If known that connection will be missed before delayed departure of first flight?

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theblank

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Our VA7 flight on 20/09 from BNE-LAX was delayed 4 hours, which coincidentally was my planned Transit in LAX so we missed our connection on DL to PHX
At checkin, the staff hand over the boarding pass for the DL flight we obviously will not make and assured us that our connection would be rebooked as soon as VA7 took off, which made sense - could have been delayed again.

However on arrival in LAX at around 11.00am, found a VA staffer running around the baggage claim area with a list of rebooked connections, and we were not on it. after waiting about 30 mins more at the transit desk queue (2 people in front of me) , and eventually told the only flight available for the 2 of us was 8.30pm. Apparently all 3 previous flights only had 1 seat available each. So after arriving early for our flight in BNE, we waited 6 hours there, and then another 9+ hours in LAX, was not fun.

we did get $16 (each) food vouchers at BNE and again at LAX which was ok, but I have heard of better outcomes than that. My main issue with this affair is that they had 17 hours advance notice of the connection being missed, and they did nothing about it.

Whats the usual expectation when its known a connection will be missed before the first flight departs?
 
My experience is that they will fly you as far as they can, and work it out at the airport where the miss actually occurs.

Sometimes the intermediate airport is onto it (usual case), and sometimes things go awry. I've ended up with some unexpected nights in hotels before..
 
I would complain in writing and see what happens. Virgin are pretty woeful at this stuff and have been for years.
 
I've ended up with some unexpected nights in hotels before..

she indicated she could do a hotel after I asked for some 'free stuff' to tide us over, but I tactfully declined. I figured that if I took that, then I had little to make a formal complaint about later, and it would have only been about 4 hours in the room anyway. Plus I was going to use my priority pass to get into the Virgin Atlantic lounge, which backfired as its only available from 7am to 11am - that didnt bother me as much as the wife whining that i knocked the hotel back... :)

it was interesting that the VA transit desk lady didnt even offer me the vouchers until I asked - i suspect she was already long overdue to end her shift, and i was the last person to be attended to.

I feel sorry for another lady in the same predicament. she only wanted to go to Las Vegas and was put on a flight via Seattle. Perhaps this is normal for a Friday afternoon in LA, everyone is leaving and most flghts are full?
 
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it’s not just virgin, many airlines handle delays in the same way. Friend of mine was on Emirates, delayed out of Europe to the extent they missed their connection in DXB, even before takeoff. EK refused to proactively book them, even though the new flight we wanted was hours away, and there was only one last seat on it.

Of course EK mucked it up.

Not taking the hotel so you could lodge a better complaint?
 
Not all airlines are perfect but my experience with Virgin is they're very poor at handling delays.

Had it in SYD again last week. How does a 7:40pm arrival from DRW form the 8:00pm to BNE? Of course it doesn't and any clown can see that it doesnt. We took off at 8:55pm and arrived 36 minutes late which is a fail.

Send feedback. You may get 10,000 Velocity dong as compensation.
 
Send feedback. You may get 10,000 Velocity dong as compensation.

Velocity dong?? Is that some sort of Vietnamese devaluation where for 15 velocity dongs = 1 VFF point?
 
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What would really annoy me is your could drive from LAX to Phoenix is less time than your delay.

As for the poor woman only going to Vegas, geez.
 
Velocity dong?? Is that some sort of Vietnamese devaluation where for 15 velocity dongs = 1 VFF point?
Not much compensation offered for inconvenient delays?
 
Thanks all for the help. Firing off a firm but fair feedback complaint to Virgin shortly. A few thousand dong in my hand is a much better outcome for me than 2-3 hours in a hotel (plus the hassle for travelling to and from the airport).

Not all airlines are perfect but my experience with Virgin is they're very poor at handling delays.

admittedly the lady walking around baggage claim, did have at least 2 plus pages of names of rescheduled bookings on a clipboard so they did a fair job of it.
So all up they only left a handful of people hangin - that doesnt really make me feel warm and fuzzy for them though :)

What would really annoy me is your could drive from LAX to Phoenix is less time than your delay.

what annoys me even more about that is the cost of rental car that I picked up in PHX would have neen the same had I booked it from LAX one way rental (the petrol aside). But from a practical point of view, probably not the best idea. You probaby have noticed that 'bad light affects play" around 3-4pm California time on day 1 from Australia.
 
I would never leave this up to the airline. Too much at stake. They usually tell you that they will handle it, but you can't be sure, unfortunately.

So my advice would be to call VA reservations just before or even after boarding. Work it out with them and get rebooked. If it doesn't get sorted before you take off, get online and shoot an email and tweet to VA while you are in-flight. Last chance, you can even call while taxiing after landing and this will give you an hour head start probably. Get an actual person looking at your itinerary ASAP when there will be a misconnect, this will give the best result.

Usually misconnects after a 15 hour flight are easily handled as there is plenty of time to get it sorted. As long as you get the ball rolling early.
 
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