Virgin sort it out PLEASE

[Harj77]

Well where do i start.


Situation 1

Flying syd-mel last week. Enter lounge at 645am for 730 flight.
Look at board and the flight is listed by no remarks. Its now 715am and still no comments. So head to the desk to see what is going on. Reply from virgin rep.....it boarding. So i head off to the gate and there no one there. Hmmm......
Spoke to the staff behind desk and they say plane has left and have to head back to lounge to get put on another flight. So head back to lounge and original virgin rep almost falls off his seat when he sees me. He was good so just booked me on the next flight. He has 2 screens. One says flight is delayed. Other says boarding and the flight screen still has no comment on the flight. Its a bloody guessing game .


Situation 2
Ring virgin to use my plat upgrade on the syd-perth leg yesterday 4.5 hrs before flight. ( Already checked in on web with seat 29k....seat selection is another issue on the site.
Get through straight away. Virgin rep cant see my booking. Put on hold and she trys to find it. After 30 mins she finds it and then stay upgrade is possible. ( She has to uncheck me first).After i decide to use the upgrade she says they cant guarantee meals as its less than 4 hrs. Pretty frustrated by this time. So she try to check me but it cant be done. Have to check in at airport.


Come on virgin. How long are you going to use the Sabre switchover as an excuse. Its been nearly 2 mths now

 

[tuapekastar]

Welcome to AFF Harj77!

There are certainly a lot of frustrated VA flyers around. Sabre was a pretty ordinary implementation and I think we would all like to see it 'fixed' sometime soon.

 

[nlagalle]

Well where do i start.


Situation 1

Flying syd-mel last week. Enter lounge at 645am for 730 flight.
Look at board and the flight is listed by no remarks. Its now 715am and still no comments. So head to the desk to see what is going on. Reply from virgin rep.....it boarding. So i head off to the gate and there no one there. Hmmm......
Spoke to the staff behind desk and they say plane has left and have to head back to lounge to get put on another flight. So head back to lounge and original virgin rep almost falls off his seat when he sees me. He was good so just booked me on the next flight. He has 2 screens. One says flight is delayed. Other says boarding and the flight screen still has no comment on the flight. Its a bloody guessing game .


Situation 2
Ring virgin to use my plat upgrade on the syd-perth leg yesterday 4.5 hrs before flight. ( Already checked in on web with seat 29k....seat selection is another issue on the site.
Get through straight away. Virgin rep cant see my booking. Put on hold and she trys to find it. After 30 mins she finds it and then stay upgrade is possible. ( She has to uncheck me first).After i decide to use the upgrade she says they cant guarantee meals as its less than 4 hrs. Pretty frustrated by this time. So she try to check me but it cant be done. Have to check in at airport.


Come on virgin. How long are you going to use the Sabre switchover as an excuse. Its been nearly 2 mths now

welcome Harj77. I share your pain..VA certainly have some issues to address at the moment..

 

[Harj77]

welcome Harj77. I share your pain..VA certainly have some issues to address at the moment..

Thanks guys. Been an avid reader for some time but this was first post out of frustration.Why cant you post on the ipad app???

Virgin shouldnt just take all the issues for granted as they will lose flyers back to QF.

 

[nlagalle]

Thanks guys. Been an avid reader for some time but this was first post out of frustration.Why cant you post on the ipad app???

Virgin shouldnt just take all the issues for granted as they will lose flyers back to QF.

you need to be a silver or gold member to post..

 

[pat25d]

Situation 1 is a joke and needs to be sorted asap.

Situation 2 seems entirely expected and I would be happy that the call centre could do it so close to flight time AFTER you had already checked in. And catering not assured also seems fine given the short notice.

 

[Blinky]

Situation 1 is a joke and needs to be sorted asap.

Situation 2 seems entirely expected and I would be happy that the call centre could do it so close to flight time AFTER you had already checked in. And catering not assured also seems fine given the short notice.

I fully agree with this post. It's a bit unreasonable to expect an upgrade on the day of the flight rather than just hope for one. And welcome as well.

 

[Simo]

Welcome to the forum.

Bit hard to expect the upgrade four hours before flight.

I would have rang up when I booked my flight and ask then unless you booked the flight only a few hours before travel.

 

[Mogul]

From what I have heard the boards are the responsibility of the airport concerned and NOT the airline.

 

[nlagalle]

Situation 2 seems entirely expected and I would be happy that the call centre could do it so close to flight time AFTER you had already checked in. And catering not assured also seems fine given the short notice.

I think the experience here is probably more frustrating for the OP, call centre not finding his booking etc. Catering not assured is the same on QF too.

 

[DeKa]

Bit hard to expect the upgrade four hours before flight.

No it's not. The policy says upgrades can be requested down to 4 hours before departure, so it should be possible.

Of course, if I wanted to upgrade I would not check in.

 

[777]

No it's not. The policy says upgrades can be requested down to 4 hours before departure, so it should be possible.

Of course, if I wanted to upgrade I would not check in.

Key word, i think, was *expect*.

 

[DeKa]

Key word, i think, was *expect*.

Fair enough. I've put through multiple requests down to 4.5-5 hours prior to departure as seats seem to appear in that time...

 

[MarkD]

Re Catering not assured: I understand the logistics behind catering / service idustry, HOWEVER If I was to purchase a full fare J seat 1 hr before a flight, would I have the same thing, ie: I pay $1700 SYD-PER and then not get offered food? Seriously they really need to load extras, there must be an allowance in the fare for wastage, and Im assuming that allowance is quite a bit more than some wasted food.
Again, it doesnt matter whether its paid with cash, points or upgrade voucher, if you upgrade, they need to be able to recieve the PAID product.
Imagine the uproar, you book into the hilton, and they say, "oh you only booked today, therefor we will charge Hilton rate, but you are staying at the backpackers next door, please pay us the big bucks, and enjoy the facilities of the backpackers"

 

[777]

Re Catering not assured: I understand the logistics behind catering / service idustry, HOWEVER If I was to purchase a full fare J seat 1 hr before a flight, would I have the same thing, ie: I pay $1700 SYD-PER and then not get offered food? Seriously they really need to load extras, there must be an allowance in the fare for wastage, and Im assuming that allowance is quite a bit more than some wasted food.
Again, it doesnt matter whether its paid with cash, points or upgrade voucher, if you upgrade, they need to be able to recieve the PAID product.
Imagine the uproar, you book into the hilton, and they say, "oh you only booked today, therefor we will charge Hilton rate, but you are staying at the backpackers next door, please pay us the big bucks, and enjoy the facilities of the backpackers"

Sorry but that's rubbish. Clearly they do load more than minimum numbers of meals but that's to cater for the very scenarios you outlined -- someone buys at last the minute and there is a meal available. Someone upgrades at the last minute (but no one buys) and they most likely get a meal too. Someone buys AND someone upgrades (or whatever number of people do or there are 6 people bumped from a delayed connection) then they can not guarantee that everyone will get catering so those who upgrade are warned in advance and given the opportunity to decide whether they wish to take that risk or not.

I think the warning is perfectly sufficient here. You will most likely get catering but if it's not available you will be the first to go without. All airlines do this. What's the problem? If you don't want to take that risk plan earlier so the airline can plan earlier for you.

FWIW every time i've had "catering not assured" i've had catering but i'd understand if it didn't happen.

 

[Rallo]

It seems to be a lottery.
A few months ago flew BNE -ADL in business , 3 pax only snack was a choice of cheese plate or cold noodles , the attendant checks with pax in row 1 she takes the noodles , next we were asked , we both wanted noodles as well , sorry we only have one serve left so I took the cheese plate.
Now we booked our flight at least a month before obviously not sure of the other pax , I would have thought they would store enough to cover choice.

 

[777]

Now we booked our flight at least a month before obviously not sure of the other pax , I would have thought they would store enough to cover choice.

Fair enough. That's a different issue than ensuring that that they cater fully for every possible last minute upgrade though.

 

[Rallo]

So do they cater for those that book earlier or those have status and book a last minute ?

 

[mannej]

So do they cater for those that book earlier or those have status and book a last minute ?

It would be some sort of balancing act really - cater too much and the cost adds up, don't cater enough and you pee your flyers off

 

[MarkD]

Get off your High horse, I never said they had to cater for every scenario, I even stated that I understand the logistics of it, if you care to read the whole post. Just a simple reply rather than agro would suffice, but we are all so passionate about the precious VA around these parts arent we.
You think its Rubbish, I think its fair that if someone pays $1700 or uses 00000's of points for an upgrade, then they should recieve what they pay for. OBVIOUSLY if they walk up half hour before the flight, then they may not get CHOICES of catering, but regardless, the same should apply to EVERYONE in the cabin, as they have all paid, regardless of how / when they have paid. There should be enough for everyone that could be in the cabin, and EVERYONE should have the same level of service.