VA 830 Sydney to Melbourne, total incompetence!

[Pinkmoose]

Dear Virgin Australia,
You have a plane load of very pissed of passengers waiting at gate 38 at Sydney airport, waiting for a delayed 10am flight.
I can understand that sometimes flights go technical and that there is a delay. I can deal with that. The fact that the incoming aircraft has left Melbourne and that no one knows when the incoming flight is arriving, or what gate it is arriving at is very disconcerting. The staff at the gates do not know what is going on and keep telling me to check the screens. The screens are incorrect and no one knows what is happening with the flight. The check in staff are also lost and a few thought that the flight had already left.
On boxing day flying with an infant, you have seriously screwed up our plans!
Thanks Virgin.

 

[markis10]

Go for a walk,

Virgin Australia International Flight 830
Delayed (2 hours) - departs in 1 hour 18 mins
SYD
MEL
Departs Sydney, today
Scheduled 10:00 am Terminal Gate
11:45 am 2 -
Arrives Melbourne, today
Scheduled 11:35 am Terminal Gate
1:20 pm 3 -

 

[Newk]

Dear Virgin Australia,
You have a plane load of very pissed of passengers waiting at gate 38 at Sydney airport, waiting for a delayed 10am flight.
I can understand that sometimes flights go technical and that there is a delay. I can deal with that. The fact that the incoming aircraft has left Melbourne and that no one knows when the incoming flight is arriving, or what gate it is arriving at is very disconcerting. The staff at the gates do not know what is going on and keep telling me to check the screens. The screens are incorrect and no one knows what is happening with the flight. The check in staff are also lost and a few thought that the flight had already left.
On boxing day flying with an infant, you have seriously screwed up our plans!
Thanks Virgin.

Yeah. These things are MOSTLY about communication. I do hope things get better for you, it must be terrible.

Because of a similar incident on the orange cancer airline I will now do all I can to avoid flying them

At the same time we must recognise that running something as complicated as an airline must be pretty hard


best wishes

N

 

[Pinkmoose]

Thanks for your help Markis10. I hope your not on the flight. We scheduled this flight during our sons nap time. He is currently asleep. However he will be wide awake during the flight. I hope he will be quiet, as it is his first flight.

 

[Pinkmoose]

Hi newk,
Thanks for the message. I try not to fly the orange death-star either.
This was a free flight as part of a credit card offer and the first time (and last time), ever flying Virgin.
It is just amazing how little the staff know and care. If this was any other business, it would be bankrupt.

 

[markis10]

Thanks for your help Markis10. I hope your not on the flight. We scheduled this flight during our sons nap time. He is currently asleep. However he will be wide awake during the flight. I hope he will be quiet, as it is his first flight.

I am at home with the flu so no where near an airport! Don't stress re your son being quiet, other passengers are parents and know what it's like, just try to remember to feed him on climb and descent whether he is hungry or not to equalise the air pressure changes. I hope things get better for you.

FWIW I find VA gate staff to be the source of many problems, not the solution.

 

[Pinkmoose]

Thanks for your suggestions. We have packed lots of food and we hope our son will be quiet.
I also hope you feel better soon.

 

[jneufeld]

VA819 is the late inbound out of MEL keep an eye on that flight and with any luck you will be boarding 30 mins after it arrives

 

[Pinkmoose]

Thanks jneufeld,
The screens have been updated that VA819 arrives at 11.22 and our departure time is now 11.45.
Somehow I doubt that will happen.
Oh well...
Nothing to do but wait.

 

[Pinkmoose]

Hi everyone. Just an update. The PA system is broken. But at least the incoming plane had arrived.
Thanks again for your help everyone.

 

[Ausbt]

Wow - are you for real? This is a free flight AND your first with VA and you are making a fuss?! My advice to you IS to make it your last. There are folk on this forum who do 100+ sectors per annum. Personally I've done 60+ per annum for about the last six years, across a variety of airlines. How many delays, cancellations etc do you think we've all experienced? Plenty.

In fact my own VA on Christmas Day was cancelled, forcing me onto another inconvenient flight. I complained - politely. I got no where, no big deal. I dealt with it and I moved on, uncompensated.

But in the past I can assure you I have been well compensated and well looked after by VA who IMHO are well ahead of QF. The gate staff are not flying the plane, repairing the incoming plane nor creating the weather - give them a break.

 

[iambents]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Glad someone said what I was thinking. If anyone thinks that poor communication during delays is unique to VA then they should read a newspaper occasionally.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]While I don't know anything about how gates are allocated at T2 - given the flight from MEL arrived more than an hour after the original post - then its likely VA (let alone the poor kid on the gate desk) didn't know what gate the flight would be arriving at. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Hopefully VA will learn the lesson that delays are not to occur outside of nap time.[/FONT]

 

[Intra]

Stuff happens.... Some may experience more often for whatever reason, but as a community of FREQUENT FLYERS, we deal with it as best possible and move on! Not jump from one boat to the next based on one bad experience compared with all the great experiences/positives we find also. (And hence why there is a good number of us that won't fly The Orange Cancer - Not too many positives to be found. You couldn't pay me to fly Tiger either, no chance!)

If you want to complain (somewhat) directly, I hear apporiate official Facebook/Twitter channels get read by someone from the company... By the time the VFF Rep reads it here, it'll all be over most likely anyway. I say "hear", because unlike others here who can grab a laugh from frustrated flyers that want to vent, all it does is anger me....

Similar experience happened to me WLG->BNE a few months back; Delayed flight which eventually was reschedueled til the next morning, for whatever crazy reason, all sorts of reports & rumours were making the rounds as we tried to kill time. VA Communication was poor; I was though one of the lucky one's (15~ of us) that could enjoy the Koru Lounge - The rest of my family roughed it out with everyone else in the terminal, was a full flight.
Even if I didn't have the Koru Lounge Access, I wouldn't stuff VA because of it... Not that quickly anyway...

 

[under the radar]

but as a community of FREQUENT FLYERS, we deal with it as best possible and move on!

ROFL...LOL..you're kidding..aren't you?? this forum is full of F/F whingers who cant seem to move on!!

 

[erkpod]

Hopefully VA will learn the lesson that delays are not to occur outside of nap time.

Best. Quote. Today.

 

[Newk]

come on peeps. We all like to ventilate when stuff happens. If you cannot ventilate to your "mates" on AFF without the risk of being slammed as a whinger who can you ventilate to?
Not quite sure why some of the posters above had to adopt the tone that they did
Now I better leave this topic and make no further coments

 

[777]

While i do actually sympathise with the OP -- particularly on the first flight with an infant -- the best advice in this thread is in his/her avatar.

 

[Pinkmoose]

Hello everyone,
I would like to thank everyone who replied and assisted me throughout this flight delay.
I am a FF and do a fair amount of traveling all around the world and as such I am used to delays, cancellations and other various things going wrong which are beyond my control. Please refer to my OP where I state I understand that there are delays and that these things happen.
What I found to be incredibly frustrating is that the Virgin staff are absent from most gates, that there are no staff at the service desk and then when you find a staff member they are not interested in your problem.
This was my main issue. When flying other Airlines at least the staff make an effort to appear to be helpful, even if they cannot actually do anything. They provide advice, check for alternative flights, provide drink vouchers or just make helpful suggestions. This was not observed today dealing with the VA staff.
For example, I was told directly by a staff member at gate 39 (our gate was 38, but no one was present), that no one within the terminal could assist me with any information at all and that I would have to exist the terminal and then go back to the check in staff and request for their assistance. I didn't believe that this was standard practice, but since he was the only staff member present for 10 gates, I followed his advice and left the terminal to consult the check in staff. They looked at me like an idiot when I explained the problem and told me I should have gone to see the staff at the service desk or another gate. When I told them that I had gone to see the only staff member present, they again looked at me like an idiot.
So overall I got more information from the friendly members of this forum than the VA staff.

I also contacted Virgin Australia from their Facebook page and got a response within minutes. They were not especially helpful, starting that I needed to find a staff member at the airport to assist me further.

I am not looking for pity nor was I expecting an Avalanche of abuse. I was stressed that I was flying with my infant son and that he would be rowdy and annoy fellow passengers. We booked the flight during his nap time and we expected him to sleep at some time during the flight. However everything went well and my son was fine.

So overall thanks to ask the helpful people who helped me out. It is people like you who make this forum work and a fun place to be.

 

[eastwest101]

...For example, I was told directly by a staff member at gate 39 (our gate was 38, but no one was present), that no one within the terminal could assist me with any information at all and that I would have to exist the terminal and then go back to the check in staff and request for their assistance. I didn't believe that this was standard practice, but since he was the only staff member present for 10 gates, I followed his advice and left the terminal to consult the check in staff. They looked at me like an idiot when I explained the problem and told me I should have gone to see the staff at the service desk....

Yes - its not unique to VA but does seem to be a bit of a reoccurring theme in the VA discussion area. One of the take aways I get from this is that - and I seem to a bit of a stuck record on this point - is that if the Flight Information boards were kept up to date and accurate, then maybe staff wouldn't feel like they have to hide from, or be kept busy by, numerous passengers making many enquiries about late/delayed and change of schedule flights and gates. If the operations people didn't keep their colleagues in the dark too - that would be nice. There was a reason why such stuff as Flight Information Boards, Public Address systems and Service Counters were installed in airports, maybe all airlines could look at improving thier use as well. There are also other useful things like flight tracker type mobile apps (but they are sort of predicated on knowing the previous operating flight number and particular aircraft to be really useful) or even airport websites that can be very accuarte or very inaccurate depending on the airport.

Sometimes the good old fashioned look out the window is enough to tell whats going on, but with larger airports you need to know which gate/window to keep an eye on....also not easy when juggling babies/family responsibilities!

We all know delays and unexpected things happen with aircraft and the weather - its how the staff involved communicate these things that sometimes makes a difference.

 

[erkpod]

There's no way you should have needed to go landside again to get the info required. That's not good.