Boarding announcements and Flight Information Displays in Lounges

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Aus ATC

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Hi VFF,

Are you able to advise on the reliability or otherwise of boarding announcements and FIDs in the Virgin Lounges?

It would seem that if the Flight Information Displays are provided, they should be able to be relied upon by guests. Similarly if boarding announcements are to be made, they should equally be reliable as a prompt to go to the gate - for every flight.

The corollary is of course that if they (displays or announcements) are not to be relied upon, then perhaps no information is better than bad information.

Thanks,
Aus ATC
 
Flew a few days ago. FIDs and lounge announcements were correct for my flights (0600 ex BNE, 1830 ex SYD). Only error was there was no "boarding soon" indication for my flight from BNE (whereas all other flights departing around the same time showed that).

A small sample I know, but perhaps encouragement for VFF!!
 
Data point. MEL Lounge. VA341. Boarding announcement was made, but 5 or so minutes later the FID in the lounge still said "Go to gate". Fortunately I had heard the announcement and wasn't relying on the screen!
 
No reply to this thread?

The corollary is of course that if they (displays or announcements) are not to be relied upon, then perhaps no information is better than bad information.
I think a few of us here have been burned with the poor information on the displays made worse by no announcement.
 
Hi,
Thanks for your interest in this. I appreciate your concerns. Our operational colleagues are in constant dialogue with the relevant airport authorities to ensure our FIDS are accurate. I am confident that the lounge boarding calls are reliable, however the frequency of boarding calls may be affected during a significant disruption when our lounge team members are tied up with assisting disrupted guests. If there is ever any doubt, please feel free to approach one of our lounge or ground staff and they will be able to provide you with up-to-date information on the status of your flight.
 
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These three pics (of 6 FID boards all in a row on a wall) were taken within 5 seconds of each other. Pay particular attention to the local time indicated in the top right corner of each monitor. Seems that Virgin's display problems are significantly worse than we thought...

Time as an abstract concept - Virgin FIDB art installation PER airport.

va-per-t3-display1_zps51d4191f.jpg


va-per-t3-display2_zps67696239.jpg


va-per-t3-display3a_zpsac5c5ab7.jpg
 
Hi,
Thanks for your interest in this. I appreciate your concerns. Our operational colleagues are in constant dialogue with the relevant airport authorities to ensure our FIDS are accurate. I am confident that the lounge boarding calls are reliable, however the frequency of boarding calls may be affected during a significant disruption when our lounge team members are tied up with assisting disrupted guests. If there is ever any doubt, please feel free to approach one of our lounge or ground staff and they will be able to provide you with up-to-date information on the status of your flight.

I'm only an occasional VFF, just enough to be on Silver, sometimes make it to gold, but I'd like to look at the term 'reliable' in the context of lounge boarding announcements. I'm one to turn up at the departure gate at the stated boarding time "just in case" or at the latest, leave the lounge when first called. In HBA, no lounge :( so you just sit at the gate and await the start of boarding.

I like the VA boarding process - much more orderly than the other lot.

But I don't think I've ever seen boarding actually commence earlier than 10 minutes after the stated boarding time (and this is pax needing assistance and/or with children). I understand why this might be so - get the pax corralled by the gate otherwise they'll be late. But to describe lounge boarding calls as 'reliable' gives them a sense of greater relevance than seems to be the case.
 
Interesting report I got from my mother recently (Virgin WP since it started basically - 2 or 3 return trips a week ex SYD).

Arrived at the SYD premium checkin and told boarding was delayed half an hour. She happened to notice at the original departure time that the flight was showing "closed".

Reported to the desk where she was advised that she had been offloaded. When commenting that no call had been made, the staff advised "we're not obliged to call any flights". When remarking that she had been advised on arrival that the flight was half an hour late, the response was simply a shrugged shoulder. She was told she had to purchase a fare ($450ish SYD-MEL) to travel on the next flight (and was seated in a middle seat towards the back).

Apparently a few others suffered the same fate.
 
Thats pretty poor form especially for a premium member, I hope she submitted some feedback.
 
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