Discontinued Travel Pass

[Traveler]

Has Virgin discontinued the Travel Pass?

[BPG]

This is ridiculous! Clearly, it is a way for Virgin to make more money. Now, I am being asked to pay up to $16 per day to use MY EXISTING data plan when traveling! How will it be affordable if I am away for 20 days!! This won't retain customers!! 

[JamesMa]

If you travel for a month to the UK it will cost 30 days multiplied by $16??? That is $480 plus regular bill. There is no way your customers prefer such high charges.

Very disappointing.

[Snowbird1]

Your proposed solution does not meet the needs of long term international travellers.

Given your lack of interest in addressing this issue we are in the process of moving to a new provider. 

Freedom mobile is offering 50g roaming data, and international calling and texting between Canada and the US, all for $45. 

We have been Virgin customers for a long time s you use to provide customer focused service. Sadly this is no longer the case. 

Goodbye Virgin mobile.

[BruceJ]

Very unfortunate that Virgin has chosen to end the Travel program. Was useful for keeping my main phone line awake for travel purposes. The Roam NOT Sweet Roam is simply too expensive. WhatsAPP and a replacement will be have to do. SAD. Will be moving if I can - BELL -parent- is the same way. 

[Summer2023]

I too have used the virgin travel pass yearly, was 40 dollars then 80 last year but this is outrageous at 13 dollars a day. There is no way there was any communication with customers. Poor poor poor 

[Giuseppe]

I want talk and text only. Emergency purposes only while away. Do not need data. What other options.??

[BruceJ]

Virgin:

Lack of travel pass means i Will be putting on my account on hold for this winter. No bucks for you.

Newer iphone will be Wifi and Whatsapp only.

[Nal]

Hello,

I completely disagree that it's better.  My phone bill tripled last time I was in the US. Although I had the plan of $13/day and only used wifi.  I got charged when someone sent me a picture via text.  I am considering changing my provider. Telus has a much better program for customers travelling to the US.

Thank you!

[JMC]

I am also traveling to the US in January for 30 days and the daily rate of $13 is ridiculous. I went with Virgin because of the 30 day plan which I have used several times in the past. I call my 86 year old Mom daily at 9 pm and it would cost me $50 on the 30 day plan and now it will be $390. I can't see the logic in the move by stating it is what clients are asking. I will be changing provider when my contract expires in 9 months. Thank you!

[Trav29-]

It looks like my post has the attention of people and customers like me. I have received good service overall from Virgin and when I spoke to a customer service rep about this concern I did receive assistance. While she was quite good the decision was made by the "marketing team", which I may assume don't really understand the various demographics of its customer base. She did tell me that "marketing" was working on some kind of new package to help with customers like many of us who took the time to voice an opinion in this blog. But marketing has done nothing and I have reached the point where my contract term is up, I own the phone. Hope the marketing team notices that they foolish idea causes a significant departure of customers. We are not all watching movies, shooting selfies and talking on the phone for hours.

[AlG]

Your findings are self serving.  If I am roaming for a few days then yes, the Roam Sweet Roam makes sense, but it certainly does NOT make sense for longer trips.

But my typical trip is 3 weeks.  I used to buy a 30 day pass for $60 which included data, texts and talk time.  Now I have to pay $16/d = $336 for the same duration.  How can anyone possibly suggest that we prefer to pay 6x more because it is simple and flexible?  And for the record, the travel passes were VERY simple to use.

Everyone I talk to is NOT happy about losing the Travel passes, and EVERYONE agrees the daily roaming charge is a HUGE increase in costs.  

I also noticed that all 6 major cell phone (Bell/Virgin, Telus/Koodo, Rogers/Fido) providers ALL dropped Travel Passes at the same time.  So it is clearly an illegal price fixing that Canada seems to never enforce.

I don't want to move but honestly, this kind of behavior has to be snubbed at the beginning.  I REFUSE to support this illegal price fixing.  And I do plan to vote with my feet before my next trip because there are other options if you are prepared to move away from those 6 major suppliers.

Oh, and I am also looking at "pay as you go" roaming also - paying $0.99/ outgoing text, $2.50/min for voice, and using wifi for email / chat apps looks like it is actually looking like a workable way to avoid the illegal price fix of $16/day --- less convenient but workable.

[Tammie]

We are also gravely disappointed!  Not sure how to put account on hold while we travel? 

[JMC]

Further to my post of 11-20-2023, we have decided to payout our phone and moved back to Bell. The pay out is less than the $390 that it would cost to go to the US for 30 days. Bell will provides for Unlimited Canada-wide and Canada/US/Mexico calling, texting and data as well as unlimited international texting, +++ for $70 per month with our home plan. Sorry Virgin, keep serving your Teeny Boppers and we will not be returning since we have learnt a valuable lesson in your target market audience preferences.

[AlG]

Message to Virgin --- this policy makes it clear that Virgin does not provide the services I require during my next trip - which is planned in 11 months.  So I will likely be moving to another provider in that time frame.  It might be sooner if I do another trip sooner.  Below is why and what the plan is.

To be clear, the Virgin replies to this post make it clear they do not want to come clean on the fact that this is a pure cash grab and nothing more.  The Virgin replies are trying to sell the Roam Sweet Roam as a great option, but anyone with a calculator sees it as a HUGE increase in the cost of roaming.

So my solution is three fold:

1. I will switch to any major provider that resumes offering a Travel Pass.  Until then I will have ZERO LOYALTY  to any provider and will switch based on best price even to save a small amount.  If they want to gouge me, then I will leave for a difference of 10 cents.
2. If a major provider does start offering Travel Packages again, then I will have loyalty to that provider, and will NOT switch away from them without good reason.
3. There is another discount provider (Freedom) that offers roaming at over 70 destinations as part of an all inclusive package at a very good price.  Next trip I will switch over to them, and after the trip I will switch out of that and into an all inclusive package without the roaming included, which will save $8/month over Virgin for an identical package.

I am also looking at exactly how "pay as you go" roaming works and looking at how much it will cost my situation on a trip.  It would actually save me money but it is a pain.  And with Virgin, data is NOT available on pay as you go.  I plan to use WiFi for all my data needs (email, WhatsApp, etc) but I will not receive any MSM.  So I will be thinking that over until the next trip - perhaps I should switch to a provider that offers roaming pay as you go data to solve that --- I could switch off roaming and only turn it on when in WiFi coverage, and that way only use data for the things that require data over the network.  But that also means leaving Virgin.

I have always wondered about this discount provider, so it is an opportunity to try them and see how it goes.  In my house and neighborhood I only get two bars of signal strength with Telus, Bell, and Virgin --- so as I see it, there is isn't a lot to lose, and I can always shop around and switch back to a major provider if the service coverage is not as good.  But it is a great reason and opportunity to try it, and if it works out I save another 20% by leaving Virgin. 

The coverage map for the discount provider I selected shows good coverage that is quite similar to the major providers in Alberta and Western Canada, and I can't see any gaps.

So I suppose I should thank Virgin for giving me a reason for trying one of the smaller discount providers.

One other statement for Virgin to consider.  Maybe you should break your agreement with the other providers and be the first to start offering Travel Passes again.  If you do that, I suspect you will get a FLOOD of people switching over for that reason only.  But I am sure your parent company, Bell, will not allow you to make such a decision.

[Unhappycustomer]

Totally ridiculous to have to pay $13 per day for a 3 week stay. Used your travel pass multiple with great success but I guess now will have to buy a travel sim card and use it in one of my old phones. Wish I had known this before I just got a new phone.