Painfully Slow Virgin Blue Baggage Claim

[Baysider]

I flew BNE-PER with my family on Virgin Blue (DJ644) last Monday night, on one of our frequent trips to visit my wife's family. Arrival was 35 minutes ahead of schedule at 23:30. The allocated baggage claim carousel (there are only 2 for DJ in Perth) was barren when we reached it. At the time passengers from a Sydney or Melbourne originated flight were collecting baggage at the other carousel. Some 20 minutes later another flight from Sydney or Melbourne landed and those passengers duly presented and collected their luggage. All of those passengers disappeared and there was still no sign of any baggage on our carousel. My family, along with most of the passengers from DJ644, were by now sitting on the floor.

At the 45 minute mark my wife went over to the check-in counters to enquire about our baggage, that being the only place in the terminal with any Virgin Blue staff presence. She was told that the baggage handlers were swamped with 3 flights arriving and 3 going out, and that it would be another 15 minutes. My son was now asleep on the floor. At the 65 minute mark my wife enquired again, suggesting that we leave the airport and that they deliver our baggage. The reply was a blunt "no, they won't do that" and there was "nothing they could do" to get our baggage through any faster. Finally, at 00:40 the baggage from DJ644 appeared. A huge cheer and widespread clapping erupted from the weary passengers. After another 5 minutes we had our baggage, no less than 75 minutes after we had touched down. What a woeful effort !!

I had vowed a couple of years ago never to fly Virgin Blue to or from Perth ever again. We had only decided to give them one last chance when we stumbled across some very low fares on their website. What a mistake !! Now it is DEFINITELY NEVER AGAIN. The only reason that Virgin Blue for BNE-PER is not top of my NEVER AGAIN list is that Telstra has that position sealed for all time.

 

[kpc]

One for crazydave98 to comment on....:shock:
Wonder how QF passengers fared at that time... :?:

 

[oz_mark]

One for crazydave98 to comment on....:shock:
Wonder how QF passengers fared at that time... :?:

QF are in ther own terminal, and I imagine their own handlers, while DJ are in shared facilities. These things may not be totally within Virgin Blues control, but certainly one for crazydave98

 

[Evan]

QF are in ther own terminal, and I imagine their own handlers, while DJ are in shared facilities. These things may not be totally within Virgin Blues control, but certainly one for crazydave98

Don't hold your breath, i think the answer is in the quote above.
Sometimes that happens i guess, This does seem to be a rather terrible delay though. You would think they would operate in arrival order or maybe since your flight was early and there was others to be un-loaded yours got delayed because you were in queue.

E

 

[pauly7]

Suggest writing a formal complaint, if you don't tell em they'll keep on doing it. Feedback is a gift!

 

[HardieBoys]

The response will be something like this:

Dear Mr xx_,

Thank you for your correspondence. A thorough investigation has been undertaken into the matter, and staffing procedures at Perth airport were identified as the main cause of the delay of your bags. Unfortunately, whilst Virgin Blue tries to work collaboratively with airport ground crew, at times, delays may occur, especially when multiple arrivals and departures coincide.

Whilst we regret any inconvenience that you and your family may have experienced, we would like to stress that Virgin Blue have allowed many Australians to travel more than ever. Our commitment to keeping the air fair remains strong.

Yours sincerely,

Cheryl Blondie, Guest Correspondence Consultant
Virgin Blue Australia


PS If you don't like it, pay about $100 more per ticket and fly Qantas.

 

[Flashback]

PS If you don't like it, pay about $100 more per ticket and fly Qantas.

Which is no better anyway..

 

[oz_mark]

Which is no better anyway..

and flying to PER they aren't $100 more either

 

[Blackswan]

Doesn't Aero(NON)Care have the contract for Virgins ground handling in PER?

I pitty those on the Tiger flight from Mel arriving around 2330 - they always seem to have last priority behing Virgin.

If I'm arriving into Perth and have family picking me up (from either DJ or QF), they park on the approach road and wait for me to call them to say I have picked up checked luggage.

The luggage suituation is notorious.

 

[Ikara]

It doesn't matter who you travel with to Perth, the airport is THE WORST for baggage handling in Australia. Must be something in the air in Perth, or the fact that no one recognises that Perth is "really the center of the world!"

JB

 

[Leumas]

Sometimes arriving early isn't a good thing... One would think the handlers will know when flights arrive and leave so they know where and when to load/unload bags. It's probably more important to get planes ready to leave and work with on-time arrivals, than to deal with flights that are out of wreck. It's probably better to p*ss off 1 plane load of people badly rather than p*ssing off 3 plane loads of people...!

Having to wait half an hour or so (taking the start at your scheduled arrival) is still pretty bad though.

 

[Yada Yada]

The response will be something like this:

Dear Mr xx_,

Thank you for your correspondence. A thorough investigation has been undertaken into the matter, and staffing procedures at Perth airport were identified as the main cause of the delay of your bags. Unfortunately, whilst Virgin Blue tries to work collaboratively with airport ground crew, at times, delays may occur, especially when multiple arrivals and departures coincide.

Whilst we regret any inconvenience that you and your family may have experienced, we would like to stress that Virgin Blue have allowed many Australians to travel more than ever. Our commitment to keeping the air fair remains strong.

Yours sincerely,

Cheryl Blondie, Guest Correspondence Consultant
Virgin Blue Australia


PS If you don't like it, pay about $100 more per ticket and fly Qantas.

I took the opportunity to write some feedback to VB last week about my first PE flight (I've posted elsewhere on the forums about the minor problem I experienced) and was very pleased with the follow up! It was not a form letter repsonse at all but a real email written by a real person.

She wrote first to say it was being investigated and would get back in touch. She then got back in touch as promised to which I wrote back thanking her and asking more questions. She got more answers and kept responding until everything was answered. It was a very pleasant exchange and not at all like the corporate form letter you were suggesting might happen.

FWIW, I have had similar good experiences with Qantas customer service in the past - their follow up has been consistently good, timely, personal and courtesous. No complaints from me about either major airline.

 

[JohnK]

Is this a recent trend? I must be lucky I don't fly as often as most people.

I have had 2 domestic arrivals, once with golf clubs, and 1 international arrival into PER, all with QF, in the last couple of years and I have not experienced any issues with checked luggage. It has been available at the carousel shortly after landing.

I think the worst I have experienced, apart from delayed luggage, is an ATH-LHR flight. It was well over an hour before a carousel was even allocated and then another wait before luggage finally appeared.

 

[oz_mark]

I have had 2 domestic arrivals, once with golf clubs, and 1 international arrival into PER, all with QF, in the last couple of years and I have not experienced any issues with checked luggage. It has been available at the carousel shortly after landing.
.

PER can be quick, but on QF if a bunch of flights are in together, then things can quickly bog down. INT is a bit different, with customs/immigration being the bottleneck, rather than baggage.