Has anyone experienced any issues at the Virgin Blue Priority Queue?
The drama started on Christmas day as I was booked on a VB flight and had two bags to drop off. I completed the web check-in 24 hours before the flight and when I arrived at the terminal about 50 mins before flight departure for the bag-drop noticed both the bag-drop and check-in queues were chockers so I headed for the priority queue as I have Velocity gold status.
The priority queue was the slowest I have ever experienced, there were two groups of 3 passengers in front of me and no one else waiting behind throughout the period whilst I was at the priority queue.
40 mins before ETD: The first group of 3 passengers at the priority counter completed their check-in/bag drop and moved on.
39 mins before ETD: The second group of 3 passengers had 3 bags and 2 pet containers, they were being checked in and their baggage and pet containers being label for the flight. The whole process took about 15 minutes.
25 mins before ETD: The ground crew at the priority counter had completed the check-in/bag drop of the second group of 3 passengers and she spent the next couple of minutes typing into the computer at the counter. She then started to put on her high visibility vest and started to walk away from the counter without any explanation. I indicated to her that our flight was due to board in 20 mins as indicated on the screen. She said the other ground crews at the check-in/bag drop counters will attend to us as she has to offload an aircraft. She then continued walking away from the counter towards the security checkpoint to the boarding gate. At this stage my wife was rather distress and I was not happy.
20 mins before ETD: I was still waiting at the priority queue and there was no one else behind us. At the same time the other ground crews at the check-in and bag drop counters continued to call the next waiting passengers in the other queues. We waited for another couple of minutes and I noticed the ground crew at the bag drop counter indicating to the ground crew at the check in counter next to him that we were waiting at the priority queue. Shortly after, the ground crew at the bag drop counter called us over to his counter and processed the bag drop in less than 2 minutes. I then asked him for the name of the ground crew at the priority queue but he declined to provide the name and asked me why I was after the name. I briefly explained to him the reason and he asked that we move aside from the counter to talk. I obliged and we had a quick chat about the situation and I indicated that I was unhappy about how the ground crew at the priority queue handled the process, the least she could have done was to explain why she had to leave the counter without me prompting her, nonetheless I would have expected her to process the bag drop as it was quick and simple plus there weren't anyone else waiting in the priority queue. I cut the conversation short and told the ground crew that I would write in to Virgin blue and complain about the matter because there was nothing he could do to resolve the matter. I also didn't want to hold up other customers waiting in the queue because of my conversation with the ground crew.
10 mins before ETD: My wife and I proceeded towards the security checkpoint and walked towards the gate for boarding and noticed the ground crew from the priority queue was boarding passengers. As we moved up in the queue I noticed she didn't have a name tag visible however I could see her name clearly displayed on her aviation security indentification card. I passed her my boarding pass and she recognised me from the priority queue and mentioned a smug remark suggesting that the other ground crew had taken care of us. I didn't return any comments and walked towards the aircraft for boarding.
The preflight experience on the 25 Dec was amongst the worst I have experienced in my years of frequent flying. I would not have expected the Virgin staff to treat its premium status customer in this way. I must add the inflight crew on board the aircraft were in the same usual friendly manner that is accustom to Virgin blue which made the flight somewhat less awful.
Do you think my expectation was too high or do you think the Virgin crew needs a bit of re-training? Perhaps I should have stuck with Qantas as I have never come across such issues at the Qantas business/Qantas club queues. In addition I would have been having a nice cuppa at the Qantas business lounge had I booked a QF flight rather than giving VB another go.
The drama started on Christmas day as I was booked on a VB flight and had two bags to drop off. I completed the web check-in 24 hours before the flight and when I arrived at the terminal about 50 mins before flight departure for the bag-drop noticed both the bag-drop and check-in queues were chockers so I headed for the priority queue as I have Velocity gold status.
The priority queue was the slowest I have ever experienced, there were two groups of 3 passengers in front of me and no one else waiting behind throughout the period whilst I was at the priority queue.
40 mins before ETD: The first group of 3 passengers at the priority counter completed their check-in/bag drop and moved on.
39 mins before ETD: The second group of 3 passengers had 3 bags and 2 pet containers, they were being checked in and their baggage and pet containers being label for the flight. The whole process took about 15 minutes.
25 mins before ETD: The ground crew at the priority counter had completed the check-in/bag drop of the second group of 3 passengers and she spent the next couple of minutes typing into the computer at the counter. She then started to put on her high visibility vest and started to walk away from the counter without any explanation. I indicated to her that our flight was due to board in 20 mins as indicated on the screen. She said the other ground crews at the check-in/bag drop counters will attend to us as she has to offload an aircraft. She then continued walking away from the counter towards the security checkpoint to the boarding gate. At this stage my wife was rather distress and I was not happy.
20 mins before ETD: I was still waiting at the priority queue and there was no one else behind us. At the same time the other ground crews at the check-in and bag drop counters continued to call the next waiting passengers in the other queues. We waited for another couple of minutes and I noticed the ground crew at the bag drop counter indicating to the ground crew at the check in counter next to him that we were waiting at the priority queue. Shortly after, the ground crew at the bag drop counter called us over to his counter and processed the bag drop in less than 2 minutes. I then asked him for the name of the ground crew at the priority queue but he declined to provide the name and asked me why I was after the name. I briefly explained to him the reason and he asked that we move aside from the counter to talk. I obliged and we had a quick chat about the situation and I indicated that I was unhappy about how the ground crew at the priority queue handled the process, the least she could have done was to explain why she had to leave the counter without me prompting her, nonetheless I would have expected her to process the bag drop as it was quick and simple plus there weren't anyone else waiting in the priority queue. I cut the conversation short and told the ground crew that I would write in to Virgin blue and complain about the matter because there was nothing he could do to resolve the matter. I also didn't want to hold up other customers waiting in the queue because of my conversation with the ground crew.
10 mins before ETD: My wife and I proceeded towards the security checkpoint and walked towards the gate for boarding and noticed the ground crew from the priority queue was boarding passengers. As we moved up in the queue I noticed she didn't have a name tag visible however I could see her name clearly displayed on her aviation security indentification card. I passed her my boarding pass and she recognised me from the priority queue and mentioned a smug remark suggesting that the other ground crew had taken care of us. I didn't return any comments and walked towards the aircraft for boarding.
The preflight experience on the 25 Dec was amongst the worst I have experienced in my years of frequent flying. I would not have expected the Virgin staff to treat its premium status customer in this way. I must add the inflight crew on board the aircraft were in the same usual friendly manner that is accustom to Virgin blue which made the flight somewhat less awful.
Do you think my expectation was too high or do you think the Virgin crew needs a bit of re-training? Perhaps I should have stuck with Qantas as I have never come across such issues at the Qantas business/Qantas club queues. In addition I would have been having a nice cuppa at the Qantas business lounge had I booked a QF flight rather than giving VB another go.
