Terrible experience

[Bwood9]

This morning I was booked BNE to MEL to AUH to LHR through velocity all J.

Received notification last night that the BNE to MEL flight was cancelled and rescheduled to a flight 3hours earlier. Phoned Velocity and they confirmed this was the only flight with J availability so left it.

Get to the airport and checkin and am then called up to the desk in the lounge and advised downgraded to Y. No offer of compensation. Absolutely terrible service.

 

[Pushka]

Agree. Dont let that go but try enjoy your trip regardless.

 

[Hvr]

So was it the BNE-MEL leg that was downgraded or the whole trip?

If just one leg then stuff happens, if the whole trip then start making phone calls and finding out why.

 

[UP4014]

3 hours delay plus downgrade, don't two negatives make a positive, well that always seems to be how airlines look at things. :shock:

Yep, I'd be lodging a complaint for sure.

Matt

 

[Pushka]

So was it the BNE-MEL leg that was downgraded or the whole trip?

If just one leg then stuff happens, if the whole trip then start making phone calls and finding out why.

Nup. Their original flight was cancelled in advance and then put on another flight ostensibly because that flight was the only flight available with a J cabin. No offer of compensation or even communication for the reduction of service that was paid for. Stuff happens, but that kinda stuff is not on.

 

[JohnK]

Agree. Dont let that go but try enjoy your trip regardless.

It doesn't ruin the trip but leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

I still cannot understand how airlines downgrade someone and get away with it. Qantas is just as bad. The compensation should be offered immediately the downgrade occurs not wait for passenger to complain via official channels. And the compensation should be generous not some token amount the airlines think is satisfactory.

Bwood9 not a nice start to the trip. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[UP4014]

It doesn't ruin the trip but leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

I still cannot understand how airlines downgrade someone and get away with it. Qantas is just as bad. The compensation should be offered immediately the downgrade occurs not wait for passenger to complain via official channels. And the compensation should be generous not some token amount the airlines think is satisfactory.

Bwood9 not a nice start to the trip. Hope it all works out for you.

Agree, Virgin in this case but QF as well, should offer compensation at the check in stage then the passenger gets on the plane at least thinking they got something back.

 

[bean]

It doesn't ruin the trip but leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

I still cannot understand how airlines downgrade someone and get away with it. Qantas is just as bad. The compensation should be offered immediately the downgrade occurs not wait for passenger to complain via official channels. And the compensation should be generous not some token amount the airlines think is satisfactory.

Bwood9 not a nice start to the trip. Hope it all works out for you.

As someone who looks forward more to the flight experience than the destination I would disagree and say it could very well ruin the trip.

 

[hydrabyss]

As someone who looks forward more to the flight experience than the destination I would disagree and say it could very well ruin the trip.

I was trying to picture what destination I would look forward to less then the flight when it suddenly hit me. The in-laws place.

Back on topic I would be more annoyed with the 3hr earlier flight.

 

[Bwood9]

Yes it left a very bad taste in my mouth, it was especially frustrating as I had phoned VA the night before to confirm the changes and could've gone on a later flight in economy had I know this was going to happen! Also annoying as a kid had my seat in business . The ground staff were not at all accommodating, I was moved to row 3 and they would not move my partner to be next to me.

I have written Virgin a complaint through their website and will let you know the result.

 

[Jack_OC]

Yes it left a very bad taste in my mouth, it was especially frustrating as I had phoned VA the night before to confirm the changes and could've gone on a later flight in economy had I know this was going to happen! Also annoying as a kid had my seat in business . The ground staff were not at all accommodating, I was moved to row 3 and they would not move my partner to be next to me.

I have written Virgin a complaint through their website and will let you know the result.

I agree that your treatment has been shocking - the fact that they forced you to move to an earlier flight (by 3 hours!) just to get a seat in Business, but then still didn't give you a seat in Business, is frankly unbelievable.

One comment though - I'm not sure why a kid being in Business makes any difference to your situation. Myself and my wife are both Platinum with VA, and occasionally travel in Business with our kids. Do you think we should be considered less worthy of our Business class seats, and therefore more likely to be downgraded, just because our kids are with us? If so, why?

 

[mannej]

One comment though - I'm not sure why a kid being in Business makes any difference to your situation. Myself and my wife are both Platinum with VA, and occasionally travel in Business with our kids. Do you think we should be considered less worthy of our Business class seats, and therefore more likely to be downgraded, just because our kids are with us? If so, why?

I was going to say oh the humanity, but it probably wasn't great timing given the OP's experience yesterday

 

[JohnK]

As someone who looks forward more to the flight experience than the destination I would disagree and say it could very well ruin the trip.

I look forward to the flight experience as much as anyone else if not more. I spend weeks and weeks planning flights and a lot of my flights are with different carriers, unprotected and some are in premium cabins.

Any significant changes by one airline could really stuff me around and I would be totally disappointed. But I shouldn't let that spoil the golf I have planned at the destination.

It is clear airlines struggle with customer service. One of these days the airlines will start treating customers as human beings. I wait for that day but not holding my breath.

 

[Bwood9]

No response from virgin yet.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

One comment though - I'm not sure why a kid being in Business makes any difference to your situation. Myself and my wife are both Platinum with VA, and occasionally travel in Business with our kids. Do you think we should be considered less worthy of our Business class seats, and therefore more likely to be downgraded, just because our kids are with us? If so, why?

I think that's drawing a rather long bow. The OP comment was about a child in the 'OPs' seat, not the family's worthiness for business class seats in general. However maybe the child was WP1?

 

[Jack_OC]

I think that's drawing a rather long bow. The OP comment was about a child in the 'OPs' seat, not the family's worthiness for business class seats in general. However maybe the child was WP1?

Obviously the original issue was that someone else was in the OP's seat, but he then came back to make a point of saying that it was annoying that the person in his seat was "a kid". I'm not sure how that could be interpreted any other way than how I originally took it. As I said, why does it make any difference that the person in his seat was a kid rather than an adult? What point is he trying to make, if he wasn't suggesting that adults should be given priority over kids? In any case, as you might have noticed, I directly asked the OP if that's what he meant, so obviously he is welcome to set me straight if that's not what he was getting at.

By the way, I'm not sure what you mean by "maybe the child was WP1". My point was that the kid was presumably in J with one or more adults, who might well be WP, and it's also quite possible that the whole family were travelling on fully paid J fares. And I would guess some or all of those things would be taken into account when the airline has more J pax than seats.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

By the way, I'm not sure what you mean by "maybe the child was WP1". My point was that the kid was presumably in J with one or more adults, who might well be WP, and it's also quite possible that the whole family were travelling on fully paid J fares. And I would guess some or all of those things would be taken into account when the airline has more J pax than seats.

Simple - maybe the child was capable of trumping the OP for seat selection by his or her self. That makes the issue beyond whether it was a full paid, points etc ticket.

It may or may not be the case here, and you may have never done it, but the issue of families arriving at the airport and asking to be seated together (not having worried about choosing seats beforehand), and in doing so getting solo pax, who have selected their seat well beforehand, bumped from said seat, is an oft discussed topic on AFF. Those of us who travel solo (for work or otherwise) and are organised beforehand get pretty tired of being bumped by the airline without notice, or sometimes, having their seats gazumped presumptively on board by travelling, non organised families. If I get asked nicely - by the airline on check-in, or by the family on board, if I will swap, then I nearly always will. Otherwise, no (voluntarily).

 

[Jack_OC]

Simple - maybe the child was capable of trumping the OP for seat selection by his or her self. That makes the issue beyond whether it was a full paid, points etc ticket.

Ok, sorry, I thought you were being sarcastic!

It may or may not be the case here, and you may have never done it, but the issue of families arriving at the airport and asking to be seated together (not having worried about choosing seats beforehand), and in doing so getting solo pax, who have selected their seat well beforehand, bumped from said seat, is an oft discussed topic on AFF. Those of us who travel solo (for work or otherwise) and are organised beforehand get pretty tired of being bumped by the airline without notice, or sometimes, having their seats gazumped presumptively on board by travelling, non organised families. If I get asked nicely - by the airline on check-in, or by the family on board, if I will swap, then I nearly always will. Otherwise, no (voluntarily).

From my reading of the OP's story, that was definitely not the case here. (And FWIW it's not something I've ever done, nor have I ever been on the receiving end of it when travelling alone). The issue you are describing would result in pax getting moved to a different seat within the same cabin, but the OP was bumped from J to Y. Generally, people only get downgraded when there are more pax with J tickets than seats in the J cabin, and in this case I assume this situation arose because of the cancellation of the flight that the OP was originally booked on. As I said, I fully agree that the way VA the OP was treated was a disgrace, but I still don't think the age of the pax who ended up in the J cabin has any relevance.

 

[Bwood9]

Sorry if I offended anyone regarding my comment about the child, I understand your comments and it was a heat in the moment comment

An update, I have only received a fairly generic reply from VA who advised they have forwarded it to Velocity and to wait another 10days....

 

[vetrade]

The way I read the comments was that the OP was shifted to an earlier flight the night before and allocated a J seat on that flight (which he was entitled to as he had a J booking). Subsequently he has been downgraded to Y and it appears that he later found that a child was sitting in the J seat he had been allocated. If that scenario is how it played out then I'd be mighty pi**ed if it happened to me too. I didn't read anything which suggested that the OP thought anything other than that he shouldn't have been bumped so that someone else (and especially a child who doesn't need the extra space of a J seat) could take his allocated seat.