Wedding disaster part two, with love from Virgin
Wedding disaster part two, with love from Virgin
One of the lesser-known purposes of this column is to preserve romance from commerce's attempts to thwart it. In April I received a plea from a prospective groom who had organised his nuptials through Virgin Weddings. The venue was to be a "newly refurbished" beach resort in Barbados and Chris and Bethany Kerr had paid handsomely for the marriage ceremony and honeymoon. Those brochure pictures were mighty seductive, but there was a snag: the resort hadn't been built. After stringing the couple along with deadlines for completion, Virgin demanded an extra £2,500 if they wanted to transfer to another resort in the same area. Happily, the Guardian's intervention led the company to switch them without charge and the couple were married.
This is the postscript. First, their flight was overbooked so the Kerrs had to delay their return by a day. Then Virgin Atlantic lost the couple's luggage containing the wedding dress, rings (the heat had caused their fingers to swell so they couldn't wear them) and a digital camera containing their wedding and honeymoon photos. "All the most memorable items to look back on are gone," says Chris. The Kerrs tried to get Virgin to trace the missing baggage in time for their British wedding reception, at which Bethany had planned to wear the dress. "We have been given a number to call an overseas customer-service team who don't understand what I'm asking for or why I'm a little upset," says Kerr. "Virgin won't allow us to claim.....continued below
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
until 21 days are up, well after our reception, and our own insurance policy requires us to wait 31 days."Virgin has declared the luggage irretrievably lost and sent the couple £1,652 in compensation. And here's its magnificent token of contrition - if the Kerrs ever trust themselves to Virgin Atlantic again they might get an upgrade to Premium Economy - if there's room.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
Related Links
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Consumer News
- Are Duffield's new stars falling into a black hole?
- Your problems
- Two-bed house would like to meet small flat with a view to exchange
- Bleak prospects even as Icesave starts to thaw
- In the event of deflation, let yourself down gently
- Darling to cut VAT in Christmas bonanza
- Pensioners hit by spiralling credit card debts forced to take out loans as energy prices soar
- Let Brown be our best-paid employee
- Britain's worst price falls
- The Reporter
More Links Within This Section
- Analysis
- Consumer news
- Features
- In focus
- Shares news
- Budget 2008
- Cash savers
- Consumer Corner
- Debt: Take control
- Festive discounts
- Free brochures
- Interest rates
- Recycle
- Bank accounts
- Credit cards
- Credit reports: free
- Currency
- Cut your bills
- Energy helpline
- Free brochures
- Green energy
- Insurance
- Isas
- Loans
- Mortgages
- Property
- Save energy
- Savings
- Shares
- Small business
- A-Z of tools
- Ask the experts
- Bank charges reclaim
- Cars: reducing costs
- Debt advice
- Find an adviser
- Green money
- Legal
- Pensions
- Saving for children
- Share your thoughts
- Tax
- Books
- Home office
- Online bargains
Page Footer
Access keys
You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
- (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
- (1) Navigate to Home page.
- (2) Navigate to My email.
- (3) Navigate to My Account.
- (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
- (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
- (6) Navigate to Members channel.
- (7) Navigate to Services channel.
- (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
- (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
- ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
- (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
- (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
- (x) Text only version of this page.
