Smeagol

So i found out today that my afternoon fight to HKG and my lunch time flight back from HKG in November has been cancelled and instead we are booked on an evening flight to HKG and a VERY late evening flight back which means we lose our nights sleep at home and day to catch up before going back to work and going out I will miss my connecting flight to Hanoi and there isnt one (that i can find) available till the next day.
My itinerary was:
4 nights Hanoi 1 Halong 3 Saigon 4 mui Ne 1 Saigon 1 HKG (at the end)
But now i will need the initial night in HKG
I absolutely do not want to drop a night in Hanoi so i have 2 options (that i can see) drop Halong and keep everything the same or fly back to HKG from HCMC on the same day as my UK return flight home and hope there aren't any delays etc and catch my very late fight home?
As an option 3
I did ask Virgin if they would swap my flights to the Thursday instead of the Friday (this woud make things a bit easier going out but as 1 is a reward they said there wasn't a reward available. Muffin thinks i should ask them to make a reward seat available as its their fault, sorry for rambeling on, what do you guys think i should do?

Hanuman

I would drop a night in Saigon at the end of your trip and keep the rest the same. Just return from Mui Ne and fly to HKG on the same day.

Smeagol

Thanks Hanuman, problem is that gives me very little time in HCMC as we dont arrive til early evening and then wanted to do Cu chi day 1 and Mekong day 2 so no time for actually seeing HCMC!!
Also Tonkin have arrange quite a lot of the hotels etc (thankfully i haven't had chance to get back to her ref the internal flights so they were not booked) so am thinking it will(hopefully) be straight forward to shift everything by a day?
would you fly to HKG from HCMC and then on to the UK on the same day? (the flight to the UK doesn't leave till 23.35!)

Hanuman

Definitely I would be willing to spend a few hours in transit at Hong Kong airport and then fly back to the UK. They have showers at almost every airline lounge there and a great food court to boot.

Smeagol

thanks Hanuman that does help (what a pain these flight camcelations are - at least its still direct0

LeighTravelClub

Hey Smeagol, wish I could provide a magic answer.....but,......????
I know it's no help to your situation, but our few experiences with Virgin have, without exception, been horrendous.
So much so, that if Virgin were the only option to my destination.....then I wouldn't go.
Our latest experience was to Cuba with Virgin. They ran out of meals on the outward flight, and ran out of cups on the homeward flight (announcing....please retain your cups for the duration of this flight as we have no more to offer).

I doubt I will ever fly Virgin again.

EasyJet are like a luxury carrier compared to Virgin. At least, that is my experience.

rhkkmk

i would skip halong bay... i always hate to return home with a connecting flight the same day....way too many options for problems...

i also would lay it hard on virgin to come up with an alternative....because you are buying one ticket, i would find that an advantage in your favor

Gpanda

Scrap the entire itinerary and meet us in Bangkok. The plane rescheduling is a sign.

Smeagol

Andy i would love too but i stil cant find a decent flight (read cheap biz) with good timings. I am so pissed off as i had everything pretty much nailed down and due to this change will waste at least 2 days of my hols..... At this rate Muffin will insist on Portugal for 2 weeks instead.
Leigh- we have had relatively good experiences with Virgin previously (compared to BA) but i do find EVA hard to beat, gosh i really dont know what to do, but one thing i do know it will costs me £££

Gpanda

The Peninsula, dinner with Bob and Andy and Karen and Beth. Just find a flight to Bangkok and scuttle the rest. Look at Singapore Air from Frankfurt. If you plan it right, you can be on the same flight as we.

Smeagol

Ok am looking at a few things and am considering changing my flights to Eva so still going to VN but via BKK instead. When are you guys in BKK? Not sure if its going to work out but the timings could be better than what i currently have with Virgin (AND we get a couple of days in BKK) Singapore airlines (biz) are way beyond our means Andy!

Gpanda

Nov 15-19 (Marriott) and 25-29 (Plaza Athenee) in Bangkok. In between, we'll be in Krabi. I noticed that the Singapore Air business was sky high. Some others are much more reasonable(from Orbitz.com). It would be great if you and Muffin could join us for a while.

Smeagol

Andy - Just emailed you but looking at the above we would miss you by 2 days on both of the above... drat

Gpanda

Drat, indeed. I was hoping we could recreate our dinner at Cyan.

rhkkmk

did you also look at emerites and other mid east carriers....all are adding flights daily...

Smeagol

Ye but they are not direct and as we then need to get to Hanoi from BKK it would be too many flights...