Very bad experience with Velocity redemption of US based flight

[cymbolz]

I don't usually like to make public noise like this but wanted to air my frustrations at Velocity for the way they've stuffed me around lately.

I'm off to the US in May and flying V-Aus Y+ MEL-LAX return, plus a JFK-LAX flight in between - otherwise making my own way around. I intended to pay cash for this ticket, but wanted to use Velocity points to redeem a few US domestic flights on Delta.

Very important to have this all on one ticket so I keep the same baggage allowance. As the V-Aus seats were selling, I had to make my booking but couldn't get through to Velocity (lots of time on hold, then not getting through to the right team as they were too busy).

Each time I was told I would be called back 24-48 hours after, but normally waiting one week. I also asked them to call during the evening as I work and cannot afford time to plan my holiday whilst my employer is paying me to do a job. But they continued to call during my working hours.

So now I've paid for my flight (MEL-LAX, JFK-LAX-MEL) and have missed being able to add the other flights on the same ticket.

Another complaint submitted to Velocity today, but I expect the same response. Someone from a foreign call centre telling me something I already know that won't make my situation any better.

Long wait times, cannot get through to the people who can help, waiting a long time to get called back, being called back at times I've explicitly told them not so, poor response to complaints...

Am I asking too much to get some simple and useful customer service?

 

[Velocity Frequent Flyer]

Another complaint submitted to Velocity today, but I expect the same response.

Hi cymbolz,
Are you able to send us a private message (or can an admin assist?) with details and will prioritise.

Cheers
Velocity Team

 

[jsd]

Hi cymbolz,

Firstly, Welcome to AFF

I has been my understanding for some time that it is not possible to have a reward ticket and a paid ticket on the same Passenger Record (PNR). In fact I'm not aware of any airlines that can do this, let alone flights with 2 different carriers.

Always happy to be shown otherwise, but I don't think its possible, sorry


Cheers,

Josh

 

[haydensydney]

Each time I was told I would be called back 24-48 hours after, but normally waiting one week. I also asked them to call during the evening as I work and cannot afford time to plan my holiday whilst my employer is paying me to do a job. But they continued to call during my working hours.

Hmm... I feel that this is slightly unreasonable: if was that important to you, surely you could've arranged a lunch break call-back or something similar. Most "redemption" call centre teams generally only operate during business hours - perhaps your expectations may have been lead astray on this occasion.

 

[yohy?!]

I agree that the call centre service from Velocity at present is not acceptable, I've encountered it over the last year too and hope it is on the list of things to be relaunched.

That being said I'm unsure where the OP got the idea that they could redeem US domestic flights on Delta? The website states pretty clearly that only flights to New York, Orlando or LA are available for redemption and the example provided would seem to indicate that only domestic fights as part of an international journey are eligible eg (SYD-LAX-JFK).

I would suggest this is another factor in the poor service...the staff didn't know what the OP was talking about. Another strike against them as they should've been able to give the OP the right information on what they could and couldn't do straight away.

 

[straitman]

Hmm... I feel that this is slightly unreasonable: if was that important to you, surely you could've arranged a lunch break call-back or something similar. Most "redemption" call centre teams generally only operate during business hours - perhaps your expectations may have been lead astray on this occasion.

This really depends upon what the OP's job is. If the call centre had a problem with his request for the return call at a particular time then they should pick up on that at the time of the request.

We cannot all just sit in an office and wait for a phone call. From my experience the call centre teams have a wide range of working hours and not just an Ozzie 9-5 schedule.

 

[straitman]

cymbolz,

Welcome to AFF.

I have sent you a PM.

 

[extracta]

Am I asking too much to get some simple and useful customer service?

No you are not asking too much as they advertise that they will provide you with the service.

I have had four legs on VA J in the last 12 months and the last leg which was in November 10 has not been credited to my account.

I have followed the instructions on the Velocity website and advised them at least four times of the problem but with no response.

Very poor performance on their part IMHO.

 

[serfty]

...
I has been my understanding for some time that it is not possible to have a reward ticket and a paid ticket on the same Passenger Record (PNR). In fact I'm not aware of any airlines that can do this, let alone flights with 2 different carriers.

Always happy to be shown otherwise, but I don't think its possible ...

It certainly is possible with most GDS like SABRE, Amadeus etc; it simply depends on capabilities/understanding/mood of whoever tickets such a booking.

 

[haydensydney]

This really depends upon what the OP's job is. If the call centre had a problem with his request for the return call at a particular time then they should pick up on that at the time of the request.

Indeed, which is why I said that the OP's expectations had been lead astray.

We cannot all just sit in an office and wait for a phone call. From my experience the call centre teams have a wide range of working hours and not just an Ozzie 9-5 schedule.

Last time I tried to book a partner ticket through Velocity (at night) I was told that they were closed and I would either have to call back in business hours or they would give me a call.

 

[DrAndyC]

No you are not asking too much as they advertise that they will provide you with the service.

I have had four legs on VA J in the last 12 months and the last leg which was in November 10 has not been credited to my account.

I have followed the instructions on the Velocity website and advised them at least four times of the problem but with no response.

Very poor performance on their part IMHO.

I have had a situation before with a V.Atlantic flight and some of the velocity shop and earn store points not crediting despite receiving emails saying they had been credited. A simple phone call fixed it. I asked for it to be escalated and it was all done.

That said I have had to chase points on Qantas recently as well as Amex

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Hmm... I feel that this is slightly unreasonable: if was that important to you, surely you could've arranged a lunch break call-back or something similar. Most "redemption" call centre teams generally only operate during business hours - perhaps your expectations may have been lead astray on this occasion.

On Monday and Tuesday, I will be working on site where mobiles (and anything else that produces a spark) are banned outright. Get caught, pack your gear and your off site ASAP. However, you can go to the car-park during your breaks and make a phone call etc etc if you wish.

 

[haydensydney]

On Monday and Tuesday, I will be working on site where mobiles (and anything else that produces a spark) are banned outright. Get caught, pack your gear and your off site ASAP. However, you can go to the car-park during your breaks and make a phone call etc etc if you wish.

Sorry to be blunt, but how is this Velocity's problem?

 

[markis10]

Sorry to be blunt, but how is this Velocity's problem?

Its an example of how some people are in the circumstances where ringing back must be in defined hours, as per the OP, as opposed to the view expressed earlier in the thread that such a request was being unreasonable (nothing to do with Velocity in that context)! Its not unreasonable if a company is going to ring you back to put limits on when that occur IMHO.

In terms of productivity, ringing people back after a long wait on the phone is very costly for both parties and worlds poorest practice, if you cannot empower people to answer your query after a long wait then either train your staff better or give people a facility where they can request a callback from a knowledgeable person without the need to wait in the first place, with preferred callback times!

 

[Oneworldplus2]

However, you can go to the car-park during your breaks and make a phone call etc etc if you wish.

Sorry to be blunt, but how is this Velocity's problem?

That's debatable.
The OP left multipule messages for the V Team to call him back regarding his query. They didn't call back at the time specified by the OP, but maybe that was beyond their control?
However, my example was of my workplace site with very heavy mobile restrictions. If l can still manage to make a phone call with these extreme restrictions, l'm sure that the OP could have too. Sorry if my post wasn't clearer.

 

[straitman]

Sorry to be blunt, but how is this Velocity's problem?

It is called customer service.

If I ask to be called back at a specific time and the request is accepted then it is now up to the provider to provide.

A perfect example was about 5 years ago where I worked. There was no mobile phone coverage, people were unavailable for 6-8 hours of their ten hours at work and there was only 1 suitable land line phone for them when they were present.

Now there is Telstra coverage but not Optus, they are still out flying about 6-8 hours per day and they have a couple of suitable land line phones.

In summary, trying to call them during work hours was very hit and miss at best.

In any case this is somewhat OT. Velocity Rewards has offered to help sort the issue for the OP and hopefully it will all pan out OK.

 

[cymbolz]

Hi all,

Some good / interesting debate here. I needed a sanity check to see if my expectations were unreasonable. Looks like they were within reason.

For the record (so far) I was told I am able to add redeem any Delta flight with my Velocity points and was even quoted the number of points. Was also told this is only possible on the phone as the website doesn't support this type of redemption.

Just to put more context on the "call back" thing, I requested to be called back after hours (7:30pm) which was agreed. That evening, no call. But I did have an email from the person stating they were not able to call me back as their shift had ended earlier. I couldn't understand why that wasn't told to me earlier, nor why someone else could call me back. And none of this call back would've been required if I could (a) get through in a decent about of time (less than 30 mins waiting) and (b) be serviced by someone who can solve my problem.

Unfortunately Velocity isn't the only org suffering from shocking customer service. We are now used to long wait times, voice or menu prompts, having to jump through hoops when needs/solutions are not scripted...but there is a line in the sand. FWIW I worked in a company that had an Australian call centre, average < 30 sec on hold time and very high customer satisfaction from the call centre. I understand the need to keep costs low but eventually you still need good talented people to deal with the unusual scenarios.

Anyhow, I have passed on details as requested so will see how this gets resolved. Even if not possible to get what I want (the redemption) I may have my faith restored by better customer service...let's hope!

 

[jsd]

Unfortunately Velocity isn't the only org suffering from shocking customer service.

I wouldn't say shocking, but there is room for improvement in some areas, some of which may be addressed with the impending re-launch, but we'll just have to wait and see

FWIW I worked in a company that had an Australian call centre, average < 30 sec on hold time and very high customer satisfaction from the call centre. I understand the need to keep costs low but eventually you still need good talented people to deal with the unusual scenarios.

This really comes down to the company in question and how they train their staff members working in these call centres, having a call centre on home soil does not always mean that they provide a better service than a overseas one. A few weeks ago I had a run in with the Australian based (whats left of it) call centre of a certain big telco beginning with a T, I'll note that the service was appauling

On the other hand, Some of the guys in the Velocity call centre are absolutely fantastic time and time over, I've never had a problem that they couldn't help me with.

And the guys/gals in the Brisbane call centre of DJ and the Twitter/FB teams, well they are AMAZING! and credit has been given where due


Anyway, thats my little off topic rant over

 

[Globetrotter]

I called Velocity to book two First Class seats from FLL to LAX in Feb on Virgin America (VX) and the booking process went from bad to worse. The agent first told me I needed approx. 120,000 points which was incorrect. He even placed me on hold to verify this. I demanded to speak to someone else because the Velocity website quoted 33,800 per person. He then miraculously said I was correct and he was wrong. Then he advised that the flight I wanted was full, this too was incorrect because I was looking at availability on Virgin America's website using their eqv. 'Elevate Rewards' and it was available . I told him that from previous experience with booking VX domestic flights via Velocity that you need to request the seats in your system and VX will respond (confirm or unavailable) within 24 hours. Again, miraculously he could see K class and was able to confirm my flights.


The next part of the booking process absolutely infuriated me. He then asked me to pay $120 in taxes (total). I explained the VX's website quoted USD $2.50pp for a redemption booking and USD $21.50 if purchasing a First class ticket. He commented to say that he has never came across a $2.50 tax before so I made him jump onto Virgin America's website to see for himself which he did. I then explained that I just cancelled a QF redemption ticket from MIA to LAX flying AA in First Class and that ticket included taxes of $2.50pp so where in gods name did $60pp come from? Even if I was to book a paid flight on Expedia.com.au taxes only total $21.50 so I feel totally ripped off and expect Virgin Australia is intending to profit on redemption bookings by overcharging for taxes.


This is the second time I had to dealt with an incompetent staff member at Velocity (previously I was overcharged $250 for a date change which I ended up receiving a refund for).


Velocity staff are so incompetent it's not funny.

 

[serfty]

Velocity may charge fees for travel on partner airlines the partners themselves don't.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...