Woeful customer service on delayed VA8 business platinum

[bulldog88]

Apparently there is a VA 777-300ER out of service in LA right now

I was booked on VA8 LAX-BNE-MEL a few days ago, Business class Platinum, here is what happened:


About to leave LAX hotel for airport, 3 hours before departure, I search VA8 on Google
Google says On-time departure at 23:55
But I notice the arrival time into BNE is 8 hours later than it should be
I search VA website, it shows 14 hour delay
I call VA, wait on hold 20 mins, she tells me to stay at hotel, someone will call about rebooking
I ask why nobody called me about delay, she says I should check my email for travel reminders (nothing was sent)
Hotel fully booked so I move to another hotel
Sleep, no calls from Virgin
Wake up 8am, website shows VA8 departure at 1300
I check online and notice my VA8 booking no longer exists
I call VA, wait on hold another 20 mins, agent says I am being rebooked on direct LAX-MEL service that night
I ask if that is in Business class, I am put on hold, she says only Economy available
I ask to fly on original VA8 delayed service departing in 4 hours time, she says not possible
So I head to the airport and demand my business seat back, which they (eventually) give me
Goto Virgin lounge, agent says no boarding calls for VA8, no monitors show VA8 departure, so I goto gate and wait
Business cabin has only 10 pax
Departs about 1400, arrives into BNE 2000
My flight to MEL scheduled for 2055, last flight of day
VA Domestic transfer desk closed
I find VA staff upstairs at departures
She says domestic transfer desk closed at 1930, 30 minutes before VA8 landed
So I miss the MEL flight and wait 30 mins for them to organise hotels
All VA computers at BNE airport are down
They send me to a hotel on the Gold Coast, $250 taxi fare each way which they paid
I offer to rent a car for $60 and drive myself but they won't reimburse
Arrive at hotel 11pm, leave at 5:30am,
Eventually arrive MEL about 24 hours late.


Reminds me of a bunch of kids who are all fun and laughs in the good times, but have really no clue how to deal with the bad !

 

[Robert K]

should have flown qantas.

 

[Must...Fly!]

What a comedy that is, I don't even know where to start.

 

[madrooster]

They are currently using the inbound VA1 for VA8/VA24 outbound, then the plane which comes in from VA7/VA23 gets used for VA2 which is the best they can do with just 3 777-300ER's. The 5th one is doing the AUH runs. Makes me wonder why they don't cancel the AUH service and rebook pax onto EY services and re-deploy that 777 onto the LAX routes until VH-VPD is fixed.

You made the right move to demand to be on VA8 even if it meant overnighting in BNE as the VA24 direct service would have been delayed 12 hours too and so you wouldn't have arrived until the late evening of the day you did actually arrive on.

 

[erkpod]

Would another option have been to rebook some people on DL?

Should VAi concentrate on the Australia - US routes & leave the route to Europe via the Middle East to EY until they get more planes?

 

[Intra]

When will VA get more metal for Long Haul though? Waiting for the MAX to arrive (Zzzzz, wake me up when that happens)

Yea, focus on just ex. LAX for now, if you can then avoid situations like this - Or just have them re-booked on DL ex SYD... Or is it too much hassle for VA with this partnership :? Wahhh

Fun times when things go... Erm... Wrong

 

[goingboeing]

Would another option have been to rebook some people on DL?

Should VAi concentrate on the Australia - US routes & leave the route to Europe via the Middle East to EY until they get more planes?

YES!! Very risky with such a small fleet size, imagine if two 77W's go out of service - that would be an incredible world of hurt for VA. Focus on just one area (East Coast -> North America) with the current fleet size and then grow to the European market once they have sufficient fleet. All a bit pointless anyway sending you on VA to the Middle East and then a carrier change on to Europe - just codeshare everything over to EY.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I was on QF94 in May that had to turnaround to LAX and offload a sick passenger (heart attack).
Once on the ground and at the international gate, QF had instructions for passengers, the pilot made two announcements and we were off to hotels.

F/J went to Westin and Sheraton, Y+ went 3* but 10 mins from LAX whilst the economy pax went to Orange County.

All back on board at 7p, we arrived back into LAX at 5a, then depart at 8p. Throughout the day, QF staff where at my 3* hotel answering questions from pax.

I dont mind paying more to fly QF as opposed to VA because when things go pear shaped I'd prefer to be on an airline with experience in these matters.
IMHO, VA is a LCC growing up, might be fine for domestic Oz because they can cope with issues, but internationally, they have years to go until they join the majors...

In this day and age, email/sms is so easy to get a message out to people, its a minor investment but it speaks loudly of the loyalty they want to give people who are willing to give their loyalty.

Cheers
BF

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I thought that VA were more organised than that. What a sad turn of events.

 

[Jurahn]

That truly is an absolutely woeful experience. I was quite staggered to see in another thread that passengers weren't receiving phone calls about these delays, and that the amended flight times were only shown in the regular "flight reminder" emails that are sent out a couple of days beforehand. A lot of people probably barely give these emails a second glance, and you certainly wouldn't expect the only information you get about a major delay such as this to be contained in an standard, automatically-generated email. What if (like the OP), you didn't receive the email or are somewhere where you don't have access to check your emails prior to the flight? Obviously it's affecting a large number of passengers, so it would be quite a task to ring (or at the very least, SMS) them all, but it's not as if these were delays of just a couple of hours, you're talking 12 hours or more.

I too thought that VA would be more organised than that, and it's giving me the horrors as I'm doing the PER-MEL-LAX return run later this year (my first ever trip in J).

 

[pauly7]

What a disaster, I think you did well to not completely lose it at VA!

Suggest a strongly worded letter would be appropriate, I'm sure you'd get some sort of significant reimbursement.

 

[LoveAR15s]

I am just a lowly economy passenger traveling with my girlfriend and friend but we too got screwed at LAX last Monday. 1155pm flight to BNE was rebooked for noon the next day and we didn't get a damn clue till after midnight and to the hotel at 1am. Surely those jack a55e5 knew well before 1155 departure that we would be stuck.

Showed up at 10am to depart at noon and was told to go back to the hotel because we were once again rebooked for a Sydney flight at 1010pm. Why?! To catch a TSV flight in Sydney that we ultimately missed due to lost luggage. Then flew to BNE (as originally planned) to miss our TSV flight there again!!

Flew 3 hours out of our way, 4 hours additional layovers, and 2 hours stuck in the plane at LAX due to "a piece of equipment broken down next to the plane".

Never will virgin get my money.

 

[JetSetting88]

This video needs to be watched for people who have problems with delays:

Louis CK Flying - YouTube

 

[Markmat]

Sounds a woeful experience! Write a letter, they need to understand how they can improve their customer service!

 

[JohnK]

Does not sound like a very good experience.