Virgin Blue Flight Cancellation (Poor) Experience

[AdMEL]

Booked on DJ 807 MEL-SYD 6.30am Saturday 6/3/10 for a long weekend in the Blue Mountains with a mate, bushwalking. I checked both of us in using OLCI on the morning of Friday 5/3/2010, about 20 hours before the flight.

Arrived at DJ terminal at MEL about 6.10 am on 6/3 - a little late, I know! Given the lateness, we headed straight for the gates, forgetting to look at the departure board. After running past the first few gates and not seeing our flight, we had a look at one of the departure boards and couldn't find our flight! We raced back to the main board and still couldn't see our flight, so went to the check-in counter, only to be told the flight had been cancelled at 5.30am (the exact time my mate picked me up at home in St Kilda) due to technical issues. Not sure why it was not on the departure board as cancelled. It was now 6.20am. I asked why I hadn't been contacted when my mobile number was in the booking. The unsympathetic DJ staff member checked the booking and confirmed they had my mobile number, but offered no expalanation as to why I hadn't been contacted. She then advised that the next flight with available seats wasn't until 10.15! Not only had DJ cancelled the flight and not contacted me, but they hadn't re-booked us onto another flight until we turned up! Four hours at MEL instead of the Blue Mountains .... not very happy! DJ staff member then proceeded to try and sell us Lounge passes! At least they had another flight to put us on, I suppose!

I have submitted a complaint via their website today (which initially says they will respond in 5 business days, but once submitted says 21 days!), so I'll wait and see what their response is, if anything.

Is this usual for DJ? If so, that's almost as bad as TT and JQ are reported to be! I realise cancelled flights are to be expected, but I expected better from DJ.

 

[munitalP]

Thats a bummer! I thought DJ had more frequent flights to SYD than every 4 hours.

For as much as I HATE DJ, I cant bag them for not being pretty good when something goes wrong (except once with Blue Zone seating, and once when I asked what I thought was a simple question of a DJ rep and got told by this particular person they he wasn't my PA and go look it up on the Internet...!)

Anyway, that aside, it sounds like you had a rotten experience on DJ - FWIW, I was in the QP in SYD a few weeks back, and JQ rung me asking where I was, they were about to off load me - I hadn't heard the boarding call... I wonder if DJ or TT would have done that?

Mr!

 

[AdMEL]

Thats a bummer! I thought DJ had more frequent flights to SYD than every 4 hours.

For as much as I HATE DJ, I cant bag them for not being pretty good when something goes wrong (except once with Blue Zone seating, and once when I asked what I thought was a simple question of a DJ rep and got told by this particular person they he wasn't my PA and go look it up on the Internet...!)

Anyway, that aside, it sounds like you had a rotten experience on DJ - FWIW, I was in the QP in SYD a few weeks back, and JQ rung me asking where I was, they were about to off load me - I hadn't heard the boarding call... I wonder if DJ or TT would have done that?

Mr!

DJ had either two or three flights in between (about one an hour), but given the cancelled flight, they had no available seats. I even asked whether we could be waitlisted on any of the earlier flights and was told that standby was even fully booked! Not surprising, given the cancelled flight.

It sounds like you've had some bad experiences too!

I've had no issues with TT or QF and haven't flown JQ. Mind you, I've never had a cancelled fllight before.

 

[Must...Fly!]

That is a bummer.

I might add here that my experiences with cancelled DJ flights has not been good either. Twice we have booked a MEL-PER flight a few months out and twice the flights were cancelled by DJ with no contact (about 8-10 weeks before flying).

It is by chance we logged on to check our booking and noticed the change in flight times! Both times we were rebooked on to a flight that was 4 hours before our original booking!

In the most recent case we immediately rang up DJ to organise something more suitable (3 pax flying). DJ then told us to ring up 4 weeks before our scheduled flight if it was not suitable.

What the hell? Ring up 4 weeks before? It does not suit me now, I want to rebook now!

Some stern words to some people with slightly more authority resulted in us being booked on the late flight out of MEL (2010 departure), about 3 hours after the original booking.

I personally have no intention of flying DJ again when I can avoid it. (For this and other reasons detailed elsewhere on this forum).

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Arrived at DJ terminal at MEL about 6.10 am on 6/3 - a little late, I know! Given the lateness, we headed straight for the gates, forgetting to look at the departure board.

That is way too late to get to an airport even if you do only have carry on luggage. It might've been fortunate that the original flight was cancelled as I doubt you would've got through security and made your way to the boarding gate in 5 minutes so you both could well have been 'fail to boards' & been offloaded from that flight & find yourselves having to buy a new ticket.

I wouldn't mind betting that had you got there earlier you might've been given seats on one of the earlier flights MEL/SYD which would've been allocated to pax on a first in best dressed arrangement.

Probably a good idea to aim to get to an airport one hour prior with or without checked bags to give you time up your sleeve.

Cheers

Oz

 

[anat0l]

That is way too late to get to an airport even if you do only have carry on luggage. It might've been fortunate that the original flight was cancelled as I doubt you would've got through security and made your way to the boarding gate in 5 minutes so you both could well have been 'fail to boards' & been offloaded from that flight & find yourselves having to buy a new ticket.

I wouldn't mind betting that had you got there earlier you might've been given seats on one of the earlier flights MEL/SYD which would've been allocated to pax on a first in best dressed arrangement.

Probably a good idea to aim to get to an airport one hour prior with or without checked bags to give you time up your sleeve.

QF will let you check-in up to T-15 if you have no checked baggage.

DJ seems to have a blanket T-30 rule (this seems to mean with or without checked baggage). I'm sure a few DJ elites here will share stories of the lines being fuzzied a bit for them (just like QF elites), but we won't go there.

Of course, if you have no checked baggage, why not OLCI and do away with all the T-x B.S.. That makes sure that your name appears on the manifest, so you just have to make sure you physically board your flight (oh, and have a BP as well).

But that doesn't help the OP - their flight was cancelled.....

 

[Leumas]

The OP said they have already OLCI'ed, so assuming no checked bags, all the OP had to do was to turn up no later than T-20 at the gate? If you still have to turn up at least an hour prior, it almost renders OLCI pointless.

Virgin Blue Check-in Times

My personal experience with DJ is similar to the OP, and it's particularly bad ex-MEL.

If DJ is serious about targeting the corporate market, they need to tidy up this non-communication practice quick smart.

Also, I seem to notice that DJ cancels a lot of flights departing on the half hour 'due to technical reasons', but flights departing on the hour are often OK...

 

[dajop]

Also, I seem to notice that DJ cancels a lot of flights departing on the half hour 'due to technical reasons', but flights departing on the hour are often OK...

QF having been doing this for years as well.

That is way too late to get to an airport even if you do only have carry on luggage.

No I call it efficient! As OP had already done OLCI with BP in hand, it shouldn't be a problem. In my experience it is rare that the gate actually closes 20 mins before departure, usually boarding continues until about T-10. In fact there's no difference, at MEL at least, between someone arriving at the airport at T-20 with BP's in hand and someone leaving the lounge at T-20 (which is often when they call passengers from the lounge).

 

[Leumas]

dajop, can you check your quoting please? I didn't say your second quote. It was ozbeachbabe.

 

[dajop]

dajop, can you check your quoting please? I didn't say your second quote. It was ozbeachbabe.

Ooops apologies. Fixed. Not intentional, always bound to stuff up when cutting and pasting trying to quote two different sources in the one post.

 

[notzac]

Ooops apologies. Fixed. Not intentional, always bound to stuff up when cutting and pasting trying to quote two different sources in the one post.

Use the multi-quote button (next to the quote button) -- makes this a whole lot easier.

 

[swylie]

At least you got to Sydney!

I had a 5pm MEL-SYD on Sat, and got stuck in the hail en route to the airport. QF cancelled all flights so I missed my dinner that evening, also missed my flight back the next morning with DJ which was non-refundable! *frown*

Sorry to hear you were delayed though.

I've had a few DJ flights cancelled over the years, but always get on the next 1 or 2 flights, so it must have been exceptionally busy that morning!

 

[straitman]

AdMEL,

Whilst I understand your pain there are always two sides to these stories.

Personally if a flight is cancelled 30 or 60 min before departure I would not expect the airline to ring me as I would already be at the airport.

1. It is always a good idea to check the boards as soon as possible but you probably already know that now :!:
2. You were late at the gate though, as best I can workout, still in time for the theoretical last boarding call.
3. Yes, DJ should have automatically rebooked you.
4. Had they done so you may still have been on the same flight as they will not bump people to accommodate those who are delayed. It is better that a few are delayed than everyone is delayed.
5. I say this as from your profile it appears you have no status with DJ.

From where I am sitting I believe at the very least it is a shared responsibility at worst through to DJ having no case to answer at all.

 

[k_sheep]

Mm I agree with your pain OP. December I had a BNE-SYD flight with them, connecting to HKT on J*. They cancelled the flight with no notice given to the three of us travelling - we only found out once we got to the airport (with about an hour to spare - luckily because my cousin forgot her passport!! ).

They acted like it was the biggest favour in the world to get them to put us on the standby list. We did get onto the next flight (2hrs later) but then that flight was delayed (sat on the tarmac for 30mins, then circled coming into SYD). So of course, we missed our international connection. DJ couldn't give a stuff - they'd gotten us to SYD and as far as they were concerned, they'd done all they needed. Stuck in SYD for 2 days til the next flights, paying a full change fee.

"Screw you Virgin" ended up being the catchphrase of the holiday (soon to be joined with "Screw you Ibis" but that's another story!)



Edit: I forgot! They also lost our luggage. I guess it didn't get on the flight with us - but of course, no one would tell us that.

 

[crazydave98]

A note on automatic rebooking: our soon-to-be-replaced reservations system which is now over 10 years old does not support automatic rebooking. Rebookings, when there is time to get them done, are manual and we get situations such as that recounted by Must...Fly!
The ability to automatically rebook, and with priority given to higher value guests, was a key requirement of the new system which goes live in a few months. The associated communication processes which are also less than perfect and exacerbated by being mandraulic are also being overhauled by a project with the slightly embarrassingly grandiose name "Business Transformation" but it will get the job done.

Sorry to sound like a broken record in continually blaming system constraints, and it is our own stupid fault for not having upgraded to a better system years ago. Members may recall that a few years ago we wrote off about $34m in development costs for an aborted system called aiRes, which co-incidently was eventually launched by Virgin America. But that cost us years and a lot of goodwill as evidenced by problems such as these. Such is life (and bad IT managers).

Hi to John Borghetti if he is reading - met him on Monday and know he is always keen to get the guest's viewpoint.

cheers

CrazyDave98

 

[anat0l]

k_sheep, not a great experience.

But wait, for your connecting flight, you mentioned:

connecting to HKT on J*

You mean JQ, or Jetstar?

If that is so, then DJ do not accept any responsibility whatsoever, firstly because this would be on a separate itinerary, and secondly because it's not even in the same group. (The former is a stronger reason than the second.)

By booking as you've done, you had to accept the risk that had BNE-SYD gone belly-up timing-wise, you might have forfeited the JQ flight. Sure, it is still at no fault of your own.....

Of course, I suppose you wisely put in a sufficient amount of transfer time so you could connect between your BNE-SYD on DJ then your SYD-HKT. Something which you would think would be safe, except an unexpected BNE-SYD huge delay.

You would have had to recheck your bags in SYD for your flight to HKT, so not sure how they could get lost in the transfer, because DJ wouldn't offer that service (not at least to JQ anyway; they probably will to VS, DL or VA).

 

[MAX_1]

Sorry to sound like a broken record in continually blaming system constraints, and it is our own stupid fault for not having upgraded to a better system years ago.
CrazyDave98

After reading all the posts about booking issues, it seems that the customer had even worst customer service once the problem had occured.

So, CrazyDave98 , getting the state of art IT is fine but equally important to train staff to handle such complainst with some inderstanding.

 

[crazydave98]

... and once when I asked what I thought was a simple question of a DJ rep and got told by this particular person they he wasn't my PA and go look it up on the Internet...!)

That "DJ rep" would be me. The situation was that you asked me to look up your Velocity account to check how many points you had and how far you were from reaching the next tier level. I will happily answer questions on this forum and particularly those which have a broad relevence to members, and I will even occaisionally offer favours or to sort out problems when I have time. But I stand by what I said, which is that I am not some kind of personal assistant at your beck and call because you couldn't be bothered logging into your own account and that it was disrespectful of my time and participation on this forum.

So let's just say we agree to disagree on this matter. I am however thankful that you were able to put this aside when you said

For as much as I HATE DJ, I cant bag them for not being pretty good when something goes wrong

Can only say we do as best we can and as per previous post will only get better with better support systems.

CrazyDave98

 

[dajop]

. DJ couldn't give a stuff - they'd gotten us to SYD and as far as they were concerned, they'd done all they needed. Stuck in SYD for 2 days til the next flights, paying a full change fee.

"Screw you Virgin" ended up being the catchphrase of the holiday (soon to be joined with "Screw you Ibis" but that's another story!)
.

a) Did you have travel insurance to cover this, if not that's one reason to have it.
b) Why did you choose Virgin in the first place? You can book connecting flight throught the Jetstar website from BNE, and if you couldn't/wouldn't a much wiser choice would be to keep the travel in the same group (ie QF/JQ). Much more chance of being taken care of. Thai would have been another option, of through routing all the way via Bangkok.

It's all very well to gamble on these things - I do myself to save money sometimes - but to blame Virgin for stuffing up your holiday when it is partially your fault (for trying to find the lowest fare) is a bit harsh.

 

[k_sheep]

Yes, meant Jetstar - and yes this means it is on a separate itinerary. Which is why I allowed a good 4+ hours for the transfer in SYD. I figured that'd be enough, given the frequency of flights between the 2 cities on a weekday morning. No jetstar flights BNE-SYD available. Normally I'd go QF - but I was flying with 2 other people who were adamant about getting the cheapest flight (so as a compromise I said we had to go really early, since we were risking 2x LCCs ).

Our main beef was that the next flight was so significantly delayed, and the staff continually telling us that we would get there in time, and so there was no need to book a QF flight. With the benefit of hindsight, we'd have gladly forked out the $$s straight away for a QF flight - they had 2 or 3 that would've got us there in time. And also the DJ staff at SYD saying it was our fault, as we did not leave enough transfer time - since when is >4hrs not sufficient when 60/90mins is the minimum?

Luggage not lost in transfer - just never came out at SYD. I guess it was lucky for DJ that we missed our flight, or they would've had to courier it to HKT, not SYD

Had travel insurance of course - never go without it. Claim is in. However I've got a bad feeling they won't cover it. Letter from DJ says it was "due to engineering requirements".

"It's all very well to gamble on these things - I do myself to save money sometimes - but to blame Virgin for stuffing up your holiday when it is partially your fault (for trying to find the lowest fare) is a bit harsh."

That comment seems a little harsh to me. I don't see how finding a best price makes me at fault of anything untoward. I don't know many people who would pay more than they have to when there is a choice. Flying with QF would not have changed this situation - it still would have been separate itineraries. I don't particularly want to have to sit around an airport for 6, 8, 10 hours "just in case" I can't connect.

Anyway, I'm not here to hijack the thread - I'll talk to my insurance company and DJ directly. Just wanted to empathise with the OP