Velocity Frustration

[bcworld]

With a little time I'm sure it will work out.


Could you clarify:?:

I don't understand this.

In short...supposedly more senior members of res staff are telling customers there is a policy change re the taxes on the 2-4-1. But that change seems to be solely to fit in with the way Sabre works rather than a business decision on their part. The tail is wagging the dog sort of thing.

 

[QF WP]

Were you Gold when you booked? I've had that a few times from flights a book a while back

They still track at the rght 100% bonus points etc.

Yes, I was Gold at the time of booking. Thus my first call to the Plat Desk was to get CSA to do seating (done manually) as well as deleting and reinserting my VA FF number. It seemed to take in her system, but obviously didn't transfer correctly. I hope the right amounts post...

 

[QF WP]

Very frustrating!! I spoke to someone in BNE last week re 160 SC's owed for 11 Jan trip they said the same thing re appearing in the next hour or so still nothing but did receive an email last night saying that the claim has been submitted and if eligible will be posted to my account in 14 days (nearly 2 months later) although as I said in an earlier post they gave me a $1000 for the inconvenience of the delay in LAX so one would think it would be a no brainer that I would be eligible for the SC's and points, luckily review date is not till Aug.

Wait what ??
I was in J class on VA8 on the 12th of January (Sabre changeover day) LAX-BNE which was delayed by 4 hours.... I didn't get an offer of an extra napkin let alone a grand?
Where/how was this offered ?

There's a very recent post on VA's Facebook wall from a passenger asking where the $350 credits they were promised for a 4 hour delay on VA8 (due to Sabre issues) are! It states they were handed a letter with the details - but the promised follow up never came (I'm shocked! ).

Thanks for that. I will have a look.

IainF, no wonder you wanted to talk to me yesterday!! Hope you found that letter (x2). That will pay for some of the shopping

Perhaps you need to speak to somebody at VA

 

[VMC73]

Wait what ??
I was in J class on VA8 on the 12th of January (Sabre changeover day) LAX-BNE which was delayed by 4 hours.... I didn't get an offer of an extra napkin let alone a grand?
Where/how was this offered ?

Our Flight was VA8 LAX-BNE 11 Jan. They were handing the letters out as we disembarked. The credit came through via email and is in a Travel Bank that is attached to my account, still no points or SC's for the flight though. See the letter attached. Worth following up on

Never tried to attach anything here so hope it works!

 

[QF WP]

Seems VA had issues with the same flight 2 days in a row then. I'll bet IainF and Mrs IainF will have similar balances to you now

 

[Justinf]

Wanted to book a flexi fare today and use my comp upgrade to ... well ... upgrade.
Got transferred from Velocity to VA three times before VA decided they could do it. The woman who handled my reservation I think was from a call centre in the Phllappines. She had a lot of trouble understanding me. i could understand her just fine. She said she would book my flexi fare and then transfer me over to velocity and they would take care of the upgrade. I asked her if she could first check that the upgrade was available and she did so and assured me that it was.
So I went ahead and booked the flexi fare with her. It took forever. She couldn't understand me. I even spelt out my name by using the V for victor, d for delta, r for romeo method and she still couldn't understand me. It was frustrating and I was thinking that I just should have booked it online. I was under the impression that Velocity could do the booking and the upgrade?
anyway, the booking was made and i was transferred to Velocity to complete the upgrade. My worst nightmare was confirmed. The Velocity person said there were no upgrades available. I explained that I was assured there were. After a 20 minute hold and talking to her supervisor, it was decided that I would be allowed to upgrade in a 'gesture of goodwill'. Very frustating when I was initially told that upgrades were avaialble for that particular flight. The person from Velocity was a Kiwi and I don't in Manila at the call centre.
Overall, it worked out int he end, but it was a far from satisfactory experience. I also asked why my HBA-MEL leg of my return flight on Jan 27 hadn't been credited and whether she could look into it and I was given an answer along the lines of 'All fares travelled after January 13 woll take some time to credit, but we are working on it.'

 

[robbie1984]

Wanted to book a flexi fare today and use my comp upgrade to ... well ... upgrade.
Got transferred from Velocity to VA three times before VA decided they could do it. The woman who handled my reservation I think was from a call centre in the Phllappines. She had a lot of trouble understanding me. i could understand her just fine. She said she would book my flexi fare and then transfer me over to velocity and they would take care of the upgrade. I asked her if she could first check that the upgrade was available and she did so and assured me that it was.
So I went ahead and booked the flexi fare with her. It took forever. She couldn't understand me. I even spelt out my name by using the V for victor, d for delta, r for romeo method and she still couldn't understand me. It was frustrating and I was thinking that I just should have booked it online. I was under the impression that Velocity could do the booking and the upgrade?
anyway, the booking was made and i was transferred to Velocity to complete the upgrade. My worst nightmare was confirmed. The Velocity person said there were no upgrades available. I explained that I was assured there were. After a 20 minute hold and talking to her supervisor, it was decided that I would be allowed to upgrade in a 'gesture of goodwill'. Very frustating when I was initially told that upgrades were avaialble for that particular flight. The person from Velocity was a Kiwi and I don't in Manila at the call centre.
Overall, it worked out int he end, but it was a far from satisfactory experience. I also asked why my HBA-MEL leg of my return flight on Jan 27 hadn't been credited and whether she could look into it and I was given an answer along the lines of 'All fares travelled after January 13 woll take some time to credit, but we are working on it.'

It seems there are many cases of black/white experiences. I made 4 calls about various bookings today, booking, upgrading and cancelling bookings. Each time I got through to the plat line either straight away or within 2 minutes and they were able to help in all four cases and were very efficient so its disappointing to hear these stories because it makes me wonder, am I just being lucky? Touch wood, I haven't had to spend very long holding ever or had issues with making/upgrading bookings.

I think you you provide concise and constructive feedback because I'm worried one day it will be me with the bad experience.

 

[kpc]

I have just about given up on the 10 SCs and miserly few points for a Virgin flight taken from OoL-Syd on Jan 10, booked pre Sabre. I sent an email to the complaints line (who told me they are still investigating) that their response was UNACCEPTABLE in that they couldn't resolve this simple issue after a month, and I will be suspending all my bookings with Virgin til they resolve this simple, but seemingly too difficult issue for them to correct; surely, the benefit of doubt (if there is any) should be given to the loyal Virgin traveller if they stated they took the flight, sent in copies of eticket etc etc.....?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

surely, the benefit of doubt (if there is any) should be given to the loyal Virgin traveller if they stated they took the flight, sent in copies of eticket etc etc.....?

Well yes. For most normal people who know they have a very disfunctional system servicing some very loyal customers.................

For VA, however??????? You jest of course. Since when have they shown the slightest interest in their proven "loyal" customers!

 

[AviatorPJ]

I am still waiting for 60SCs on a VA Flexi B sub class ticket O/w flown on SQ metal on 10 Dec SYD-SIN. Despite several international calls, web site claim, emails and sending scans of boarding pass and copies of the ticket by email - still no positive outcome. Yes, it was a bit curly. I changed the original date of departure, location of departure and flight number from ME on 04 Nov to 10Dec ex SYD - becuase of a broken arm) and paid the extra charges - all through the VA member service centre ( in the Philippines). Booking and flight was well, pre-Sabre changeover, and all the recent trouble with storms but now Virgin, this is just getting too long to wait. Especially when VA says it can sort out missing points in 14 days with SQ.

Update: 60 SC credited today + 7824 FF - after two months. I spent 45 mins on the Phone from Phnom Penh to Plat desk in BNE. Mary handled it and.... me, well. I declined to not hang up during her off phone consultations. Luckily the phone charges here are low - $5.35. The SQ flight is not showing, but just says SC Adjustment and Loyalty Bonus under the bonus column. Wow... there's still water in the Mekong. thanks also NITA, i wouldn't have persisted without the advice support of other AFFs, here, ..... Cheers PJ

 

[kpc]

I have just about given up on the 10 SCs and miserly few points for a Virgin flight taken from OoL-Syd on Jan 10, booked pre Sabre. I sent an email to the complaints line (who told me they are still investigating) that their response was UNACCEPTABLE in that they couldn't resolve this simple issue after a month, and I will be suspending all my bookings with Virgin til they resolve this simple, but seemingly too difficult issue for them to correct; surely, the benefit of doubt (if there is any) should be given to the loyal Virgin traveller if they stated they took the flight, sent in copies of eticket etc etc.....?

Thanks to KCMil (your inbox is full so can't PM my thanks) who provided me the name of a contact in the "Office of the CEO", finally, finally got the missing points and status credits from the flight taken on Jan 10!

 

[KCMil]

Thanks for the note re inbox!!!! Time to clear out....glad the points got sorted, but it shouldn't have to go to that point. Happy to help.

 

[Warks]

With so many "I hate the new Velocity" threads I wasn't sure where to put this.

Just making a new booking and I still found I couldn't book a flight when I was logged into Velocity. I opened another tab which was the VA home page and then went through the booking from there. Then it came to passenger details. At this point it used to say "are you a Velocity member?" or the like but now there's just the ominous log-in box which may or may not save your details. Well luckily it still had my flight details in there but then it looked like they were going to charge me for checked luggage (I am normally carry-on only so not a huge worry) but I did see some print in a box up top which said Plats and Golds didn't have to pay.

Then I went through the rest of the booking and I had to enter ALL of my address details again! I hope this is a one-off since the change-over but it's going to get very old very quickly otherwise. If I'm a Velocity member don't they have all my details saved already?

I did note I could choose my seats although no further north than row 7 as per the new normal. I also note the diagram of the plane is now north-south (up-down) again after being west-east (left-right) last time I booked. Baby steps.

I am not enjoying this.

 

[medhead]

Then I went through the rest of the booking and I had to enter ALL of my address details again! I hope this is a one-off since the change-over but it's going to get very old very quickly otherwise. If I'm a Velocity member don't they have all my details saved already?

Having made 7 bookings since the change that does get old. It seems to be related to payment via CC - billing address, for example. I really don't see the point.

 

[Warks]

And what happened to car hire?

 

[hummel]

Just tried booking a CNB-MEL-CNB reward for a mate but couldn't scroll down to browse flights? This was a problem 3 weeks ago but surely not now?

I'm using Chrome.

 

[maninblack]

With so many "I hate the new Velocity" threads I wasn't sure where to put this.

Then I went through the rest of the booking and I had to enter ALL of my address details again! I hope this is a one-off since the change-over but it's going to get very old very quickly otherwise. If I'm a Velocity member don't they have all my details saved already?

I am not enjoying this.

YEP IT IS COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS

One further thing to add... AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH:!::!::!::!::!:

 

[KCMil]

Just tried booking a CNB-MEL-CNB reward for a mate but couldn't scroll down to browse flights? This was a problem 3 weeks ago but surely not now?

I'm using Chrome.

hummel, I had so many issues uising chrome on the new VA site. Then trying either Internet Exploiter or Firefox I had no issues, until I had to change the flight and then it was multiple phone calls on long holds to talk to someone somewhere in the world who didn't understand that I already had a booking I wanted to change, she kept trying to sell me a new ticket.....grrrrr

 

[alister]

Just tried booking a CNB-MEL-CNB reward for a mate but couldn't scroll down to browse flights? This was a problem 3 weeks ago but surely not now?

I'm using Chrome.

I use chrome and have had no problems using the velocity and VA website apart from the occasional double login. I find if I log into the panel on the right rather then mid screen it works better for me.

 

[docjames]

No chrome problems here.