The Ticket Collector

Virgin VIP awayday invitation for 75 sent to 76,000.

An Email from Virgin Trains head office promised a select few a special day: five-star pampering, champagne, golf and feasting, all laid on free at an exclusive country hotel. But the luxurious event on May 28 was sent not to a select few customers as originally planned, but was sent to 76,000 ‘normal’ customers.

Virgin Trains was forced to issue a mass apology yesterday after making the offer, intended for 75 members of its first-class Traveller club, to its general passenger database.

The Email, sent on Tuesday by Virgin Train’s traveller manager, was headlined “Now really cancel everything”.

People who took the email to heart were told they would be transported first-class on May 28 to play golf or relax in the spa at The Grove, near Watford, Hertfordshire.

When TheTicketCollector.co.uk called the hotline we were told the offer could not be honoured, as it had been sent to over 76,000 people. The Virgin Trains employee we spoke to on the hotline said: “The Email was sent out to every single person whose Email we hold, which is around 76,000″. They continued, stating “The invitation had been a “test email” distributed in error by our IT department, and that the mailing had been interrupted before all people could receive it.

TheTicketCollector.co.uk has contacted Virgin Trains and a spokesman has said “It was human error and were sorry for someone pressing the wrong button, however in order to make it up to people we will be entering the name of every person who received the email into a draw and 5 people will win the golf and spa trip”.