Awful Service from VA for Platinum Members

[MarkD]

I dont think it warrented a reply on here personally

 

[markis10]

I suppose different people have different expectations, a good example of this was yesterday when SA based winemarket.com.au offered two wirra wirra bottles of wine for $5.99 delivered, check out the comment from a Sydney customer:

I bought the promotion bottles of wine yesterday and was expecting them today. When they didn't arrive I checked your website and saw that the wait time for delivery is 7 - 10 days. Is this correct? How do you expect to compete with wine sites like crackawines who deliver within 1 -3 days? In fact all orders I have placed with them have been delivered in less than 24 hours.

Cracka are Sydney based and the offer went live mid afternoon - yikes!

 

[TonyHancock]

I was told by a DJ Cabin Supervisor that the deal struck with NZ precludes DJ from offering J on trans Tasman flights. I don't know whether this is true or not but I had no reason to doubt her.

The crew on the flight I took two weeks ago defended the Y+ cabin and kicked folk out who thought they would "upgrade" themselves.

The DJ trans Tasman Y+ product isn't brilliant but for me it was a little better than QF Y and at 6900 points and NZ$290 ish it represented good value. (I understand these deals aren't available now.)

In NZ my bags were weighed as I entered the immigration departures area.

 

[Undercover Brother]

*yawn*
thread title does not even come close to reflecting the "service" issues

I'd hate to think what it takes to make some people truly happy.

 

[Major]

So, to sum up the lesson learned from this thread.....stock up on Ferro Rocher chockies

 

[serfty]

Actually, the OP does have one valid issue IMHO - that being the loss of cabin exclusivity due to FAupgrades.

That would annoy me.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...

 

[NM]

Note to self ... always carry a box of Ferrero Roche chocolates when traveling Trans Tasman with DJ.

 

[lovestotravel]

I understand what is being said in this post

1. The pathetic, disgusting 737's that VA use between Australia and NZ - Probably the worst way to fly between Australia and NZ
2. The "please give me good service and/or upgrade me so I give chocolates to the staff as I board the plane" - It's basically a bribe! If you get good service in the later part of the flight give chocolate IF you must. Personally I'd just thank the staff and the CSM or similar in a quiet phase of the flight.
3. The food/drink service offered

 

[greenfish]

I understand what is being said in this post
But yes as a platinum member paying a higher economy fare you should have been upgraded, not some guy who spent $20 on a box of cheap chocolates to bribe the staff

He was flying Premium already, so already on an expensive fare (either flexi + upgrade or premium) and was objecting to the upgrade of a family in exchange for a box of chocolates.

If that is actually what happened, it isn't good at all. I think the risk the OP takes is he appears from nowhere, blasts away, then disappears again, so hard to establish credibility.

 

[lovestotravel]

Ah I only read the post quickly, he has a point!

The problem is, even if this feedback was submitted to VA, where is the proof that the FA upgraded those customers........

 

[Cyberon]

... Obviously VA does not value their Platinum members!

This reflects on the staff members poorly. I have also received similar treatment. Based on my observations on many trips, it appears if one is middle aged and of a certain 'look', your chances of getting a free upgrade and served better are higher. This is unfortunate, but it's a fact of life in society.

Virgin take at least 1 month to reply to online complaints.

Based on my experiences before, if you don't recieve a BS reply via email (probably cut and pasted from some template), you would receive a phone call from someone who will ultimately offer you $150AUD credit.

Please keep us up to date as to your progress. PM me to discuss if required.

Cheers.

 

[lovestotravel]

Virgin take at least 1 month to reply to online complaints.

Correct, my emailed was passed around from 2 departments and then ignored

I sent back my reply last night asking what was happening with my complaint/feedback

 

[Travel Guru]

This reflects on the staff members poorly. I have also received similar treatment. Based on my observations on many trips, it appears if one is middle aged and of a certain 'look', your chances of getting a free upgrade and served better are higher. This is unfortunate, but it's a fact of life in society.

Hey it's not all bad, I never knew what a great wingman my 89yo grandfather would make until I took him on a Virgin flight with me a couple of months back lol

TG

 

[DSFlyer]

Any question or complaint I have ever made through the VA website has been answered within 48 hours and has never been BS and have allways received great service. Maybe its because I am one of those middle aged people with a certain look (or attitude that treats everyone the way I expect to be treated!).

 

[Virgin Australia]

In the past year, in order to maintain the Platinum status I have with V, i did all my flying with VA or VA partners in order to maintain this status, apart from one flight to Singapore, two flights to NZ and two flights to Melbourne. This year my intention was to do it all with VA and accepted my downgrade from Qantas Gold to silver this year and probably bronze next year but as I would predominantly fly VA it would not matter. That was until my flight this past weekend to NZ (Auckland) flying on Friday 20 April on D54 and returning on Monday 24/3 on DJ51. Have never found VA’s ground staff at airports to be the best (except LA), but the check in at Sydney was DISMAL. We were flying Premium, they had a “welcome” person there who had my invitation but not of my partner. Then when we got to the check in, we were forced to weigh our carry on at the Preferred check in, and we were well within our limit, but once we were on board we certainly saw many people flying economy had huge bags that weighed far more than 7kgs. My question is why were they not weighed and a premium and Platinum member is?



As always the crew were superb but the aircraft was VERY disappointing! I thought all your aircraft had been upgraded with an upgraded meal service and these were still the old economy seats with a table in between, unlike the two flights we had taken earlier this year to Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We had to select our meal off the menu, which seems every time one flies has contracted some more. There was choice of either a sandwich or wrap as a meal? When flying one expects a standard of service from an airline and there seems to be great inconsistencies with your flights as the flight coming back was on a refreshed cabin but it did not have your updated seating in it. Again, same menu for breakfast and unless you eat banana bread for breakfast, you go unfed. I do not think this is a premium service at all.



What was most disturbing on this return flight was a passenger with his family boarded and handed the crew a box of Ferro Rocher chocolates. There was one other passenger in premium who was asked to move from row 2 to row 1 (in which we were seated) and at this time he said he had a mate in seat 8A and could he be moved to sit with him. This was accommodated, something I find unpalatable as I had paid full ecomomy fares as well as upgrade points to be seated here and someone who could have been (and probably was) on a cheap economy ticket gets the same service and was afforded the same onboard privileges as what I had paid for! Then as soon as the flight had the seatbelt sign turned off the crew moved the family that had given them the chocolates into row 2 and afforded them the same privileges as well. Now I understand from time to time airlines have to upgrade passengers in the airport if they are overbooked, but I do not agree that this happens when on board otherwise why should I be paying for this and other passengers do not?



I am certainly weighing up rather just returning to Qantas after this most unpleasant experience with Virgin Australia. I wrote to the Customer Service Manager in the CEO's office and a week after writing to him with no response, I wrote to JB himself and no response! Obviously VA does not value their Platinum members!

Hi NotinMyworld, sorry to read about your experience and apologies about this. Our team has looked for your e-mail/letter but we haven't been able to locate it. Please private message your contact number or feedback reference number so we can contact you (we tried to PM you but seems you have this setting disabled).

 

[NM]

Hi NotinMyworld, sorry to read about your experience and apologies about this. Our team has looked for your e-mail/letter but we haven't been able to locate it. Please private message your contact number or feedback reference number so we can contact you (we tried to PM you but seems you have this setting disabled).

As the OP has only made one post on AFF, they will not be able to send a PM directly to Virgin Australia. However, the OP can send a PM to any of the Moderators (Straitman, Serfty, Markis10, Lindsay Wilson, NM, Support or Admin) and we can forward to Virgin Australia for you.

 

[Jama]

Unfortunately the current VA trans-tasman offering is substandard. Much better to book the NZ product (either as a DJ codeshare if you prefer not to be able to manage your booking or directly on the NZ site if you'd like to be able to choose a seat etc).

It seems very unfortunate that VA haven't responded to your customer complaint. I wonder if the new AFF Virgin rep has arrived yet and can assist?

The experience with the AirNZ code share is good. Just don't do it whilst double SC credits are on offer or you miss out. I did this not realizing.

 

[straitman]

An interesting thread.

I hope the OP stays around and gives Virgin a chance to resolve this.

A couple of comments from what I have seen as we travelled MEL-AKL on an NZ codeshare on 26th April and had a similar experience. (DJ8026)

1. The Air New Zealand A320s without any Premium cabin are IMHO a much worse product than the yet to be refurbished B737s of Virgin.
2. Our carryon baggage experience was also similar. All bags were being weighed and checked at checkin yet some people still had kitchen sinks with them when they boarded. Needless to say there was insufficient overhead space.
3. We were only on saver fares and quite frankly after seeing the food on offer I was happy we had eaten in the lounge.
4. I have no comments about the 'inflight upgrades' as maybe the crew did it wrong and maybe there was a lot more unseen parts to the story.

Whilst the experience of the OP here was less than optimal I have seen it just as bad across the board. I have certainly seen the inflight upgrades etc occur on Qantas without and explanation. Based on this I don't judge my inflight experience on one flight because sometimes they are better than average, sometimes they are worse than average BUT mostly they are just average.

 

[greenfish]

1. The Air New Zealand A320s without any Premium cabin are IMHO a much worse product than the yet to be refurbished B737s of Virgin.
2. Our carryon baggage experience was also similar. All bags were being weighed and checked at checkin yet some people still had kitchen sinks with them when they boarded. Needless to say there was insufficient overhead space.
3. We were only on saver fares and quite frankly after seeing the food on offer I was happy we had eaten in the lounge.
4. I have no comments about the 'inflight upgrades' as maybe the crew did it wrong and maybe there was a lot more unseen parts to the story.

Whilst the experience of the OP here was less than optimal I have seen it just as bad across the board. I have certainly seen the inflight upgrades etc occur on Qantas without and explanation. Based on this I don't judge my inflight experience on one flight because sometimes they are better than average, sometimes they are worse than average BUT mostly they are just average.

Interested to hear you felt the NZ A320 was inferior to the unrefurbished DJ 737. Why? I like the IFE on the NZ service (unless they gave you a domestic plane), the A320 interiors seem a bit more spacious than the 737 and generally less tatty than the Pacific Blue planes.

The NZ food is usually OK, despite appearances.

I found the TT DJ experience very reminiscent of "Freedom Air", NZ's LCC that no longer exists.

As for the OP venting based on one bad experience, I think DJ leave themselves open to this when their short haul international product is a step down from their domestic product - without going into the rights or wrongs of the Ferrero Rocher upgrade.

 

[Simo]

IMHO

VA just hasn't yet full turned into a full service carrier yet.

I had a VA flight a week and a bit ago and when went to go into priority line the person keeping an eye on the line said sorry this is only for blah blah and blah and then I mentioned WP and she said oops that as well.

I haven't had bad service from them but not anything outstanding either.

I have been upgraded to PE and IMHO that is nothing extra at all just a closer to the front of the plane seat.