Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one night.

[Jada]

On a leisurely return from Solomon Islands yesterday with Mrs Jada, Little Jada's 1 and 2, we arrived at Brisbane International 30 mins behind schedule and made the quickest dash through Customs, Immigration, Virgin Check In / Transfer desk and across to the Domestic Terminal.

Albeit I did impress myself, it was in record time, we arrived at the domestic gate 15 mins prior to departure with the flight on Final Call and the ground crew calling other travellers names.

When I saw the look of horror on the attendants face when I handed her the row 3 Economy boarding passes I knew something was wrong, she turned to the Supervisor and said "They made it".

Virgin's supervisor then started to explain that we could not board the flight as our seats had been given away, she stated that "they didn't think we would make the flight and they could no longer board us".

She asked us to move across to the desk and she would try and book us on another flight the following day, at this point it was getting a little heated. :evil:

I explained that she was mistaken and that we would be leaving on the flight we have checked into. :-|

The Supervisor went onto explain that it was a Virgin policy and the 'System' would not allow her to put us onto the flight as all of the seats were taken, unbelievably this was all happening as they were still calling names of missing passengers. :evil:

After they closed the doors I could see that I was getting nowhere and headed for the lounge, immediate assistance was found and the Brilliant ladies at the Domestic Lounge who were able to escalate the situation right up to the Airport Manager.

20 minutes later we are given an apology and an admission that the supervisor had done the wrong thing, there was seats and we should have been boarded. Mrs Jada was happy as we were now checked into the next flight with a Free upgrade to Business for our inconvenience.

So after relaxing in the lounge, Mr and Mrs Jada and the 2 little Jadetts head for their Business seats, only to find that at boarding all of our business boarding passes were replaced with Economy passes, no explanation, no sorry, just we are fully booked and these are you new boarding passes.:evil:

With 4 flights in one day and after everybody being up for 17 hours at this point, it was to hard to fight the 'Virgin System' we just boarded and went home.

Christmas time I think we will be back to Holidaying with QF again, we all know that aeroplanes don't always arrive on time and stuff happens, but I have never been lied to directly in the face like I was by the Virgin Supervisor.

If you are ever in the Brisbane Domestic terminal and you find yourself in front of the said person, take her as an example of what not to do if you want to grow your business. If Messieurs Branson and Borghetti where present I would suggest that she might otherwise be unemployed.

Just wondering if this has happened to anybody before, I fly 3 or 4 times a week and I can never remember it happening before.

Happy Travelling, say does anybody have Mr Borghetti's email, thought I might send some material for one of his staff reviews!

 

[mella2007]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

While I can only symphasize with your situation, you have admitted yourself that you were running behind schedule, and if they were indeed doing the absolute final final boarding call while other passengers were already seated, they would have assumed you were going to be no shows and there are rules and regulations in place once the manifest has been done on the flight.
I don't personally like that you've named the person, as it is only one side of the story and she could have indeed have just being doing her job, though perhaps rude in manner.
Do email VA and tell them of your experience...I have had excellent communication from the Head of Virgin's when a massive group booking of mine had problems earlier in the year.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

while you made it to check in (well after the flight closed), I'm not sure your bags would have. It seems to me you were put on the next available flight and that doesn't seem unreasonable at all to me. Bummer about misding out on an op-up but you did get the class of travel you paid for. cheers skip

 

[Justchecking]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I dont see the big issue here. You were removed from a flight as an international connector that was running late. Virgin looked at your arrival time and made the determination that most likely you would not arrive in time. They put you on the next flight, you didnt get an op-up probably because paid J travellers were occupying those seats, but you did get home in the seats you paid for.

I think its poor taste for you to publicly name the person concerned especially as you havent even provided your feedback to the company yet.

 

[horseman]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Sure they got to where they were going and in the seats they paid for, but I agree with the OP, that is shocking service fron virgin. If I had boarding passes in hand, I would expect to be using them also, I would also expect to have problems sorted at the gate also, not have to bring up the situation again at the lounge

 

[SeatBackForward]

So did the OP spend a whole day in the lounge waiting for the flight the next day?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using AustFreqFly

 

[simongr]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Lots of issues here but another example of the op-up/op-down at VA/DJ - have heard of this frequently on these forums. Sure you ended up flying in the cabin you paid for but it leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

 

[simongr]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

while you made it to check in (well after the flight closed)

Where does it say that? They were at the gate 15 mins before take off during final call - I don't see a problem.

 

[markis10]

Virgin gate staff seem to have too much power when it comes to putting standby passengers (often staff) on flights, often meaning paying passengers lose an upgrade, this sort of rubbish needs to stop if they wish to be seen as serious in attracting the regular traveller!

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

On a leisurely return from Solomon Islands yesterday with Mrs Jada, Little Jada's 1 and 2, we arrived at Brisbane International 30 mins behind schedule and made the quickest dash through Customs, Immigration, Virgin Check In / Transfer desk and across to the Domestic Terminal.

Were the flights on a single ticket? If so, Virgin should have known wxactly where you were, that your incoming flight was delayed etc.

 

[Justinf]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I am confused as you said you would initially have to wait until the following day to fly and then later in your OP, it was said that you flew the same day (or at least that's how I read it).
I also don't like the fact that the person has been named and probably doesn't even get right of reply, but it is also incredibly poor form to upgrade you to J and then take it away from you.
Unfortunately in my experiences of Virgin lately, the Lounge staff do a truly wonderful job that puts the rest of the business operation to shame.

 

[serfty]

Were the flights on a single ticket? If so, Virgin should have known wxactly where you were, that your incoming flight was delayed etc.

This ... the staff member whos name has been redacted must have assumed the OP would not make it and made a call - in the end they were incorrect.

It's a bit of a transit from BNE Int to Dom, no wonder they appeared surprised.

However, it rather strange the Staff member did not try to accommodate them on the flight after the turned up, even though there were apparently still seats available.

I really don't get the 'next day' bit however, if there were flights with available seats.

I suggest the OP PM the DJ rep. on this forum advising of the situation.

 

[MichaelD]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Absolutely appalling and unprofessional actions by Virgin, with errors compounding upon errors just making the situation worse. It does show where Virgin gets it wrong big time - the OP likely would have been at least mollified with a domestic business leg. Instead, they got the Virgin OpDown treatment. Jada, I feel your pain.

Had a similar situation with a late arriving international flight in Perth recently, and a consequent supertight connection to domestic. Pretty much the same scenario as the OP. BP in hand and rushed transfer from international to domestic. We arrived at the domestic gate with 2 minutes before flight departure time. Unlike the OP, we boarded and sat in our row 2 seats with no issue at all. Unlike the OP, we were travelling with Qantas.

 

[markis10]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I really don't get the 'next day' bit however, if there were flights with available seats.

I suggest the OP PM the DJ rep. on this forum advising of the situation.

The OP is MEL based, and the Honiara flight gets in at 1715 scheduled, in this case it was closer to 1800, based on the OP's post that would make it a 1855 MEL departure, missing that leaves two flights. Given its school holidays and the weather delays in BNE yesterday I suspect the standby list was already pretty full for the remaining two options and the OP was put at the end of the queue by the gate dragon.

 

[openseat]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

The OP is MEL based, and the HON flight gets in at 1715 scheduled, in this case it was closer to 1800, based on the OP's post that would make it a 1855 MEL departure, missing that leaves two flights.

I think you mean HIR. There are no direct Virgin flights from Huron, South Dakota to Brisbane!

 

[markis10]

I think you mean HIR. There are no direct Virgin flights from Huron, South Dakota to Brisbane!

Given the mention of the origin in post 1, I sure do.

 

[serfty]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

... Given its school holidays and the weather delays in BNE yesterday I suspect the standby list was already pretty full for the remaining two options and the OP was put at the end of the queue by the gate dragon.

That does not gel with this:

....

20 minutes later we are given an apology and an admission that the supervisor had done the wrong thing, there was seats and we should have been boarded ...

Aside from that, even if the flights were full (which seems to be be contrary to what the OP is relating) and assuming all on the one ticket, then it was DJ's responsibility for the delayed flight and the OP's party should have been given automatic priority over most other standby's.

 

[markis10]

That does not gel with thsi:

It does if you hang around the gates long during school holidays near the gate agents desk, it could well be the statement "there were seats" has been made because the system shows standby passengers were loaded, this normally occurs at T-10 minutes but last school holidays I overheard a gate agent tell staff travellers off duty that she was not meant to do "this" but she did, "this" being offloading connections and putting standbys on at commencement of boarding around T-25. I wish I had been there for the OPs occurrence, would not be surprised if it was the same agent, and certainly worth a concise complaint without emotion to DJ post event.

The statement "there were seats" is obvious, what's not obvious is what the pecking order was in the DJ musical chairs game to fill the seats, I understand the backlog last night at BNE was significant with flow forward in effect, with only two flight options left as more and more flights arrived late it must have been quite a pressure pot. It's also possible that the initial complaint rubbed the agent up the wrong way and resulted in the wrong priorities being applied, like I said in an earlier post, with DJ there is too much power at the gate,which is an issue.

 

[smit0847]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Contact VA by email and explain what happened. I would be very surprised if they did not want to make it up to a VA WP/QF WP1. I would have thought an apology along with a complimentary upgrade to J on your next DOM flight would be a very simple solution to this problem.

 

[Fruitcake]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Contact VA by email and explain what happened. I would be very surprised if they did not want to make it up to a VA WP/QF WP1. I would have thought an apology along with a complimentary upgrade to J on your next DOM flight would be a very simple solution to this problem.

Delivering the "compensation" upgrade they promised the OP at the time of the incident would probably have been an even better solution.