Danielle Quinnin, a “disgusted” mother of three who fell victim to the recent collapse of Thomas Cook has made the suggestion that Virgin Holidays is trying to take advantage of the now-collapsed company’s fraught customers and “has since” increased prices of Walt Disney World trips over a massive “600%”.
In a Facebook post on her account, Quinnin says a trip once priced at £3,000 is now upwards of £22,000. The mother of three booked her holiday to Disney World for her and her family last year for around £6,000. However, the trip was cancelled on Monday due to the collapse of Thomas Cook.
As the 26-year old mother tried to find alternate Walt Disney World deals, she says she found a similar but less inclusive 2-week trip for £3,174 with Virgin Holidays. At the time that price came up, Quinnin was not ready to book the holiday, however knowing it was “time-sensitive” she revisited the website around 2 hours later.
When Quinnin revisited the website, she along with her husband were disgusted upon what they had seen. Upon going over the same exact offer she had just seen a few hours earlier for just over £3,000, the price had go through the ceiling to £22,276.
The mother of 3 claims the astonishing increase by Virgin Holidays is because the company is trying to “make money from desperate people” who had all lost their flights to Orlando because of Thomas Cooks collapse. Virgin Holidays has since denied Quinnin’s allegations and has said that the prices are only increasing on account of high booking volumes and limited availability.
Talking to the Daily Mail, Danielle Quinnin stated the following:
“I couldn’t believe it. We’ve had our holiday to Florida booked for a year. It cost just under £6,000 originally. It’s crazy! I feel like Virgin are jumping on this [Thomas Cook’s collapse] and using it as an opportunity to make as much as possible.
The kids speak about going to Disney every single day. All they talk about is what princesses they’re going to see, who’s going to be there, what rides they’re going to go on. The kids were the perfect ages for Disney [because] there was something for everyone.
We’ve literally bought all Disney things throughout the summer. They’ve got a case full of Disney clothing, Mickey Mouse hairbands. We’ve been buying it all throughout the year. It’s disgusting that Virgin think they can make money because people are desperate…”
Danielle Quinnin
…You can read more on what Quinnin told the Daily Mail here.
Virgin Holidays said they had not increased fares on specific routes or across holiday packages that were previously operated by Thomas Cook. A spokesperson for the company stated the following:
“As a result of this being brought to our attention, Virgin Holidays investigated the price anomaly and we can confirm that this was an exceptionally busy day for customer sales and enquiries.
As a result, unfortunately the economy flight options which were available very quickly sold out, meaning that customers searching for this particular holiday package, will have been automatically offered upper class flight availability.
We do appreciate the distress that the closure of Thomas Cook has had not only on staff, but also on holidaymakers. We are confident in the work that our teams are doing with our suppliers around the world to offer the best possible price, as well as our customer service teams, who are working with thousands of customers to help them fulfill their holiday plans.
We would encourage any customers who discover a pricing anomaly, such as this, to contact the Virgin Holidays team who will work with them directly to help them fulfill their holiday requirements.”
Virgin Holidays Spokesperson
Source: Inside The Magic, Daily Mail
