Va 8

[newmarket]

Does anyone know what's been happening with VA8? Today and tomorrow have at least 9hour delays leaving LA.

 

[flying_double]

2 of the 5 777s are out of service at the moment. One is in the US for a scheduled refurb, and one is in NZ for unscheduled maintenance (since Monday night). VA needs 4 in service to run the daily SYD and daily BNE to schedule.

 

[Marty_]

It's a disaster. I was supposed to be on VA7 BNE > LAX on July 11, and returning VA2 LAX > SYD on July 21. Both flights cancelled the day before departure, with me shunted onto an alternative (day later) option. I was able to call and arrange things to my liking, but something is amiss. I ended up going VA1 for the outbound trip and VA10 return. The change to VA2 was particularly bad as all guests would have to book an additional night of accommodation in LA at short notice.

 

[jad01]

Likewise I am stressing about my flight on VA7 in just over a week given the poor performance in the past few weeks it will be a lottery draw on the day.

 

[newmarket]

My family got the usual problems of there being no ticket counter agents when the call centre said they would be there! The day of scheduled departure they got an offer (from the 2 hour overdue -- according to the call centre --ticket counter people) of $16 which they "might" get the next day. Not exactly helpful.

My wife said that they got "pushed aside" while waiting so that they wouldn't show up in VA's "Media Event". Sounds like pretty poor form.

It really does seem that VA could have managed to bring in staff particularly with the couple of days notice that they had.

I booked them a room as soon as I found out and two of the three of them are Gold. How were the rest of the pax handled?

We'll see if they hold up to the call centre's promise to reimburse the over night stay.

Hopefully, they're back to normal when I head back home on VA8 in a couple of weeks.

 

[Denali]

I can imagine how frustrating and upsetting it is (especially for the infrequent flyers) but I think its a matter of take care of yourself the best you can with hotels and food, keep receipts and fight it out when you get home.

 

[Marty_]

I don't really complain unless it keeps happening. There's no way to avoid the ups and downs of the aviation industry and life's too short to fret over them. Both times I called Virgin and they were more than helpful and pleasant, so really can't ask for much more than that.

(Did LAX > BNE today in Business. Top notch work by all the staff).