Call times for TWO41 and comp upgrades

[Undercover Brother]

Hi VFF,

Welcome back.

Yearly I use my Virgin CC 2 for 1, then comp upgrades to snag an amazing deal with the missus and I. Incredible value, so thanks.

However, after just spending 50 minutes calling Virgin/Velocity to try to organise this, have a few suggestions;

- Firstly, spending 50 minutes on the phone is excessive, and a massive waste of my time. Whilst I don't blame the staff, they clearly are struggling with the new systems (they told me so), and don't have the tools they need to do the job efficiently.

- To avoid the above, surely this whole process can be automated, and competed by the customer online. The status of these offers is already linked, and visible to our accounts through the Velocity FF system.

- If possible, when transferring calls between Virgin and Velocity call centres, can FF and/or booking information be transferred to avoid repetition and re-identification?

- Lastly, I was booked onto a B737-700 flight without a business class cabin, and only found this out while checking the itinerary. Upon calling back (another 15 minute call), the staff had immense trouble confirming that I would be on a B737-800, she simply did not have the tools at her disposal to help me. In the end I had to look the flight up online myself and ask her to change into that flight.

In the grand scheme of things these are only little gripes, but a chance to improve customer experience.

Cheers,
Undercover Brother

 

[lovestotravel]

- Firstly, spending 50 minutes on the phone is excessive, and a massive waste of my time. Whilst I don't blame the staff, they clearly are struggling with the new systems (they told me so), and don't have the tools they need to do the job efficiently.

The new system has been up and running for over 3 months, the fact they are claiming system issues is laughable

 

[Fruitcake]

- Lastly, I was booked onto a B737-700 flight without a business class cabin, and only found this out while checking the itinerary.

The domestic 737 refit program (including the 737-700s) was finished mid-2012. AKAIK the only 737s without a J cabin are the ZK registered Virgin Australia (NZ) fleet. And I don't think that there are an ZK registered 737-700s.

 

[MadFairlane]

AKAIK the only 737s without a J cabin are the ZK registered Virgin Australia (NZ) fleet.

This is true, and is annoying.

Was going to dump some complementary upgrades on our flights this year to NAN, but now wont...

No point on transcon as I fly J anyhow lol

 

[smit0847]

This is true, and is annoying.

Was going to dump some complementary upgrades on our flights this year to NAN, but now wont...

No point on transcon as I fly J anyhow lol

Comp upgrades only available on dom flights.

I also agree the 2-4-1 should be do-able online. I've never booked anything in less than 25 minutes over the phone. The robots in the call centre waste a long time telling me what time I should check in for the flight and whether I'm allowed to bring baggage despite by status clearly showing I'm a very regular flier.

 

[MadFairlane]

Comp upgrades only available on dom flights.
.

I thought it included SHI as well... ah well no great loss then.

 

[roby]

This has got to be a hit and miss. I just redeemed all of my 5 complimentary upgrades incredibly easily on SYD-PER and return into Business. There are 3 of us travelling. Booked a 2FOR1 for 2 of us by calling and the third separately online while on the phone. I wasn't too sure if I could do this but the lady on the Platinum line was incredibly helpful and told me all she needed was the booking reference for the third person. So I successfully used 3 upgrades on the outbound and 2 on the return. My wife happened to have 1 complimentary upgarde left. A separate call did the job on the last person on the return flight. We are extremely happy having not wasted any of them.