Extremely poor and confusing ground service in Bali today!

[dk4]

IIRC, Indonesia has some weird rules about the specific airline's "name" holding landing rights etc. (as opposed to an airline company holding rights). It proved problematic in the past for Virgin, with (I think) "Virgin Blue" being given rights at DPS, but when they attempted to use a "Pacific Blue" aircraft they met a bureaucratic roadblock, same-same with Valuair at Jetstar, so not surprising that something similar is happening with Skywest now as Virgin Australia.

 

[Jurahn]

I always knew there was a reason (Ok, lots of reasons!) why I never went back to Bali after my first visit LOL.

Just returned from a Bali - Port Hedland flight operated by VA Regional (Ex Skywest). Flight going over, no problems. Except still waiting on points to credit 8 days later

Don't hold your breath, I'm still waiting for SCs and points to be credited for two regional WA flights taken on 16 August - even with a retro claim being lodged and two calls (so far) to the Gold call centre!! They've asked me to ring them back again on Wednesday if the call I made to them on Saturday doesn't get a result **sigh**

 

[tyler21]

Thanks pilot dude for posting this, interesting read. I was speaking with a cabin supervisor ex coughet who even admitted the international short haul runs are not upto scratch regarding velocity benefits. It's one thing for it to be on the va website & then in reality. The ground crew in coughet said I had to pay for another bag & had know idea about the velocity baggage benefits. Also while we're talking about Bali, why are VA's fares so expensive ex Perth? I can book a Garuda flight for $5-$100 less & a LCC for less then half price. I know australia is more expensive but a $299 sale fare from Perth is ridiculous.

 

[Bugalugz]

I was on that same flight today! Where were you sitting?

Also the check in desk refused me lounge access as a platinum, so I tweeted VA and they contacted DPS and sorted it.

It was an absolute shambles, no priority line, and had the agents tell me 'Skywest nothing to do with Virgin, different company'.

But you are right, the crew were excellent! I had them all the way back to PER today. (ie DPS-PHE-BME-PER)

I was in Row 5 i think

That's a fair bit of time in the Fokker lol Least they have plenty of leg room! Yeah that was the issue we had with the security guard trying to get into the 'waiting room' we were flying Virgin and it's not Skywest lol.

It would be good if you submitted a complaint about it as well as I think there would be some questions being asked then. I didn't even think about Lounge access, but I assumed that would have been in the too hard basked as well.


Bit of an update:

Very impressed with Virgin, submitted a complaint on their website at the same time as posting this and got a reply back first thing this morning. Basically admitting it shouldn't have happened and that the feedback was being passed on to the Ground Operations Management to improve the situation and they admitted that Skywest no longer exists and the logo and flight number should not have been displayed on the FIDS. So well done VA on that front.

But can feel another complaint coming to try and claim points as you can't even do a retro claim on the website as PHE-DPS-PHE doesn't come up as an option for a claim:evil: but will try email them and see if that had anything happen.

 

[LonePine]

Anyone know when the new DPS international terminal opens?

We are in Bali now, got here yesterday. The word is for APEC' as it is one of the presidents hobby horses.

When we arrived, we were at the back end of four planes that landed. Took about an hour and a half to clear immigration and customs. First time here but enjoying it so far. Have spent a lot of time in Thailand and reminds me of Chiang mai.

Good flight over but a bit of a rock show when we hit the ground. But all in their own good time

 

[Bugalugz]

Holy cough! I logged into Velocity today to see if my PHE-DPS-PHE had credited as didn't expect them to due to the issues everyone has been having but you wouldn't belive they actually posted one was 10 days after the flight and one was 5.

Thankfully didn't have to ring up, was dreading it!

 

[JohnK]

Best way I've found to avoid these problems is to avoid Bali

Or at least avoid any place likely to be frequented by certain Australians.