Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one night.

[drross]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

really interesting story. thanks.

 

[Jada]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Ok, we have a result.

From the original post that started this thread we have now resolved the issue.

Within 90 minutes of sending the written complaint (on a Sunday night) I received a call from a senior manager apologising for our experience and initiating an investigation.

6 or 7 personal calls throughout the week (50% I was unable to answer) to update me on the progress of the investigation.

Today I received the final outcome.....

The company and the supervisor involved have graciously given my family a written apology, taking full responsibility for the mess up.

"I fully accept that the service you and your family have received has been poor and has not been up to our own standards. As the manager responsible I take full responsibility for the issues encountered and for this I personally sincerely apologise to you, Mrs Jada, Jadett 1 and Jadett 2. I can assure you that the service received is not indicative of our normal high standard of service."

The company has made an incredibly generous offer to assist us on our next family travel which was above expectations.

In all my years of travelling I can honestly say that I have never been so impressed with the service provided by a company after such a complaint was made, the management of Virgin took my complaint seriously, contacted me when they said they would, investigated, came back with a detailed response and sincerely apologised, not only with words but with generosity beyond expectation.

One of the most impressive points within the after complaint service can be found in the following statement made from senior management "I welcome the opportunity to regain your confidence in my airline."

The ownership of the manager involved is impressive, (my airline) at all times during the week he took responsibility as if he had offended us personally and made every effort to satisfy us to the best of his ability. This will be shared as a 'how to do customer service well' at next weeks staff meeting with my customer service team.

So a big thank you to Virgin for a remarkable recovery.

 

[straitman]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

A great outcome.

Thanks DJ.

 

[Major]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

An excellent outcome.

I hope that their investigation results in changes to their current procedures to ensure there is not a repeat of this incident

 

[richie9x]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

A good outcome. Just curious, did they explain why you were denied boarding for the first flight or why you were subsequently downgraded at the gate?

 

[N860CR]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Good to see a result. Frustrating though that you had to go to CEO level to get a decent response.

I made a pretty serious complaint about crews not complying with RSA onboard a flight (that ended with a passenger nearly being assaulted) and the best I got was a template response from customer care (months later). Ended my relationship with Virgin that night so it's cost them in the long run. Maybe an email to JB was the answer.

 

[drross]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

very happy to hear the outcome was to your satisfaction and acheived so quickly

 

[JohnK]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Great to see this issue has been resolved to your satisfaction.

But at the back of my mind will always be the poor service received in the first place and the poor people who will suffer next time. I do not wish miss connections on anyone and moreso on those without status.

 

[serfty]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

...

But at the back of my mind will always be the poor service received in the first place and the poor people who will suffer next time. ...

I would expect DJ managment at BNE have taken this case as an opportunity for re-education of its staff ... so in the short term at least such an event is somewhat less likely to happen.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Good outcome, but you did admit that you were late in the first place.
Raising this to the CEO, bit over the top, IMO only.

 

[mannej]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Good outcome, but you did admit that you were late in the first place.
Raising this to the CEO, bit over the top, IMO only.

Not their fault for being late is it. You fail to mention that the Gate Agent was still calling names of missing passengers at the time that they had arrived.

The CEO's email is publically available on the VA website ( Virgin Australia Group Executive Team | Virgin Australia ).

 

[medhead]

It sounded like there might be a disconnected between the international transfer desk and the domestic terminal. Hopefully, they investigate and fix any issues there.


Sent from the Throne

 

[BAM1748]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

I think if you've paid you money, got your boarding pass, making your way to the gate there is certainly an expectation there will be a seat.

A Virgin Australia fail for sure, amateur hour by Virgin gate staff.

Matt
(nothing wrong with naming names either, just make sure you have the right one :mrgreen:, never lost a disagreement with airline staff when I name the correct person who told me something)

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Not their fault for being late is it. You fail to mention that the Gate Agent was still calling names of missing passengers at the time that they had arrived.

The difference between the fail to board pax being paged is that are still booked and checked in on that flight so all they need is board the a/c.

The OP by now had been offloaded so the boarding passes they had were now invalid as their seats had been reassigned to other pax.

Even if they had been on QF I think they would still have been moved to the next flight as the domestic transfer desk won't accept bags within an hour of departure so they would have had to take the checked luggage with them in the cab or Tbus.

If they arrived at dom checkin within 30 mins of dep baggage acceptance would have closed so a CSA would have told them then they would be transferred to the next flight so they would not have found out at the gate.

 

[tm.smile]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

The main issue is that the Transfer Desk checked them in and issued them with boarding passes. If they were expected not to make the flight, they shouldnt have been given boarding passes.

They had no baggage and thus should not have been offloaded until boarding is complete and the flight has closed.

I don't see why its not the correct thing to do to raise the issue with the CEO if he openly welcomes feedback and publicly makes his email address available. The airport manager and the gate agent botched the 'fix'. This issue is big enough that it warrants a higher authority figure's attention. If it was let to continue, this type of culture where gate agents could be offloading checked in passengers during the boarding process would be detrimental to the good customer service of the company.

 

[blackcat20]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Even if they had been on QF I think they would still have been moved to the next flight as the domestic transfer desk won't accept bags within an hour of departure so they would have had to take the checked luggage with them in the cab or Tbus.

I made an international to domestic transfer with QF at Sydney last year that was within 30 mins; bags accepted and made the flight without any issues (besides a bit of stress).

 

[mannej]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

The difference between the fail to board pax being paged is that are still booked and checked in on that flight so all they need is board the a/c.

The OP by now had been offloaded so the boarding passes they had were now invalid as their seats had been reassigned to other pax.

Even if they had been on QF I think they would still have been moved to the next flight as the domestic transfer desk won't accept bags within an hour of departure so they would have had to take the checked luggage with them in the cab or Tbus.

If they arrived at dom checkin within 30 mins of dep baggage acceptance would have closed so a CSA would have told them then they would be transferred to the next flight so they would not have found out at the gate.

I still don't see how the OP is at fault. They went through the transfer desk as has been stated.

 

[MatF]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Reminds me of one of my most annoying connection snafu's of the past few years.

I was flying BNE-SYD-WGA on QF, as usual (every second Friday evening). Because the SYD-WGA flight I connect to is the last flight of the day, I purposely allow extra time for the connection than I need to. i.e. I get the second last flight that can connect, rather than the one QF would normally book me on to connect. This normally has me sitting in the SYD T2 QP for a good hour and a half if everything is on time.

Sadly, on this particular day things weren't going well. My BNE-SYD flight boarded on time, but we had some technical difficulties, which means we sat on the plane at the gate for about half an hour, then got off the plane, then got back on, sat there for a while longer twiddling our thumbs, and finally pushed back.

We were horribly late, but it looked like maybe I might still just make my connection. During the flight I had several discussions with FA's and the CSM about it, and was assured that they would let QantasLink know what was happening. "I'd be right" was the general response.

Anyway, we finally landed at 18:20, about 10mins before the SYD-WGA flight was due to start boarding. I got off the plane as quickly as I could, and bolted over to T2. I used the sneaky ground floor security gate, and was making good time. I was going to make it. After a long week at work in brisbane, I was going to be home that night! I ran down to gate 58, and got there at 18:40. The flight was due to leave at 18:50. Sadly, there was no plane there. Not happy Jan.

It seems that someone, somewhere, had decided I wasn't going to make it, so closed the flight and unbelieveably actually left early! Yes, I had a checked bag, but I couldn't have cared less if it didn't get to WGA with me that night. I wanted to get to WGA that night.

So nobody really seemed to care that I then had to spend the night at the airport HI, and not get home until the next day. Nobody seemed to acknowledge that anyone had spoken to anyone about where I was during this process. As a WP, I was left less than impressed with the "customer care".

OP, I share your pain.

 

[docjames]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

Reminds me of one of my most annoying connection snafu's of the past few years.

I was flying BNE-SYD-WGA on QF, as usual (every second Friday evening). Because the SYD-WGA flight I connect to is the last flight of the day, I purposely allow extra time for the connection than I need to. i.e. I get the second last flight that can connect, rather than the one QF would normally book me on to connect. This normally has me sitting in the SYD T2 QP for a good hour and a half if everything is on time.

Sadly, on this particular day things weren't going well. My BNE-SYD flight boarded on time, but we had some technical difficulties, which means we sat on the plane at the gate for about half an hour, then got off the plane, then got back on, sat there for a while longer twiddling our thumbs, and finally pushed back.

We were horribly late, but it looked like maybe I might still just make my connection. During the flight I had several discussions with FA's and the CSM about it, and was assured that they would let QantasLink know what was happening. "I'd be right" was the general response.

Anyway, we finally landed at 18:20, about 10mins before the SYD-WGA flight was due to start boarding. I got off the plane as quickly as I could, and bolted over to T2. I used the sneaky ground floor security gate, and was making good time. I was going to make it. After a long week at work in brisbane, I was going to be home that night! I ran down to gate 58, and got there at 18:40. The flight was due to leave at 18:50. Sadly, there was no plane there. Not happy Jan.

It seems that someone, somewhere, had decided I wasn't going to make it, so closed the flight and unbelieveably actually left early! Yes, I had a checked bag, but I couldn't have cared less if it didn't get to WGA with me that night. I wanted to get to WGA that night.

So nobody really seemed to care that I then had to spend the night at the airport HI, and not get home until the next day. Nobody seemed to acknowledge that anyone had spoken to anyone about where I was during this process. As a WP, I was left less than impressed with the "customer care".

OP, I share your pain.

Did you feedback and what was the response?

 

[MichaelD]

Re: Stripped of 2 boarding passes, Lied to and downgraded to Economy! All in one nigh

they would let QantasLink know what was happening

I have had similar recent experiences with QantasLink. It used to be that tight connections would be cheerfully and competently dealt with (even to the point of having a car pick up transferring pax as we were disembarking to speed our transfer). The last few times - the QantasLink transfer has left much to be desired indeed.

(and I understand exactly where you are coming from with the extra time allowance for the transfer - I do exactly the same: did Rex not have a flight you could have hopped on to WGA?)