I thought this now warranted a separate thread here, as it has happened to us twice now, and several others have had the same issue.
We bought return Business Class MEL - OOL. Both times, the plane flown on was configured with Premium Economy, not Business seating. Both times, we found this out only after the plane was boarded.
Those who have followed the other thread where our original flight was discussed will recall what Virgin told us about their "rogue" PE aircraft;
1. Only 2 left in service. [Edit - note at least THREE listed below still in active service]
2. All J passengers would get a call the night before to advise of the PE seating and offer alternatives.
Given what happened to us MEL-OOL we spent a lot of time on the phone with Virgin Velocity being assured...TWICE...that the return plane was a proper Business configuration 737.
We asked at check-in whether this was business seating and were reassured "yes, these are the grey business seats, not the red premium economy seats".
We got red premium economy seats. (The CSM onboard assured us that there had been no last minute aircraft substitution).
Not happy Virgin.
The proffered call the night before *almost* happened - we were unable to pick up the phone in time (to a caller ID blocked number) and no message was left, so we had no way of knowing it was Virgin. It's still noted at their end that contact was attempted. Unimpressive effort, particularly given the multiple times we confirmed, including at check-in, that the plane was a business configured plane.
A measure of an airline is how they respond when things go wrong. Here are some sample responses;
"The business product is new. You can't expect us to take all our planes out of service to refit them at the same time."
"You're on a Business Fare. You do know all of this [food] is free."
Wrong mindset, Virgin.
Fail Aircraft
737-700 VH-VBK
737-700 VH-VBU
VH-VBV (?737-700)
All E190s
We bought return Business Class MEL - OOL. Both times, the plane flown on was configured with Premium Economy, not Business seating. Both times, we found this out only after the plane was boarded.
Those who have followed the other thread where our original flight was discussed will recall what Virgin told us about their "rogue" PE aircraft;
1. Only 2 left in service. [Edit - note at least THREE listed below still in active service]
2. All J passengers would get a call the night before to advise of the PE seating and offer alternatives.
Given what happened to us MEL-OOL we spent a lot of time on the phone with Virgin Velocity being assured...TWICE...that the return plane was a proper Business configuration 737.
We asked at check-in whether this was business seating and were reassured "yes, these are the grey business seats, not the red premium economy seats".
We got red premium economy seats. (The CSM onboard assured us that there had been no last minute aircraft substitution).
Not happy Virgin.
The proffered call the night before *almost* happened - we were unable to pick up the phone in time (to a caller ID blocked number) and no message was left, so we had no way of knowing it was Virgin. It's still noted at their end that contact was attempted. Unimpressive effort, particularly given the multiple times we confirmed, including at check-in, that the plane was a business configured plane.
A measure of an airline is how they respond when things go wrong. Here are some sample responses;
"The business product is new. You can't expect us to take all our planes out of service to refit them at the same time."
"You're on a Business Fare. You do know all of this [food] is free."
Wrong mindset, Virgin.
Fail Aircraft
737-700 VH-VBK
737-700 VH-VBU
VH-VBV (?737-700)
All E190s
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