Virgin Australia Wifi not connecting

[RooFlyer]

Had this problem twice over the past month (maybe 7 flights in all) - free business or plat wifi doesnt recognise name/seat combination:



Yes, I did enter both correctly and it occurred on both phone and laptop, and on my last flight, for all 3 pax in my row who tried.

The FA got the pilot ( I think the call went to) to reboot the wifi, to no avail. FA was mortified - offered a bottle of wine ( declined, with thanks) and took details of 3 pax affected for “team to get in touch with you”.

Has anyone had this happen and a solution found on board?

 

[HeavyElectricity]

I had something similar where I started typing in my last name, and then pressed my phone's autocomplete suggestion to finish it. This resulted in the phone adding a space to the end of my last name which caused the form to say it was invalid. Deleting the space from my name fixed it.

Probably not the same issue, but something to be aware of when using word autocomplete.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

I've had this same issue on every flight, which is starting to get annoying. Once I just kept submitting the form and it went through on about the 20th time. On another flight, it just wouldn't connect and the FAs couldn't do anything or offer anything. It's at the point where I just book Qantas if I know I'll need Wi-Fi, because a) it's always on the aircraft and routes I fly, and b), I can't remember a time it's failed me. Whereas on Virgin, I'm at 50% failure and 50% annoyance based on the two above that actually had Wi-Fi (and that's after discarding all the VA flights I've been on that just didn't have it).

 

[TheRealTMA]

Had this problem twice over the past month (maybe 7 flights in all) - free business or plat wifi doesnt recognise name/seat combination:

View attachment 334545

Yes, I did enter both correctly and it occurred on both phone and laptop, and on my last flight, for all 3 pax in my row who tried.

The FA got the pilot ( I think the call went to) to reboot the wifi, to no avail. FA was mortified - offered a bottle of wine ( declined, with thanks) and took details of 3 pax affected for “team to get in touch with you”.

Has anyone had this happen and a solution found on board?

Maybe it needs three four digit seat numbers? 001c? Just thinking.

Or just use Joyce 1A?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Wifi and entertainment is really patchy in terms of availability on VA.

Out of the last 8 flights there has been no entertainment on two at all, not even the streaming. On one flight there was wifi working. On another wifi was there, but not working as described above.

The other four flights offered streaming entertainment.

I’ve messaged the FF centre, they were not interested… pointing to the clause in the terms and conditions that says entertainment is ‘complimentary’ and ‘not available on all aircraft types or routes’.

Instead of Rooflyers experience, our CSM said ‘I understand your frustration, it’s been difficult for *me* telling people all day the system is inoperable.

(like … really… this isn’t about you! it’s about me, the passenger!)

 

[MooTime]

This resulted in the phone adding a space to the end of my last name which caused the form to say it was invalid. Deleting the space from my name fixed it.

This space at the end of my name did cause it to not work last time, noticed it and removed it. Such a silly error the system picks up. The FA need a quick fix list from IT.

Also went thru a reboot wifi system recently that did the job.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Maybe it needs three four digit seat numbers? 001c? Just thinking.

Or just use Joyce 1A?

Just surname and 1A.

 

[twinaisle]

The FA need a quick fix list from IT.

We don't touch anything to do with live to air wifi. You just have to troubleshoot with the online chat via the wifi portal.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We don't touch anything to do with live to air wifi. You just have to troubleshoot with the online chat via the wifi portal.

And if the wifi portal isn’t running?

Customer service’s excuse for not having wifi or entertainment was that it is only available in select aircraft types (of which the 737-800 qualifies) and select routes (also tick to MEL-SYD and vv).

Customer service recovery is next to nil on VA. My main issue was that given the lack of entertainment was known on the incoming flight, pax could have been told while waiting at the gate to allow them to make alternative arrangements. Customer service didn’t agree.

 

[twinaisle]

And if the wifi portal isn’t running?

Customer service’s excuse for not having wifi or entertainment was that it is only available in select aircraft types (of which the 737-800 qualifies) and select routes (also tick to MEL-SYD and vv).

Customer service recovery is next to nil on VA. My main issue was that given the lack of entertainment was known on the incoming flight, pax could have been told while waiting at the gate to allow them to make alternative arrangements. Customer service didn’t agree.

If it isn't running then that's about all we can do unfortunately. Can try to reset it but that's about it regarding live wifi.

It's a first I've heard for select routes as that's not the case. It sucks when it doesn't work or network is down but that's it.

I'm surprised the CM didn't inform pax to download entertainment as it makes our lives easier doing it once or twice over the P.A than multiple times to people once in the air.

 

[RooFlyer]

only available in select aircraft types (of which the 737-800 qualifies) and select routes (also tick to MEL-SYD and vv).

Add BNE-HBA to that list; today anyway.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If it isn't running then that's about all we can do unfortunately. Can try to reset it but that's about it regarding live wifi.

It's a first I've heard for select routes as that's not the case. It sucks when it doesn't work or network is down but that's it.

I'm surprised the CM didn't inform pax to download entertainment as it makes our lives easier doing it once or twice over the P.A than multiple times to people once in the air.

Once we were told in the air. The other we were told maybe one minute before final door closed.

Other times it’s been once trying to connect.

Announcing it at the gate would be even better

And… given it’s written up by the crew, why isn’t customer service proactively writing to affected pax, or offering 500 points as a goodwill gesture? It’s one bulk email but would go a long way to acknowledging the issue.

 

[twinaisle]

Once we were told in the air. The other we were told maybe one minute before final door closed.

Other times it’s been once trying to connect.

Announcing it at the gate would be even better

And… given it’s written up by the crew, why isn’t customer service proactively writing to affected pax, or offering 500 points as a goodwill gesture? It’s one bulk email but would go a long way to acknowledging the issue.

If it's know that its out then we will announce at the gate.

If it decides to kaput in the air then there's not much that can be done.

Goodwill gesture then that's something out of my control.

 

[RooFlyer]

And… given it’s written up by the crew, why isn’t customer service proactively writing to affected pax, or offering 500 points as a goodwill gesture? It’s one bulk email but would go a long way to acknowledging the issue.

Sorry, don't meant to keep coming back in reply , but after my experience in post #1 on Thursday, which was noted by the FA and my details taken, cust care did get back to me, with a lot more than 500 points and I imagine also the other affected J pax whose details were taken.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in post #1 was that one of the J pax next to me told the FA that, unable to get the free J/Plat wifi working (error per pic in post #1), she bought a 30 min block, and that worked. So the issue was the recognition of J or Plat name/seat to connect to free wifi, not the wifi itself.

 

[AIRwin]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in post #1 was that one of the J pax next to me told the FA that, unable to get the free J/Plat wifi working (error per pic in post #1), she bought a 30 min block, and that worked. So the issue was the recognition of J or Plat name/seat to connect to free wifi, not the wifi itself.

Wonder if she can claim a refund for it?

 

[RooFlyer]

Wonder if she can claim a refund for it?

The FA said she'd put it in the note she sent to cust care re the wifi connection fail "to refund you".

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry, don't meant to keep coming back in reply , but after my experience in post #1 on Thursday, which was noted by the FA and my details taken, cust care did get back to me, with a lot more than 500 points and I imagine also the other affected J pax whose details were taken.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in post #1 was that one of the J pax next to me told the FA that, unable to get the free J/Plat wifi working (error per pic in post #1), she bought a 30 min block, and that worked. So the issue was the recognition of J or Plat name/seat to connect to free wifi, not the wifi itself.

That makes it worse I got the brush off twice! With the same generic response… not our problem, don’t care.

If it's know that its out then we will announce at the gate.

If it decides to kaput in the air then there's not much that can be done.

Goodwill gesture then that's something out of my control.

It was known because the CSM said it had been out on all his sectors that day. He was more concerned with me understanding *his* frustration than acknowledging anyone else’s. (Also no acknowledgement of country, or staff member standing in the divide on disembarking. I do find the level of service for the flight in general roughly correlates to those two latter things.)

 

[oz_ally]

I had the same going from BNE to HBA last month. I contacted support via the app and they were quick to respond and just asked for my details and ended up giving me a code to put in to negate the $19.95 fee or whatever it is for paying people. Worked fine on the trip back.

 

[RooFlyer]

No issues in both VA flights today, HBA-MEL and MEL-HBA. One via Plat in whY, other via J seat.

 

[darv]

Yup! Had the same problem last two flights that were announced to have Wifi. Didn’t bother to complain but very annoying. Tired to clear cookies etc without luck.