the US authorities.

We need to remind you that if any of our customers require a mask exemption or have any pre-existing medical conditions, these need to be disclosed to Virgin Atlantic at least 48 hours prior to travel. You can contact our Special assistance team here or by emailing special.assistance@fly.virgin.com. Please ensure the customer has their booking reference when they contact us.

Covid-19 Passenger Travel Information
Everything your customers need to know before travelling and our flexibility policy can be found here.