Virgin Atlantic no longer offering connecting flight from Dallas to Austin but tickets purchased

[Anonymous]

We purchased tickets from DCA to Austin with a layover in Dallas on Virgin Atlantic in early August for a trip in Mid-March. Just got a phone call from Virgin saying that the airline will no longer be doing the Dallas- Austin flights b/c of financial reasons. They offered to fly us through San Francisco (DCA-SFO-AUS) instead which is an unacceptable alternative. Virgin also offered to refund the cost of the ticket, however, flights are now substantially more expensive than in August.

What are our options, if any?

[Anonymous]

Book another ticket on another airline. Not sure what other options you are thinking might exist?

[Anonymous]

They should book you on another airline for the Dallas to Austin portion.

[Anonymous]

They presented an alternative, and you are not willing to take it. If it was me, I'd take the crappy connection or get a partial refund from Virgin and use it to book a Dallas-Austin on a different airline. Ticket prices to Austin are going to be sky-high pretty much any time in March because it's SXSW, so you'll have to decide if your time is worth more than your money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They presented an alternative, and you are not willing to take it. If it was me, I'd take the crappy connection or get a partial refund from Virgin and use it to book a Dallas-Austin on a different airline. Ticket prices to Austin are going to be sky-high pretty much any time in March because it's SXSW, so you'll have to decide if your time is worth more than your money.

we are going to SXSW which is why we started monitoring tickets during the summer and as a result paid a lower fare. Now, 2.5 months later, the tickets are much more expensive.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure you have much recourse other than taking one of the options they offered. Like a PP said, you have to decide which is more worth it to you, time or money. Connecting through SFO for a DC to Austin flight sounds terrible, if I could afford the price difference I'd take their refund and purchase tickets on another airline.

These things happen. Shoot, years ago we had tickets to Hawaii on Aloha Airlines and they went bankrupt and stopped all service about a month before our vacation. Found out about it on the news. Bought tickets on Hawaiian Airlines at a more expensive price than we had paid, and at least our credit card company refunded the money from the Aloha tickets. We had a fantastic vacation in Hawaii.

[Anonymous]

If cost is your biggest concern, rent a car and then drive to Austin. Alternately, price out the connecting flight on Southwest from Dallas to Austin, then ask Virgin to refund you that amount of money so you can purchase those tickets to complete your flight.

I don't think you have much of a case since they did offer you an option (even though it was really an awful option). Did you see if Virgin flies into Austin from any other cities. If you could fly from Chicago or Atlanta into Austin, maybe they could rebook you on those flights.