Dear Virgin Airlines,
I am writing you this letter through the blog because after
a series of completely frustrating experiences I can’t even use your online
feedback form because of the character limit. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
My family and I recently relocated from London to Sydney and
we needed to book our travel with a stop in Seattle in between. We figured that
5 people flying LHR to LAX, LAX to SEA (roundtrip) and then LAX to SYD we would
be getting a fair amount of miles so wanted to try and book through one
airline. Since Virgin has Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America and Virgin Australia
it seemed like a good fit. We debated using Alaska Airlines for the flights
between LAX and SEA as they were cheaper but my hope was that we could check
our bags through without having to collect them at LAX only to recheck them for
the next flight. Before booking I called your customer service line as the
flights were under separate bookings, some done through our relocation and some
paid for personally, I was assured that it would be the discretion of the
person checking us in but we should have no problems checking the bags through
to our final destination so we went ahead and booked all of our travel with Virgin.
Finally our travel date arrived and I should have known how
the experience would go as soon as we checked in. Either the person checking us
in used their discretion to make an already difficult day of travel more
difficult for me traveling on my own with 3 kids or the person on your customer
service line was just wrong. We were unable to check our bags through so as I
boarded the 11+ hour flight from LHR to LAX I had a difficult connection
already to look forward to. We got on our flight, got the kids settled and soon
enough the meal service started. I was informed that there were no kid’s meals
booked for my 2 and 4 year old. It turns out that this was AMEX Travel’s
mistake so there were no kids meals allocated for my kids. By the time the meal
options got to our row there was only one option and I could hardly eat it let
alone my toddlers. There was no other option. Shame on me, I should have been
loaded with snacks for them but in our experience with British Airways there
are always snacks available to walk up and get so I assumed the experience would
be similar and food was just another thing to carry around in an already
overloaded set of carry ons. Once snacks were available for sale I bought as
many small containers of pringles and packages of Haribos that I could so that
they could have something to eat. The flight attendant even made a comment
about how much I was buying and I informed her that it was all the kids had to
eat. Finally about 8 hours into the flight a flight attendant from first class
walked by our aisle and from one look could tell that the flight wasn’t going
well. When she stopped to ask if we needed anything I said the only thing I
need is food and she immediately got together a plate of fruit and cheese from
first class, she was a total life saver. Here is why this is so frustrating, I
now know that the mistake was made by AMEX and I understand that it isn’t a
restaurant when you are flying; the options are what they are. I spent 8 hours
on a very long flight with kids who hadn’t eaten, I asked multiple people if
there were any food options they could have, anything I could buy, and was told
no there was nothing. I was just looking for a shred of empathy, maybe an extra
little packet of pretzels or whatever the free snack was, anything. It took 8
hours and one person who seemed to understand the situation to get a few grapes
and blocks of cheddar.
We finally arrived in LAX got our baggage only to turn
around and recheck our baggage and then get the kids fed. After 11+ hours wide
awake on the first flight luckily the 5 of us slept through the LAX to SEA
flight.
3 weeks later we were ready to go on the 2nd half
of our trip and head from SEA to SYD with a connection in LAX. Once again we
were told we couldn’t check our bags through but this time I expected it. Our
flight from SEA to LAX was uneventful until we arrived only to find that the
wheel had been broken off of our gate checked stroller. Since we had to get our
bags and then check in for our long flight we couldn’t spend much time in
baggage claim and needed to move on. Once we were checked in again and at the
gate I approached the Virgin desk to ask about the stroller and what I needed
to do to have it repaired. I was told that the only thing I could do was go
back to baggage claim and deal with it there but there probably wasn’t time
before my flight. I asked if I could do anything once we arrived in Sydney and
the guy honestly said “I can’t cut you a check if that’s what you’re looking for.”
If I was already frustrated by the stroller wheel I was just aggravated further
by the helpful customer service. No I wasn’t looking for a check, I just wanted
to find out how to get the wheel fixed as I was going to have no access to
another stroller for another 8 weeks. Again given our experience up to that
point it just reinforced our impression of Virgin. In all fairness I should say
the inflight service from LAX to SYD was great. They were helpful and nice and
everything went smoothly.
So now here we are in Sydney, we finally have an address and
while I wouldn’t want to fly Virgin again with ticket prices from SYD to SEA we
will most likely be in the position to fly based on price not service. I signed
up for our frequent flyer account and as I went to enter our first flight I
received a message that as it has been more than 30 days we can no longer claim
the miles. So I of course call the customer service number on the screen hoping
maybe if I talk to someone or there might be a process to follow to get an
exception. The girl spent about 2 minutes on the phone with me and just said
that it’s pretty clear on the website, essentially why was I calling her?
It seems that every step of the way has been just a little
more difficult than it should be. From checking in, the flight experience,
damaging our things and now trying to claim the miles. Any one of these things
might be a minor frustration but the consistently bad experience has been kind
of unbelievable. I know there are people that travel what we do all year in a
month so one family choosing not to fly Virgin again really has no impact and
there is really no resolution I’m looking for.
All I can do now is warn friends and family that you should
not fly Virgin! Sure the domestic US flights have cool lighting and they play
hip hop at the check in desk, that’s awesome if I was 19. If you have any
interest in the actual experience, safety of your baggage, etc. I would go
elsewhere.
Thank you,
Nicole
No comments:
Post a Comment