Virgin IT issues - had to buy another ticket for flight i'd checked in.

[RAndrew]

I'm old enough to not trust ICT completely & ICT experienced enough to hard- & soft-copy essential documents. So that's a single page hard copy of e-tickets & other items (travel insurance, rental vehicle reservations, transfers, accommodations etc, & if for overseas, of passport, credit cards, driver's licence etc - all of which stays in a plastic sleeve on my person) plus a back-up of those on a memory stick, also separately on my person.

 

[roomer]

In addition to having hard copies, I find the app Worldmate is a great smartphone app as it keeps a copy of your flight details ( and I mean everything) not only to have on hand for your current trip but keeps it saved for past reference

 

[GaryBne]

This whole notion of issuing a Credit irks me.

Ok I would accept paying twice for a flight, so I don't miss it, then sorting it out later. But for some of us the ticket was bought by (employer) and the last minute ticket on my personal card. In this case who gets the credit? and do I need to then get the refund from my employer? That means more hassles for me - the hassles should be 100% borne by the Airline - given it was their screwup. Sure a credit is easier for them, a refund more difficult - so I say good! Presumably a refund needs a higher level of management so its good they get to see why.

Besides I don't want a credit that forces me to use an airline I no longer like / trust. So I think this an easy case to take to the Airline Industry Ombudsman.

BTW does anyone know how / why airlines get away with "5 to 6 weeks" to issue a refund? no other business does.

Gary

 

[soorox]

I'm sorry but VA is clearly in the wrong here, I understand that IT can stuff up once in a while but, why should VA give 'credit' when it wasn't the OP's fault that they had to purchase a new ticket? I would definitely want to get a full refund, no questions asked!

I would be writing up a fuss to VA regarding the matter, it was inconvenient and gave the OP uncertainty. VA failed to deliver what they promised and the OP did not get what they paid for, it's a breach of contract as VA did not fulfil their obligation of flying the OP to HBA (intended destination).

 

[ferntree]

Trying to be charitable to Virgin, techno-stuff ups happen. Let's be generous and give them that one.

What is unforgivable is how they handled the incident. Their treatment of the customer at the airport was disgraceful. Even worse was the insult of eventually offering a travel voucher rather than cash refund when they finally acknowledged their error.

And, as others have said ALWAYS travel with two hard copies of all documentation. Then if stuff ups occur you can give them one, and still retain proof for yourself. That practice got me out of trouble with Air New Zealand in a similar situation a few years ago. (Difft story, but their attitude and the way they treated me at the time is why I have never flown with ANZ since and never will again).

 

[coco50]

Virgin should have admitted that it was their fault and issued a new ticket gratis. This indicates the problems that occur when one does away with paper tickets.

 

[robtemt]

I'm old enough to not trust ICT completely & ICT experienced enough to hard- & soft-copy essential documents. So that's a single page hard copy of e-tickets & other items (travel insurance, rental vehicle reservations, transfers, accommodations etc, & if for overseas, of passport, credit cards, driver's licence etc - all of which stays in a plastic sleeve on my person) plus a back-up of those on a memory stick, also separately on my person.

Happy to see others take hard copies in this electronic age. Some mates make fun of me as I take hard copies of every confirmation, ticket, booking, voucher (2 if I have to turn one in), insurance policy etc., all spiral bound, in chronological order, in my hand luggage, and scanned PDF's (not links) of them on my laptop and emailed to myself. My OCD has paid off a few times!

And just to add my agreement, to the rest who can't comprehend VA's handling of this issue. I am disgusted that Virgin handled the situation they way they have. I'd expect it from JQ or TR, but for VA, it makes me question if there is any airline worth being loyal to in Australia. My friend flew to USA about a month ago to propose to his (now) fiance. On the return, VA DOWNGRADED them from Paid J to Y, with no compensation (oversold due to previous tech issue?), not even to W. He is STILL writing them trying to get a refund. What a way for an airline to help celebrate an engagement.

 

[soorox]

And just to add my agreement, to the rest who can't comprehend VA's handling of this issue. I am disgusted that Virgin handled the situation they way they have. I'd expect it from JQ or TR, but for VA, it makes me question if there is any airline worth being loyal to in Australia. My friend flew to USA about a month ago to propose to his (now) fiance. On the return, VA DOWNGRADED them from Paid J to Y, with no compensation (oversold due to previous tech issue?), not even to W. He is STILL writing them trying to get a refund. What a way for an airline to help celebrate an engagement.

Now that is just LOW! I would never step afoot onboard a VA aircraft if that happened to me, loyalty down the toilet !

 

[robtemt]

Now that is just LOW! I would never step afoot onboard a VA aircraft if that happened to me, loyalty down the toilet !

I said the same thing. I wouldn't have gotten on THAT aircraft and would have facebooked, snapchatted, tweeted, etc. video of them denying me my paid and confirmed seats! He didn't want to throw a tanty in front of his fiance and give her the opportunity to change her mind. I don't know how any airline gets away with some of the moves they make. OK, my blood pressure is going up, deep breaths.

 

[serfty]

Here's a tale of what can happen innocuously enough with mobile BP's when things are not thought out.

There was a situation a couple of years ago with BA at Orly in France that happened to a PAX.

- Used Mobile Check to generate BP.

- Did not save image (they used to be autosaved, but with a new software version they were not and BA provided no instruction to do so).

- Used Mobile BP to access lounge in Orly. This IB lounge is landside.

- Flight was delayed an hour or so, but call to board came.

- Exiting the lounge, they were unable to regenerate BP as it was past scheduled time of departure.

- Without BP could not pass though security.

- Last BA flight of the day, there was no-one landside who could assist.

- Missed flight.

- BA compensated PAX eventually.

More here on FT: Missed flight due to BA App crashing - FlyerTalk Forums

The "Swiss Cheese" really lined up on that one.

 

[GaryBne]

You are very organised.
.

I must qualify for paranoid then! - for overseas at least I take

1. PDF itinerary folder ( all reservations flights hotels etc in PDF form, as well as scanned passports, scanned drivers licence, list of all credit cards to make stolen cards easier to report) on my phone, laptop, emailed to myself and Mrs on Gmail(easy to access) and on a slim USB in passport folder
2. paper Copy in each of his and hers luggage., and in passport folder


every hotel wants to see paper on arrival and airlines want to see return flights ( as do immigration at times) - so only paper will do ...
I even have spare passport photocopies - some 3rd world hotels still want to make a copy - I don't let my passport out of my sight - instead I hand them a photo copy "I prepared earlier"

Actually in her luggage I have a small A5 zipped pocket we now call the "OMG! kit" with
- $50 cash
- spare Credit card
- itinerary
- Passport copies
- password protected USB with all files
- spare original passport photos ( makes it quicker to get replacement passport when OS and makes some visas easier ie same pic as passport... which is why I get 20 copies when I get a new passport
- a sim card from Optus (phone stolen? get another phone, go online and do a sim change and back on the air in 30 minutes ... )
- spare spectacles.


yep I definitely sound paranoid - but I have also saved the holiday ... twice.

Gary

 

[Milefest]

I don't usually prepare much, but I love the idea of an "OMG Kit", it's something you set up once and can forget about it until you need it.

 

[thehound]

My friend flew to USA about a month ago to propose to his (now) fiance. On the return, VA DOWNGRADED them from Paid J to Y, with no compensation (oversold due to previous tech issue?), not even to W. He is STILL writing them trying to get a refund. What a way for an airline to help celebrate an engagement.

You should suggest to your friend that he institute a partial or complete chargeback from his credit card provider. The product paid for was not received.

 

[JohnK]

.... every hotel wants to see paper on arrival and airlines want to see return flights ( as do immigration at times) - so only paper will do ...

I stay in lots of hotels. Hardly ever need paper copy of booking. Hand over passport and check into hotel. Occasionally show them confirmation email if they somehow don't have the booking reference. Expedia is poor in this respect.

Current hotel is a 2 night booking, 1 night booking, 2 night booking (direct with hotel desk), 1 night booking, 1 night booking and another 1 night booking all from different booking engines. Asked to stay in same room and may even extend further when I head back to Australia next week.

 

[coriander]

I must qualify for paranoid then! - for overseas at least I take<snip>

Much the same - hard copy of everything in my luggage, Mrs C's luggage, on SD card in my travel wallet AND a PDF or scanned copy of everything online in my dropbox folder (dropbox so if I ever have to evacuate a plane leaving EVERYTHING behind.......)

 

[roomer]

Much the same - hard copy of everything in my luggage, Mrs C's luggage, on SD card in my travel wallet AND a PDF or scanned copy of everything online in my dropbox folder (dropbox so if I ever have to evacuate a plane leaving EVERYTHING behind.......)

That reminds me! Get the app called Traveler ID ( not a misspelling, it's a yank app) excellent for an instant recall of all your travel documents

 

[andrewpf]

Delta seems to love dicking around with its flights ... last time I was in the US I had 6 flights booked with them ... all one-way domestic flights on different tickets getting me from city to city. I made sure my itinerary was set up so I had direct flights from each city to the next. I think every single one of those flights changed at least once in the few weeks before departure, if not multiple times, with half of them forcing me to be routed via Atlanta (which I got to visit 3 times thanks to Delta) instead of the direct flight I originally booked. Anyway, each of the times it changed me, I was automatically rebooked and assigned a seat - which luckily I checked online since the seat assignments were carried over without taking into account that the aircraft changed, so had me allocated into non-existent seats.

Thankfully, my return flights on VA to Sydney via LAX were also a separate booking (with an overnight rest in LA on both arrival and departure providing a buffer), so no stuff ups between the two systems.

Anyway, point being, US airlines seem to do this a lot (and it was winter, so snow/blizzard are common) ... so if the VA system can't handle it, might be worth alternative means of booking than a single ticket.

 

[Happy Dude]

I must qualify for paranoid then! - for overseas at least I take

1. PDF itinerary folder ( all reservations flights hotels etc in PDF form, as well as scanned passports, scanned drivers licence, list of all credit cards to make stolen cards easier to report) on my phone, laptop, emailed to myself and Mrs on Gmail(easy to access) and on a slim USB in passport folder
2. paper Copy in each of his and hers luggage., and in passport folder


every hotel wants to see paper on arrival and airlines want to see return flights ( as do immigration at times) - so only paper will do ...
I even have spare passport photocopies - some 3rd world hotels still want to make a copy - I don't let my passport out of my sight - instead I hand them a photo copy "I prepared earlier"

Actually in her luggage I have a small A5 zipped pocket we now call the "OMG! kit" with
- $50 cash
- spare Credit card
- itinerary
- Passport copies
- password protected USB with all files
- spare original passport photos ( makes it quicker to get replacement passport when OS and makes some visas easier ie same pic as passport... which is why I get 20 copies when I get a new passport
- a sim card from Optus (phone stolen? get another phone, go online and do a sim change and back on the air in 30 minutes ... )
- spare spectacles.


yep I definitely sound paranoid - but I have also saved the holiday ... twice.

Gary

Great post Gary - I've copied it for later reference. I once went to the airport, a two hour drive away from home, without my passport and plane ticket.

 

[Jurahn]

Interesting to hear what happened with your Delta codeshare flights - there have been IT problems as well with my upcoming booking in March 2017 - PER-SYD-LAX-SEA return - which was fine until there was a change to the LAX-SEA sector which is a codeshare with Delta. I received an email from VA advising I had been changed to another (later) flight the same morning, which actually suited me better, so I accepted the change and VA reissued the e-ticket. I then found I couldn't get into my booking on VA's website. I rang the Gold desk and they did something with the booking and I was then able to view it, but both the original LAX-SEA flight AND the new one were showing as current! The very helpful Velocity CSO I was speaking to then removed the original flight (she wasn't sure why it was still displaying) and all seemed OK - until I looked at the booking on the Delta website (because I wanted to try to do seat selection) and the original LAX-SEA flight was still there, but not the new one. I rang Delta and they told me that there must be a problem with the information not being generated correctly to come across from the VA system and I would have to go back to VA. I was able to contact the VA reps on this forum, and they were able to assist (and many thanks to them for their help) - the Operations team had to manually "push" the information across to the Delta systems, which took a couple of attempts, before the correct flights were displayed.

So from your experience and mine, it seems there's some sort of "glitch" between the VA and Delta systems when there's a codeshare flight change, and somehow the information regarding the change isn't going across from one system to the other.

Yep that pretty much sounds like the sort of issue that caught me out.

I'm now very aware that if I have a VA codeshare flight with a partner carrier and VA advises me that a change has occurred, I make sure I check the reservation out in both the VA reservation system and the operating carrier's reservation system.

I've got VA codeshare flights coming up next month operated by Etihad and I've made sure that the ticket number that VA has issued to me is the same ticket number that appears in Etihad's reservation system and that the flights check-out in both systems.

Just as an aside, I was never actually a Twitter user but in recent times I've had some measure of success and timely response from VA by contacting them via their Twitter account.

Thought I'd post this here as it's in reference to my original post above. Received an email from VA today advising of yet another change to the PER-SEA return itinerary, a third change to the LAX-SEA sector with Delta. The time of the new flight was an hour later than the previous change, so I thought "oh well" and accepted the changes. Wasn't particularly impressed when I checked the itinerary and found I was now on a E175 and the cabin class was showing as Economy (instead of being in First on the 717!). I rang VA reservations and after lengthy discussions (won't bore you with the details!) with a very helpful CSO on the premium desk, ended up back on the LAX-SEA flight I'd booked originally (which was two itinerary changes ago and I'm still not sure why I was moved from that flight in the first place). Anyway ... the e-ticket has been reissued, but the booking showing on the Delta site hasn't changed from the previous version and is still showing the previous e-ticket number, not the new one. I'll give it a few days to see whether the Delta system updates, but I suspect I'll need to end up contacting the forum reps (yet again, sorry guys/girls) to ask the Operations Team to manually push the details across.

 

[cssaus]

Thought I'd post this here as it's in reference to my original post above. Received an email from VA today advising of yet another change to the PER-SEA return itinerary, a third change to the LAX-SEA sector with Delta. The time of the new flight was an hour later than the previous change, so I thought "oh well" and accepted the changes. Wasn't particularly impressed when I checked the itinerary and found I was now on a E175 and the cabin class was showing as Economy (instead of being in First on the 717!). I rang VA reservations and after lengthy discussions (won't bore you with the details!) with a very helpful CSO on the premium desk, ended up back on the LAX-SEA flight I'd booked originally (which was two itinerary changes ago and I'm still not sure why I was moved from that flight in the first place). Anyway ... the e-ticket has been reissued, but the booking showing on the Delta site hasn't changed from the previous version and is still showing the previous e-ticket number, not the new one. I'll give it a few days to see whether the Delta system updates, but I suspect I'll need to end up contacting the forum reps (yet again, sorry guys/girls) to ask the Operations Team to manually push the details across.

Call Delta and quote the ticket number and see if it shows up in their system. I've seen it where there have been a number of ticket re-issues and as long as the newly re-issued ticket shows up in Delta's system you ought to be OK.