Virgin - Disappointing service...

[prozac]

It could have been a Seinfeld episode!

On a humourous note, yes it could have. You'd never expect to have all these elements happen to you on the same day. After all who would believe you turn up at the airport to be confronted by a check-in queue that takes 45 minutes to clear due to understaffing and then get lost (not really) on the tarmac, then get locked in a stairwell by a naz_-hostie and then not have your bags arrive at the other end. It's just not likely that could happen to one couple in just one morning... only in a Seinfeld episode!

Sorry to hear. That type of service is poor.

The only bright side was the attitude of the Hervey Bay check-in girl who maintained her composure throughout. It was not immediately apparent to her though that the luggage could be transhipped via Qantas and it took a while to get to that point in proceedings. Very disappointing that there was no follow-up from Virgin after the fact.

After this incredible chain of events I will not be willingly flying Virgin again.

 

[pauly7]

Has the Virgin rep on AFF been AWOL of late?

I don't think the VA rep likes venturing out of their little sub forum much.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I'm wondering if the OPs bag was off loaded because they "failed" to board. Locked in the staiwell whilst the final calls were made and when they were released from "prison" the crew realised there was no time to reload the bag. Easy, leave it behind and get the plane in the air.

Poor attitude but understandable. The fiasco (along with the other similar stories on this thread) just adds weight to the evidence that VA are currently failing in their transition to full service carrier. I wonder if the $90m loan (or whatever it was) is going to be spent on getting everything seamless to encourage pax back.

I have had the experience of being first off and wandering across the tarmac with no staff in sight and I agree it can be very confusing as to which direction they expect you to amble, especially at some of the regional airports with a common covered walkway and numerous doors (all closed) facing you. So far I've jagged it by a combination of prior knowledge and luck!

 

[eastwest101]

I don't think the VA rep likes venturing out of their little sub forum much.

They have been around the forum recently - and asked for a list of Sabre problems from me so I expect that they/he/she will be coming back to me at some point, so yes - they are around - and I have added these two tarmac excursions to the list of "At the Airport" bugs that is reported to them.

They do reply fairly quickly to PM's in my experience.

 

[prozac]

I'm wondering if the OPs bag was off loaded because they "failed" to board. Locked in the staiwell whilst the final calls were made and when they were released from "prison" the crew realised there was no time to reload the bag. Easy, leave it behind and get the plane in the air.
...

No, as we had already "boarded" having gone through the boarding gate.

.... and I have added these two tarmac excursions to the list of "At the Airport" bugs that is reported to them.
....

"Tarmac excursions" ... I quite like that term.

 

[medhead]

I had to google CNB. I was surprised to see 2x 747s in the picture on flight stats. Maybe they have trouble with luggage at such a large operation.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

No, as we had already "boarded" having gone through the boarding gate.

Yes that's true.

Imagine the problems and explanations you'd have had if the plane actually left without you!
prozac: I need two seats to Harvey Bay, urgently;
VA: I'm sorry, but you're already there;
prozac: No I'm here, standing right in front of you...here's my photo ID, here's my useless boarding pass, here's my reservation, here's my partner and here's the mole on my left buttock to prove this is me!
VA: I'm sorry, but the computer says Nooooooooooooo!

At least you would have got your SCs without flying.....

 

[lovestotravel]

They have been around the forum recently - and asked for a list of Sabre problems from me so I expect that they/he/she will be coming back to me at some point, so yes - they are around - and I have added these two tarmac excursions to the list of "At the Airport" bugs that is reported to them.

They do reply fairly quickly to PM's in my experience.

LOL 8 months later and they are still wanting to know about bugs

Amateur hour continues

 

[grubbidok]

Yes that's true.

Imagine the problems and explanations you'd have had if the plane actually left without you! At least you would have got your SCs without flying.....

Swanning_it's finally unlocked the code! He's found the secret to squeezing in a status run but still having quality of life!

 

[prozac]

Yes that's true.

Imagine the problems and explanations you'd have had if the plane actually left without you! At least you would have got your SCs without flying.....

Bags are offloaded for security reasons so yes, there would have been some explaining to do. Imagine how easily I could have avoided flying if I was a terrorist who did not care for the virgins.

 

[AdMEL]

On a humourous note, yes it could have. You'd never expect to have all these elements happen to you on the same day. After all who would believe you turn up at the airport to be confronted by a check-in queue that takes 45 minutes to clear due to understaffing and then get lost (not really) on the tarmac, then get locked in a stairwell by a naz_-hostie and then not have your bags arrive at the other end. It's just not likely that could happen to one couple in just one morning... only in a Seinfeld episode!


The only bright side was the attitude of the Hervey Bay check-in girl who maintained her composure throughout. It was not immediately apparent to her though that the luggage could be transhipped via Qantas and it took a while to get to that point in proceedings. Very disappointing that there was no follow-up from Virgin after the fact.

After this incredible chain of events I will not be willingly flying Virgin again.

What about your Plat Edge flight next year??

Yes that's true.

Imagine the problems and explanations you'd have had if the plane actually left without you!
prozac: I need two seats to Harvey Bay, urgently;
VA: I'm sorry, but you're already there;
prozac: No I'm here, standing right in front of you...here's my photo ID, here's my useless boarding pass, here's my reservation, here's my partner and here's the mole on my left buttock to prove this is me!
VA: I'm sorry, but the computer says Nooooooooooooo!

At least you would have got your SCs without flying.....

Quite funny! Unfortunately, in prozac's case, it was an Amex Plat Edge complimentary flight that doesn't earn points or SC's!

 

[prozac]

What about your Plat Edge flight next year??



Quite funny! Unfortunately, in prozac's case, it was an Amex Plat Edge complimentary flight that doesn't earn points or SC's!

We've decided on a clothing optional destination......no luggage.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

We've decided on a clothing optional destination......no luggage.

At least you can see the humorous side of it all.......and when you arrive at the clothes optional resort, everyone else will see the humorous side! :mrgreen:

Sorry, couldn't resist!

 

[prozac]

At least you can see the humorous side of it all.......and when you arrive at the clothes optional resort, everyone else will see the humorous side! :mrgreen:

Sorry, couldn't resist!

??? Do you mean because of where I had to pack the toothbrush?

 

[ff-jr]

Hmm, had a similarly (well, laterally) poor experience flying LAX-SYD last week.

I at the airport when the check-in desk opened at 3pm (for a 10:10pm flight). There were only a few customers around at that time and, using the priority check-in lane, I was my agents second customer for the day. She was quite rude/cold from the offset (great start to the shift!) and when I asked whether it was possible to block the seat next to me (looking aside the old 6'6" issue, I have a sprained ankle, broken toe and have been getting awful leg cramps for the past few weeks) she told me the flight was fully booked and it wouldn't be possible. All without looking at the system. Rightio.

I had an uneventful evening, for the most part enjoying The Loft.

At boarding, when they announced boarding for business class, platinum and gold members, I went up to the line. The staff member (different from my check-in lady) took one look and told me I can't board yet. I asked her to look again because I'm a gold member and a crew member just announced this over the P.A. She told me to remove myself from the line. I didn't want to argue and cause a ruckus, so I did as I was asked. I guess priority boarding isn't a perk anymore.

Once I got on the plane (25A...that awkward 2 person row) and discovered that the flight was actually only about half full, with a whole lot of empty rows, I asked a steward if I could move to an empty row (explaining my leg issues and given that I had someone assigned next to me). He told me I'd have to wait until we were in the air (rightfully so), but I guess the other attendants didn't get that memo. Before I could blink an eye people had spread themselves out. I tried addressing that with another steward who just shrugged at me. More than anything, I feel sorry for the guy in front of me (who was really kind and patient) and the woman next to me who had the cough scared out of them every time I'd get a leg cramp during the flight.

Upon landing all I wanted to do was go home. I'd been away for three and a half months. I had a coughpy flight. I cleared immigration in a heartbeat and went to the carousel. I waited, and waited, and waited and my "priority baggage" didn't show. That's back-to-back intl itineraries now where they've lost my luggage, tagged priority both times. I went to the baggage handling desk, managed by a Toll staff member, who took a report and told me very little. The bag didn't return to me until the next afternoon with no explanation (admittedly better than last year). The worst thing was that my house keys were in my suitcase (poor planning on my part, but given that I'd been away for so long and haven't needed to carry keys with me, it was an easy oversight).

I've been in contact with customer service and they gave me a measly voucher for my troubles, but my issues run deeper than that. I've championed VA for a looooong time, and I've invested a lot of trust (and money) into the brand. Now I find them consistently losing my luggage and my Gold status perks aren't worth a thing.

 

[eastwest101]

crumpet I would be PMing the VA/VFF rep here about the check-in at LAX, the denied Priority Boarding and the luggage. The other stuff may be more difficult to argue but that is very bad treatment of a customer in my opinion, and made worse by the fact that you are Gold.

 

[prozac]

Keeping you all informed of recent events regarding my Virgin encounters. I have been contacted by the VA Rep onsite who has forwarded details of this case to Virgin and today I have been contacted by the Virgin Guest Relations Coordinator. He has assured me Virgin intend to investigate what occurred at Sydney Airport regarding the tarmac excursions, the lack of staff communication that allowed this to occur and the staff attitudes at boarding.

I only hope that they also deal with the serious safety and security issues involving these events.

Following the lack of response from Virgin regarding the baggage issue I had considered that they just have a poor staff culture and that they would be unlikely to react to a complaint. I hope that they can prove my assumption wrong.

I will keep you apprised.

 

[mickeyc747]

I just stepped off a fantastic flight from Perth on VA 558. 30 minutes early so I went to use fly ahead to OOL as I was on a Z fare no seats available, despite Expert Flyer and the lounge confining 2D left empty. Fly ahead clearly states that you could fly in a class lower and the flight left with 3A free. When I asked at gate 32 my boarding pass was pushed back in my face and just stated no Z class. As a Platinum with Virgin the ground service is getting worse. They really don't care. Yes I am a small business but due to there lack of care and customer service I have directed $36000 worth of travel to QF and I sent off a message tonight saying if you don't want my custom be honest and I will move it all to QF.

 

[esquire]

Since I have reached Plat1 with QF with 2 months of unusable SC earn left, I have started re-directing some flights to VA in order to maintain Plat for the next year.

Must admit haven't been all that impressed with about 5 out of 6 flights of late (all to or from PER) - checked bags not priority tagged, IFE was cough (330), cabin crew service was generally ok, but more importantly VA seems to have lost something....

...the food on board (J) was very average (PER-SYD) - does anyone like the current menu? Looks like they have cuts costs? The beef dish was almost at send back level and even the CSM said he had it for lunch and thought it was bland and tough.....

Lounge staff in PER have been totally disinterested. They use to say goodbye etc - a small thing - but have just been ignored the last 3 week whilst they have a good chat!

Maybe I am just having a bad run- will see if there is a difference when I move back to SYD soon and do a lot more east coast flying

 

[marki]

Totally agree VA are going down the gurgler