Bugalugz
Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2006
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- 238
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Just returned from a Bali - Port Hedland flight operated by VA Regional (Ex Skywest)
Flight going over, no problems. Except still waiting on points to credit 8 days later!
But in Bali today, what an absolute shambles!!!! Actually that's an understatement. I understand that the ground service is contracted but seriously get you S*it together!!
After security we went to the monitors/FIDS and looked for the Port Hedland flight and it was there but listed at a completely different time Dep 0900 instead of 0950 and with "XR 254". Luckily I'm switched on and knew about the Virgin takeover etc but go to the check in counter and it's once again got the flight listed as XR 254 and had PHE on there....we were actually on VA 2613 so not even close.
The check in was a joke, no priority lane, no priority tags and just plain rude ground crew. When asking for priority tags as I'm gold I was just looked at. Another traveler that I knew got them from a different check in agent so it was just obviously the one I had checking me in. Didn't really stress about the bag tags as it's only Port Hedland and under 100 people on the plane so didn't really care but it's still listed as a benefit for Gold status Frequent Flyers.
So after the mass confusion and people sitting around waiting for a Virgin check in desk to open, luckily it was the only Australia flight leaving at the time so people were asking others but ALOT of people were confused whether it was a Skywest or Virgin flight. Some people would have booked Skywest and got new itinerary's during the changeover and Some like myself who booked via the Virgin website and it's sold and marketed as a Virgin Australia Regional Airlines flight so may be unaware it used to be operated by XR. It just caused confusion especially since it was listing the flight as being operated by Skywest, different flight number and being closed and departing at 0900hrs on the screens.
Sure, I'm sure 90% of people would have worked out there's only 1 flight to Port Hedland from Bali, it's not like you would actually want to go to Hedland but the Skywest flights have been Virgin operated and marketed with Virgin flight numbers for over a month now so surely someone told the contractors in Bali this was the case and updated the Airline info and flight numbers.
So after checking in and heading into the departures area, once again the FIDS displayed a completely different flight time we were now up to 1100 or 1200 (can't remember exactly but it was a lot later so this caused a cough load of confusion as well)
Waiting lounge announcements, boarding announcements and security all referred to this flight as Skywest, even the security guard didn't want to let us in to the waiting lounge as we were flying Virgin and not Skywest....WTF!!!??
There was some serious identity issues today and some serious ground issues that need to be looked into and have sent a complaint in but if it's like Qantas nothing will get done for months so posting this to hopefully get some follow up as it's just ridiculous not even having the same airline or flight number on FIDS and each displaying different departure times and the general confusion related to the whole fiasco.
What annoyed me more was there was an older couple who obviously weren't familiar with eh whole situation Skywest/Virgin thing and were asking ground staff about the Port Hedland flight and they were told its Skywest and not Virgin, luckily I overheard the situation and was able to assist.
The whole rant might sound a bit petty but the old couple tipped me over the edge to have a whinge about the situation.
On the plus side the crew were excellent and the meal wasn't too bad either much better than the minced dog & rice on the way over
Cheers,
Flight going over, no problems. Except still waiting on points to credit 8 days later!
But in Bali today, what an absolute shambles!!!! Actually that's an understatement. I understand that the ground service is contracted but seriously get you S*it together!!
After security we went to the monitors/FIDS and looked for the Port Hedland flight and it was there but listed at a completely different time Dep 0900 instead of 0950 and with "XR 254". Luckily I'm switched on and knew about the Virgin takeover etc but go to the check in counter and it's once again got the flight listed as XR 254 and had PHE on there....we were actually on VA 2613 so not even close.
The check in was a joke, no priority lane, no priority tags and just plain rude ground crew. When asking for priority tags as I'm gold I was just looked at. Another traveler that I knew got them from a different check in agent so it was just obviously the one I had checking me in. Didn't really stress about the bag tags as it's only Port Hedland and under 100 people on the plane so didn't really care but it's still listed as a benefit for Gold status Frequent Flyers.
So after the mass confusion and people sitting around waiting for a Virgin check in desk to open, luckily it was the only Australia flight leaving at the time so people were asking others but ALOT of people were confused whether it was a Skywest or Virgin flight. Some people would have booked Skywest and got new itinerary's during the changeover and Some like myself who booked via the Virgin website and it's sold and marketed as a Virgin Australia Regional Airlines flight so may be unaware it used to be operated by XR. It just caused confusion especially since it was listing the flight as being operated by Skywest, different flight number and being closed and departing at 0900hrs on the screens.
Sure, I'm sure 90% of people would have worked out there's only 1 flight to Port Hedland from Bali, it's not like you would actually want to go to Hedland
but the Skywest flights have been Virgin operated and marketed with Virgin flight numbers for over a month now so surely someone told the contractors in Bali this was the case and updated the Airline info and flight numbers.So after checking in and heading into the departures area, once again the FIDS displayed a completely different flight time we were now up to 1100 or 1200 (can't remember exactly but it was a lot later so this caused a cough load of confusion as well)
Waiting lounge announcements, boarding announcements and security all referred to this flight as Skywest, even the security guard didn't want to let us in to the waiting lounge as we were flying Virgin and not Skywest....WTF!!!??
There was some serious identity issues today and some serious ground issues that need to be looked into and have sent a complaint in but if it's like Qantas nothing will get done for months so posting this to hopefully get some follow up as it's just ridiculous not even having the same airline or flight number on FIDS and each displaying different departure times and the general confusion related to the whole fiasco.
What annoyed me more was there was an older couple who obviously weren't familiar with eh whole situation Skywest/Virgin thing and were asking ground staff about the Port Hedland flight and they were told its Skywest and not Virgin, luckily I overheard the situation and was able to assist.
The whole rant might sound a bit petty but the old couple tipped me over the edge to have a whinge about the situation.
On the plus side the crew were excellent and the meal wasn't too bad either much better than the minced dog & rice on the way over
Cheers,
