FA forgets to serve meal!

[peterdwise]

A weird thing happened on my VA flight to GC from Canberra in J a few days ago. The cabin supervisor (?) forgot to serve me my meal! By the time I realised it and pointed this out, it was too late to serve the meal. He was profusely apologetic and offered me a sandwich and snacks - and then a bottle of wine when I stepped out of the door onto the stairs, which I accepted.

I have written a complaint to VA and am waiting to hear back from them. I'm just wondering whether anyone else has had this experience, and what people think would be reasonable compensation?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well… given the responses to serious service failures I’ve reported this year, the reply will probably be ‘sorry we didn’t meet your expectations’.

I doubt there will be any compensation because they will tell you meals are complimentary, so cannot be compensated.

I had no inflight entertainment on 4 out of 6 flights and asked for compensation… they said ‘no’.

 

[Happy Dude]

It's annoying when they run out of your meal preference, especially when there's only eight in J but I can say this one's a first.

Seems like you got a genuine apology, and fed and a token gift (both probably better than the meal if my last experience is anything to go by) so perhaps there's nothing more to expect? Different if it was a long haul flight though.

 

[eric2011]

My personal opinion.....you did get fed (although not what you wanted or expected) and you accepted a bottle of wine as an apology from the CSM. This was offered, by him, on his and VA's behalf which you happily accepted. I don't know what you now expect from VA by writing a letter of complaint. It was a mistake, we all make them, and IMHO you received a reasonable form of compensation and an apology from a VA representative.

 

[Pushka]

I'm curious to know how you didn't realise this much earlier when others got theirs?

 

[im.daniel]

In your complaint letter, it’s always useful to specify what compensation you’re after (eg. 5000 velocity points).

 

[NoName]

Had similar happen in Y recently on an early morning BNE-MEL flight. The FA who would have served my row for some reason had to go back up the front to get something. By the time she came back the FA on the other side of the trolley had moved it down a row and so we were forgotten. Didn’t bother saying anything as I wasn’t too fussed whether I ate or not.

In this case you’ve already received an apology, been given something else to eat and received a bottle of wine when disembarking. Seems a pretty good recovery to me. What more do you want?

 

[Quickstatus]

how you didn't realise this

While in this case it was a bit of "didn't realise it" , at other times there may be a bit of "should I remind them" - most people don't want to come across as being impatient.

Scenario:
You ask for a drink.
Drink never comes
Do you wait 5,10,15,30min before pressing call button?

 

[Mattg]

I think a few thousand Velocity points would be reasonable compensation.

FWIW the OP’s post doesn’t come across to me as entitled, as some here seem to be suggesting. They simply stated what happened.

 

[RooFlyer]

FWIW the OP’s post doesn’t come across to me as entitled, as some here seem to be suggesting. They simply stated what happened.

I would agree with that, but I also agree with the others that it was obviously just a genuine mistake, and FA made good as best they could under the circumstances and went bit further with the bottle of wine.

Making a complaint is okay if the OP wants as a means to point out that these things are happening in the network, but I don’t think any further compensation would be warranted.

I can recall being missed a couple of times in all my flying on various domestic Airlines and I remember that I think I got something in the end and then thought no more of it.

 

[SheikYerbouti]

You accepted compensation from the FA, how will you justify now asking for more compensation?

 

[twinaisle]

CBR-OOL is around 1.30 flying. Why didn't you let the CM know that they forgot? "Hey, I think you forgot to serve me my meal" unless you didn't know how to phrase it in a nice way?

 

[SeatBackForward]

I'm curious to know how you didn't realise this much earlier when others got theirs?

I've had that happen when they ran out of the "meal/snack" on one trolley just before my row was served. They had to return to the rear galley with another full one, but started serving the row behind me skipping our entire row. By the time they finished and came back to realise what happened, it was too late.

 

[Pushka]

Sure but as time got closer to arrival I’d be likely to ask. You can generally tell when crew are done serving.

 

[Rhode]

A weird thing happened on my VA flight to GC from Canberra in J a few days ago. The cabin supervisor (?) forgot to serve me my meal! By the time I realised it and pointed this out, it was too late to serve the meal. He was profusely apologetic and offered me a sandwich and snacks - and then a bottle of wine when I stepped out of the door onto the stairs, which I accepted.

I have written a complaint to VA and am waiting to hear back from them. I'm just wondering whether anyone else has had this experience, and what people think would be reasonable compensation?

This happened to me coming back from the USA back to Australia on QF. I was compensated with 2 bottles of wine. I found it rather perplexing considering I had pre ordered my meal.

 

[Quickstatus]

I was compensated with 2 bottles of wine

Any issues with declaring the compo wine at the Customs

 

[peterdwise]

Well… given the responses to serious service failures I’ve reported this year, the reply will probably be ‘sorry we didn’t meet your expectations’.

I doubt there will be any compensation because they will tell you meals are complimentary, so cannot be compensated.

I had no inflight entertainment on 4 out of 6 flights and asked for compensation… they said ‘no’.

I wonder whether meals in J are regarded as "complimentary". I would have thought they're part of what you pay for, given the fare...

 

[peterdwise]

It's annoying when they run out of your meal preference, especially when there's only eight in J but I can say this one's a first.

Seems like you got a genuine apology, and fed and a token gift (both probably better than the meal if my last experience is anything to go by) so perhaps there's nothing more to expect? Different if it was a long haul flight though.

Actually, I've been pretty happy with the meals I've gotten in J on VA. Perhaps you're right - I'm just annoyed that I had to buy lunch.

 

[Bolthead]

I flew SYD-OOL last night in J and we were not offered any meal. Don't know why and it didn't bother me. I had eaten in the lounge. Nobody else seemed worried about it as well. (7/8 in J)

 

[peterdwise]

My personal opinion.....you did get fed (although not what you wanted or expected) and you accepted a bottle of wine as an apology from the CSM. This was offered, by him, on his and VA's behalf which you happily accepted. I don't know what you now expect from VA by writing a letter of complaint. It was a mistake, we all make them, and IMHO you received a reasonable form of compensation and an apology from a VA representative.

Perhaps you're right. I'm just a little annoyed that I had to go and buy lunch.

Post automatically merged: Nov 29, 2023

I'm curious to know how you didn't realise this much earlier when others got theirs?

I guess I was a little tuned out, and thought that the FA would get to me eventually.