The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story?

[jakeseven7]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

It is good to see a real attempt at customer service as it is so lacking in our community these days.

You could argue however that as it has been raised previously and still not corrected that nothing has really been done.

I hope Robs gets a decent amount of $/credit back but more importantly I hope they fix the issue rather than just treat the symptoms

 

[markis10]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Markis10, I think it was a mixture of your tone and words to be honest, I must admit I had the same out take as Rob to your reply....

I am just surprised at how many people take up an issue with people who cannot do anything to fix the problem, especially "company directors" who should understand the importance of feedback and empowerment. In this case , put yourself in the shoes of the crew, what can they do, waive their wand and change the aircraft, do we expect all the crew to know the history of the aircraft they are operating given DJ have 57 737's and in the last month alone added two new frames?

By all means express frustration, but at least do something about it in a positive sense, provide feedback to the people that can do something about it, get on the phone to DJ HQ and ask for a corporate manager to give you a good deal and solve your issues, read about why its happening and what changes are coming etc etc so you are forewarned and for armed in future.

Blowing off steam makes you feel better but constructive action gets results IMHO.

Maybe the issue still exists because by and large the problem was raised with the wrong people, to put things in context this is the second thread in 6 months about the issue, I count at least 12 737s operating each day that would be putting customers in the same position! I agree the OP has been treated badly based on their side of the story, and that it should not be happening, unlike QF, DJ have had a long and active participation in this forum so the more we hear of such happenings the better chance they are reduced moving forward, the fact PE is not being continued is indicative of this.

 

[straitman]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

You could argue however that as it has been raised previously and still not corrected that nothing has really been done.

Not really a fair argument IMHO. Here you have someone who has offered to (actually) follow up and hopefully sort this out.

I hope Robs gets a decent amount of $/credit back but more importantly I hope they fix the issue rather than just treat the symptoms

I agree entirely and will be watching to see how it all unfolds.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Not really a fair argument IMHO. Here you have someone who has offered to (actually) follow up and hopefully sort this out.

The issue is that this is a path that we have been down before. In the other thread, on the 6th of April, CrazyDave98 wrote:

I am sorry to hear of your unsatisfactory experiences and agree that it is unacceptable that you were not contacted to make alternative arrangements once it was known that a PE-equipped aircraft was not going to be available to operate your flight. Also not acceptable that the Lounge or gate staff did not contact you pro-actively. This has now been raised internally, along with a request to review the compensation levels.

I think it is a fair and reasonable question to ask, why if this has been raised previously, is the same problem occuring?


As an aside, I think it's great that Virgin Blue have employees actively helping out on these forums, and resolving issues. I guess like any large companies, sometimes getting things changed internally is hard work.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Rob, I empathise with your situation - I think it is outrageous they are still selling a service they cannot provide. Its even more annyoing to find out that DJ are very aware of this as well.

Good point Jake!
It's not as if they misplaced a set of car keys. It's a vital multi million dollar piece of equipment. They know where they are at all times (at BNE HQ) and using IT as an excuse is pretty poor, if they do indeed go down that path. Sure, a plane switch here and there may occur, but as Markis10 pointed out in a previous post, this has been an ongoing issue and DJ are advertising PE seats where none exist.

Selling PE on a plane that they know doesn't have PE with prior knowledge would amount to some type of fraud l would say. (Maybe l am wrong???)

I hope that the OP does get a refund of some sort and that these issues can be sorted out for the better. (eg; A refund and to put the icing on the cake maybe even comped DJ Gold for a few years as a sorry???)

Also, good on DJ for coming to this forum, trying to help resolve such issues. It seems that there are now 2 DJ employees (I assume) who are seriously trying to help shape the airline for the better and not puppets like "Red Roo" who l think needs authority for above them and proof reading of their posts before he/she can post.

CrazyDave and Velocity Rewards @DJ, well done on your efforts.

 

[pauly7]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Not really a fair argument IMHO. Here you have someone who has offered to (actually) follow up and hopefully sort this out.

.

Considering DJ has been aware of this for a minimum of 6 whole months - from when it was first communicated to crazydave (and he recognised this indicating they would take action) I think the arguement is completely fair.

I agree with the point made previously that their 'fix' here seems to be, based on the limited information we have available - just treating the symptoms as it probably isn't worth their while trying to manage it any other way given the low use of PE.

If this is the case - I don't think this is good business practice as evidenced by the anger of the OP!

 

[markis10]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

The issue is that this is a path that we have been down before. In the other thread, on the 6th of April, CrazyDave98 wrote:



I think it is a fair and reasonable question to ask, why if this has been raised previously, is the same problem occuring?

I agree its fair to ask. 6 months down the track and we have 1 more unhappy customer, that either means there are two customers that fly PE that have been affected and found AFF or by and large it was fixed, with the exception of some staff who have not followed procedure.

The only response posted by the OP has indicated that a voicemail was left offering a free upgrade, there has been no indication of a formal complaint raised nor compensation offered by/with DJ, be it $50 or $500!

 

[simongr]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Surely a simple phone call after the flight would fix this?

"Hi I booked a PE flight and was given an economy seat. Please can you refund the fare difference? kthxbai"

 

[mannej]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Surely a simple phone call after the flight would fix this?

"Hi I booked a PE flight and was given an economy seat. Please can you refund the fare difference? kthxbai"

The problem is what DJ define as the fare difference differs (in previous cases) to what the customer believes what they should get.

 

[simongr]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Well just compare a flexible economy fare with a the PE fare and refund the difference - you can't compare a deep discount fare with PE of course.

Frankly after they did this twice and if there hadnt been adequate "compensation" then I would switch my business away from them.

 

[NM]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Well just compare a flexible economy fare with a the PE fare and refund the difference - you can't compare a deep discount fare with PE of course.

but it may well be the case that the PE fare was purchased because the passenger wanted the PE seat and not due to the flexible nature of the fare rules. It may be that if the passenger wanted to fly in an economy seat they would have purchased a cheaper fare and been happy with the fare restrictions. In this case the additional fare they have paid in order to get a PE seat may be considerably more than the difference between PE and say the Corporate Plus fare.

If I had paid for PE and landed an aircraft without PE seating, I would expect to be given a Blue Zone seat with middle seat blocked and all other PE amenities as a minimum. Then I would expect an immediate refund (not just a credit voucher for future travel) of the difference between PE and Blue Zone less the cost to purchase on-board meal that would have been provided as part of the PE fare. And if Live2Air was not available on the flight, I would expect the refund to include the normal cost of viewing L2A.

 

[BAM1748]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

I also find QANTAS to be overpriced, especially considering the very, very poor customer service on board (a smile once in a while would be nice) and QANTAS excells in making you feel that you should be grateful to them, especially in Business. They should amalgamate with BA, at least their intials would say it all (Bad Attitude)

Never had an issue with Qantas business or economy class service in 20 plus years, never had a problem with Virgin either but hardly fly them and not in the last 12 months.

So you don't like Qantas and now don't like Virgin, maybe easier to change the expectation than fly the third alternative.

I guess if you helped set the policy you'd better help change it! :mrgreen:

Matt

 

[JohnK]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

It seems to me that Virgin Blue is committing fraud by offering “Premium Economy” seating on aircraft it knows don’t offer “Premium Economy” seating or live-to-air or any of the other “Premium Economy” benefits.

If I tried this in my business I would be before the trade practises authorities in the blink of an eye. It would be like me selling a product with X, Y and Z features, but only delivering a product with feature X.

This does not appear to be an isolated incident. We had a recent story on AFF of someone purchasing premium eonomy on Virgin Atlantic from UK to Australia and was put on an economy flight on QF from SIN to Australia without any compensation.

Why are airlines able to sell a product and when they cannot do deliver (for whatever reason) they do not offer compensation and leave it up to the customer to chase up some sort of compensation.

In this type of situation I would expect the difference between premium economy airfare and lowest possible economy class airfare (+ blue zone seating if this was offered) as the person purchasing premium economy is not looking for flexibility but rather a premium economy seat and experience.

I decided to take my wife to Perth with me this time (167,500 points + $2684.98) for our 23rd Wedding aniversary...

This just does not make sense to me. Is that velocity points + cash payment for a premium economy award BNE-PER return for 1 person or 2 people? Sounds extremely expensive either way.

 

[markis10]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

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This just does not make sense to me. Is that velocity points + cash payment for a premium economy award BNE-PER return for 1 person or 2 people? Sounds extremely expensive either way.

Its $4K for two return normally, so that fits as far as points + cash.

 

[dk4]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

... And if Live2Air was not available on the flight, I would expect the refund to include the normal cost of viewing L2A.

I think that personal video devices are given (exclusively on short flights) to P.E. customers in this situation?

 

[JohnK]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Its $4K for two return normally, so that fits as far as points + cash.

Wow! One person return in premium economy is ~$2,000? :shock:

Sorry but in my opinion that is a total rip-off.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

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This does not appear to be an isolated incident. We had a recent story on AFF of someone purchasing premium eonomy on Virgin Atlantic from UK to Australia and was put on an economy flight on QF from SIN to Australia without any compensation.

A few things about this:
1) Virgin Atlantic is a different company
2) The flight from SIN-SYD was on SQ, which doesn't have a PE
3) They were paid compensation - the issue they had was understanding the amount in the context of EU legislation.

Read it all here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ed-boarding-premium-economy-down-20941-2.html

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

DJ's BNE-PER on points. (pretty sure it's in Y, not Y+), random date in November.


View attachment 1342

View attachment 1343

There were more seats available, but l cropped the second image.

Seems like you can play around with the points and pay system, (Like QF's ASA and Classic awards) or just points only.

 

[markis10]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

DJ's BNE-PER on points. (pretty sure it's in Y, not Y+), random date in November.


View attachment 1342

View attachment 1343

There were more seats available, but l cropped the second image.

Seems like you can play around with the points and pay system, (Like QF's ASA and Classic awards) or just points only.

Click on show more fares to get y+.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Re: The great VIRGIN BLUE PREMIUM ECONOMY rip off! - Does anyone have a similar story

Click on show more fares to get y+.

Cheers.
Wow, talk about burning points.

View attachment 1344


I only have 1,055 Velocity points. Does anyone have a favorite charity where l can donate them too?