Moved seats in favour of Virgin Blue Employee

[Isafjordur]

Hi All,Was wanting some advice regarding an incident on a Virgin Blue flight 3 weeks ago. I completed an online checkin at one of the self checkin computer terminals at the Virgin Blue area at Sydney Airport. I did this a couple of hours before my flight & specifically selected my seat.At the Departure Gate, I was paged to the desk & informed by the Virgin Blue Ground staff that I had been reassigned to another seat in order to make room for a family. The seat I was given was worse than what I had originally selected. I did not make a fuss. Upon boarding the plane, I discovered that I had been made to move to make room not for a family but for a Virgin Blue employee!!! I was annoyed I had been lied to and that a staff member had been given priority over a paying customer.When I arrived in Melbourne, I went to the service desk to make a complaint. The staff member expressed surprise that I had been treated in such a manner, but said the best thing to do was for me to file a complaint using the Virgin Blue website. That was over 3 weeks ago & I am yet to hear anything, even though their website states that I should hear back from them within 21 days.Does anyone know how I can get a response from Virgin? Thanks

 

[littl_flier]

Hi isafjordur and welcome to AFF!

Any airline is able to make changes to seat assignment at any time and are unable to guarantee that pre-selected seats will be honoured. These are for various reasons including the "family" reason cited.

However, I do believe that you were given a rough deal in that you were told you were moved for a family when the real reason was for an employee. Unfortunately though, I don't think you can expect much out of Virgin and you might have to cop it on the chin. You may receive an apology but I doubt if there would be any compensation for your circumstances.

As for contacting Virgin Blue, I would hold off for another week or so and then try ringing the customer service centre and explaining your situation. Alternatively and after you've tried the above options, maybe send a PM (private message) to crazydave98 and seeing if he can help you.

Cheers,
littl_flier

 

[Sequel]

I would be prepared to wait a little longer for a response. I dont have experience with DJ, however the auto reply for QF complaints states they WILL get back to you within 5 working days, and that took 3 weeks for a response, so DJ's should make contact in 21 days might be longer, however for your sake I hope not.

And welcome to AFF!

 

[simongr]

A pretty rough deal and not exactly great customer service. One point might be that they needed to shuffle you for a family and that led to the DJ staff getting your seat - or in fact the DJ staff might have been a member of the family so you might not have been lied to.

I would not expect any compensation of any sort as no seating is guaranteed - but if you do feel strongly I would suggest voting with your feet and not flying DJ again.

 

[Arthur Hodgson]

In my experience DJ is a pretty unprofessional outfit, run by a bunch of cowboys.

I have written to them before about poor service, but never received a reply at all. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get one either.

My approach is to only ever fly DJ if their fares are much lower than the competition. They rarely are IMHO. Loyalty is not an issue, either way.

 

[Isafjordur]

Many thanks for everyone's replies. I should've added that the Virgin Blue employee had no one else sitting in his row, therefore it was quite obvious that I had been moved for him. The staff at the service desk also told me that employees are supposed to get whatever seats are left over, which made me even more annoyed!
I'll take your advice & wait another week before contacting them.