Virgin are losing the plot.

[FlyingKangaroo]

While we’re here, another data point about interacting with VA in general.

Yesterday I needed to change a Lite fare. Change fee owed, of course; no problem.

Whoops. Website is broken as the error immediately pops up when I press the button to change a ticket; “action not allowed, ring the call centre to change this booking.” Ticket has never been changed or affected by schedule issues, so nothing complicated going on here.

No matter. Ring the call centre. Spoon feed flight numbers and new dates to agent. Whoops. Quoted price is significantly higher than the website. Why? “Fares change constantly.” No, this fare is available on the website right now not just for this sector but most of them that same day. Virtual shrug from agent; apparently all the fares I’m seeing on the website are no longer available (nonsense, of course). We briefly go back and forth to tease this out to no avail or clarity. I think to ask if this is because it’s Happy Hour — is it possible agents can’t book those over the phone. “Yes, sir.” Ah ha; discrepancy unlocked. So I can’t access these fares because I can’t change my ticket online. “Correct, sir. To be honest, it is a known error on the website that you cannot change.” Splendid; a systemic problem that’s well known but left broken. I understand you’re not empowered to do much, so just to be clear, there is nothing I can do here except change the ticket over the phone and pay more than I would online? “That is correct, sir; sorry.” And is there anyone you can escalate this call to who might be given more ability to assist here than they give you? “No, (verbatim) this is the end of the line.”

I politely hang up and then swear. With Platinum service like this, I won’t miss the status as I let it lapse.

I’d also note, Lite fares are very restrictive. I suppose I should have paid more for Choice to at least cancel to Travel Bank and rebook anew. But changes can be made on Lite fares and that’s what I wanted to do and was happy to pay the fee. I shouldn’t have to pay more for a higher fare class to be able to do what I need to do without incurring additional, unnecessary costs simply because VA’s systems won’t do what they say they’ll do.

Patheti—pardon, wonderful.

Normally, a few days of resignation will tame one's frustration but the longer I sit with this, the more it grates. So I've put in a formal complaint and will update with the response. I fear a generic, "we're very sorry just not enough to do anything about it and thank you for the feedback which we've forwarded on into the virtual bin" but I hope to eat my words.

I find it noteworthy that the complaint form asks you what you'd like in terms of resolution. I obliged with a potpourri of options that could have been offered but weren't:

1. Waive the change fee. This would have been the easiest, simplest way to accommodate the discrepancy between the call centre price and the Happy Hour fares the agent claimed they can't access from call centres. The small windfall in my favour would have made up for the wasted time and been worth far more in goodwill.
   
   
2. Cancel the ticket to Travel Bank (despite being a Lite fare) to allow for immediate re-booking online.
   
   
3. Issue a travel credit in the amount of the price discrepancy caused by the website not working and call centres not matching website price.

#2 and #3 likely require escalation (which I was expressly told was not possible) but if agents are given any level of discretion, waiving a change fee for Platinum would surely have to be it. If not, the plot's been lost.

Calling this a litmus test might be dramatic, but their response to this will be quite determinative for a few upcoming bookings. I'm not actually paying more for Qantas if eventual changes on VA end up costing more because of poor service and lousy tech.

Stay tuned.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Can confirm there is *zero* discretion for platinums at the call centre. If the computer says ‘no’, then ‘no’ it is.

And they won’t escalate any issue to Brisbane. Neither will the staff at the lounge, despite a promise that they’d get someone Aussie based to follow up a problem.

Even the ACA just took what VA said and closed the case without providing any reasons.

That’s going to be the biggest advantage of Platinum plus… speaking to someone onshore when you have a problem.

 

[Flyerwin]

Interestingly today I called the Virgin call centre and the person who took the call said “Welcome to Platinum service”. But I think it was an offshore call centre.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

That’s going to be the biggest advantage of Platinum plus… speaking to someone onshore when you have a problem.

A truly wonderful benefit --- to have straightforward problems actually solved --- and it comes with Platinum Plus status for a reasonable sum of just ~$12,000-$24,000 in spend.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Interestingly today I called the Virgin call centre and the person who took the call said “Welcome to Platinum service”. But I think it was an offshore call centre.

In my experience, the "premium" line as a Platinum has thanked me many times for my loyalty while apologising for doing absolutely nothing to help me if a request falls even a smidge outside the standard script. My biggest gripe with the VA call centre is agents seem to have no ability to do anything you can't do online, which also means when you can't do something online (often why people call), neither can they.

 

[Harrison_133]

Interestingly today I called the Virgin call centre and the person who took the call said “Welcome to Platinum service”. But I think it was an offshore call centre.

There is a Platinum "team" within the Manila call centre. You don't always get straight through to them though, and they don't have anywhere near as much discretion as the old Platinum team used to have. It the computer says no, they're not empowered to help you at all. Ask them something that deviates from the script, and you're in for a world of pain.

There are a lot of things to give Virgin flack for, justified or not, but in my experience, the call centre is the most inconsistent part about flying with them as a WP. I've had some truly horrific calls with agents who just don't understand the Platinum benefits. Insisting on charging a change fee because they had no idea what Fly Ahead was or meant springs to mind. Then there was an agent who was just completely misinterpreting the Fly Ahead rules. Oh, and the agent who tried to tell me that an after hours team didn't exist at all, even though I'd called them countless times.

This is also not to say that I haven't had some really good interactions with the Manila call centre. There are some great agents within the "Platinum team" who are switched on and know what they're doing. Problem is, there's so much inconsistency in agent ability, that you're not guaranteed to get through to them and you never know what experience you're in for. More often than not, it's a painful experience.

 

[trisreed]

There are a lot of things to give Virgin flack for, justified or not, but in my experience, the call centre is the most inconsistent part about flying with them as a WP.

I once rang the call centre as a WP when my flight was changed (connecting and the first leg was delayed) and the new one was not suitable (the online system was also not showing anything worthwhile). One suggestion that the call centre agent had was for me to go back onto the original flights! Totally agree that the "Platinum team" are great for anything simple (which should be doable online anyway - but rarely is). Anything other than that is a mess, in my experience. Perhaps I have not lucked out to the great agents yet (actually, there was one...)

Personally my thoughts are if VA fixed their online systems (which in fairness, have got a lot better over the last few years) then there'd be a lot less for the call centre staff to do (so many times I call because I can't do online what should be possible and simple) and perhaps more time for training.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Normally, a few days of resignation will tame one's frustration but the longer I sit with this, the more it grates. So I've put in a formal complaint and will update with the response. I fear a generic, "we're very sorry just not enough to do anything about it and thank you for the feedback which we've forwarded on into the virtual bin" but I hope to eat my words.

Well, someone with an e-mail signature from Brisbane responded and specifically addressed my issue in detail, including to:

• "understand how frustrating it must have been to encounter technical issues online, only to then be quoted a higher fare through our contact centre, especially when a lower fare was visible on our website at the time"
• "acknowledge that the inability to access promotional fares, such as Happy Hour deals, via our contact centre can create an unfair situation when the online system isn’t functioning as intended"
• "agree that guests should not be disadvantaged due to system errors"
• "regret that our agent was unable to escalate your concern or offer an alternative solution at the time."

What they did not do was:

• offer anything whatsoever now, either

I also suspect the letter was either AI-generated or a quick copy-and-paste hack job from a template as it contained several sentences like those quoted above that repeated the same thing in slightly different wording and a few paragraphs about how real-time fares work that had nothing to do with the complaint or the error they had just acknowledged.

TL/DR - "We truly value your loyalty as a Platinum member and are sincerely sorry" nothing was offered to you at the time and also we are offering you nothing now.

I responded to say thanks for the acknowledgement and to ask and confirm that, despite the apology that nothing was offered, why nothing was being offered now. I also noted I might as well book QF next time if I do not have clarity that VA can offer the functionality required to follow its fare conditions or offer a reasonable alternative when it cannot.

Whether VA responds to follow-ups is unclear to me, but of course, if a human responds with a solution, I will report back. Wonderful.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Well, someone with an e-mail signature from Brisbane responded and specifically addressed my issue in detail, including to:

• "understand how frustrating it must have been to encounter technical issues online, only to then be quoted a higher fare through our contact centre, especially when a lower fare was visible on our website at the time"
• "acknowledge that the inability to access promotional fares, such as Happy Hour deals, via our contact centre can create an unfair situation when the online system isn’t functioning as intended"
• "regret that our agent was unable to escalate your concern or offer an alternative solution at the time."

What they did not do was:

• offer anything whatsoever now, either

I also suspect the letter was either AI-generated or a quick copy-and-paste hack job from a template as it contained several sentences like those quoted above that repeated the same thing in slightly different wording and a few paragraphs about how real-time fares work that had nothing to do with the complaint or the error they had just acknowledged.

TL/DR - "We truly value your loyalty as a Platinum member and are sincerely sorry" nothing was offered to you at the time and also we are offering you nothing now.

I responded to say thanks for the acknowledgement and to ask and confirm that, despite the apology that nothing was offered, why nothing was being offered now. I also noted I might as well book QF next time if I do not have clarity that VA can offer the functionality required to follow its fare conditions or offer a reasonable alternative when it cannot.

Whether VA responds to follow-ups is unclear to me, but of course, if a human responds with a solution, I will report back. Wonderful.

Errr… lol… the Brisbane email address means nothing

It’s off shore again, and they have exactly the same scope and functionality as the offshore call centre. Basically they won’t, and they cannot, escalate anything to anyone who can actually resolve your issue.

That Brisbane email rarely - if ever? - offers any compensation, and if their computer says ‘no’ that’s the line they stick to.

I just found a couple of beauties from the Brisbane email addy…

… one telling me that after 6/8 flights with no wifi or IFE, that IFE is only on specific routes and specific aircraft (apparently the 737-800 and SYD-MEL aren’t ’specific routes or aircraft’)

… and other one acknowledging that while their terms and conditions on the website say one thing, their computer doesn’t have the functionality to action it, so they’ll go with their computer, not the terms and conditions on the website. And no, we can’t escalate that.

Makes me wonder now, that CM who refused to do any pre-departure service. The same email address said feedback would be passed on to the relevant department… I guess in hindsight that probably didn’t happen!

 

[trisreed]

I also suspect the letter was either AI-generated or a quick copy-and-paste hack job from a template as it contained several sentences like those quoted above that repeated the same thing in slightly different wording and a few paragraphs about how real-time fares work that had nothing to do with the complaint or the error they had just acknowledged.

As someone dealing with a lot of AI generated emails at my job - my last feedback email from Virgin had all of the same hallmarks. Quite sad really as in the past when I have sent compliments, they would mention the staff member by name (even if I did not) but this time as I did not mention it, the AI couldn't work it out and then used a very 'unique' way of phrasing the sentence.

This must be a pain in the backside. Just have fun with it! I had an AI response effectively saying that couples have free rein to move other (single) customers in J. So I replied back thanking them for that policy clarification and that I'll request the same next time I am travelling with my partner. It was a sure fire way to get another response actually written by a human!

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Errr… lol… the Brisbane email address means nothing

It’s off shore again, and they have exactly the same scope and functionality as the offshore call centre. Basically they won’t, and they cannot, escalate anything to anyone who can actually resolve your issue.

That Brisbane email rarely - if ever? - offers any compensation, and if their computer says ‘no’ that’s the line they stick to.

I just found a couple of beauties from the Brisbane email addy…

… one telling me that after 6/8 flights with no wifi or IFE, that IFE is only on specific routes and specific aircraft (apparently the 737-800 and SYD-MEL aren’t ’specific routes or aircraft’)

… and other one acknowledging that while their terms and conditions on the website say one thing, their computer doesn’t have the functionality to action it, so they’ll go with their computer, not the terms and conditions on the website. And no, we can’t escalate that.

Makes me wonder now, that CM who refused to do any pre-departure service. The same email address said feedback would be passed on to the relevant department… I guess in hindsight that probably didn’t happen!

Misery loves commiseration, it seems. I am of course not surprised to hear these anecdotes.

Honestly I'd rather be ignored than gaslit with meaningless apologies and told I'm right but to take it on the chin anyway.

I'm hardly a QF fan boy but even they managed to throw 10,000 points at me over a minor service issue a few months ago that I genuinely said I meant only as feedback and to suggest be made more transparent in future. A gesture that costs them almost nothing and here I am singing its praises months later.

At the heart of it, this just demonstrates that Platinum offers me virtually nothing. Perhaps I'm just that naive about how deliberate VA management might be in disempowering frontline staff to stonewall customers but part of me still refuses to believe that absolutely no one in the "premium" team even in Manila has no capability to do something as inherently logical and fair as waiving a change fee when admitting they're presenting a fare that's higher than what's online but can't be changed there due to their own system failures. But if that's true, they just don't truly don't care about status holders. And if I'm wrong, then per the title of the thread, the plot is indeed lost --- or I must be reading a different book.

We're talking <$50 here if they waived a change fee but applied a higher fare difference. And yet, if I'd paid more upfront with QF, I'd still come out ahead in this situation paying the same change fee. My travel plans tend to be fixed, but not always and certainly not enough to justify Flex in all instances. So I'll book QF next time, and feed my status credits at the same time.

So dumb.

 

[L2.]

VA Flight from CBR to ADL is only one direct flight a day at an inconvenient time .

I thought for a second that this route must have had an increase in service to daily, but from what I can see this route is still only 4x weekly, dropping to 3x weekly for a few weeks during December/January.

Not overly competitive to QF having a minimum of 2x daily flights on this route, every day of the week.

Although I can see there are some dates when QF has a Dash-8 on their evening ADL-CBR flight, with there also being a Virgin 737 around the same time. I know which one I'd choose!

I do appreciate though that VA does offer the full mainline product on all of their CBR flights, aside from the CBR-SYD route which I never use, which can't be said for QF as their mainline 737s seem to be relatively rare in CBR these days.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Misery loves commiseration, it seems. I am of course not surprised to hear these anecdotes.

Honestly I'd rather be ignored than gaslit with meaningless apologies and told I'm right but to take it on the chin anyway.

I'm hardly a QF fan boy but even they managed to throw 10,000 points at me over a minor service issue a few months ago that I genuinely said I meant only as feedback and to suggest be made more transparent in future. A gesture that costs them almost nothing and here I am singing its praises months later.

At the heart of it, this just demonstrates that Platinum offers me virtually nothing. Perhaps I'm just that naive about how deliberate VA management might be in disempowering frontline staff to stonewall customers but part of me still refuses to believe that absolutely no one in the "premium" team even in Manila has no capability to do something as inherently logical and fair as waiving a change fee when admitting they're presenting a fare that's higher than what's online but can't be changed there due to their own system failures. But if that's true, they just don't truly don't care about status holders. And if I'm wrong, then per the title of the thread, the plot is indeed lost --- or I must be reading a different book.

We're talking <$50 here if they waived a change fee but applied a higher fare difference. And yet, if I'd paid more upfront with QF, I'd still come out ahead in this situation paying the same change fee. My travel plans tend to be fixed, but not always and certainly not enough to justify Flex in all instances. So I'll book QF next time, and feed my status credits at the same time.

So dumb.

Yeah…

I got those replies with 4000+ SCs in the bank so far that year (no pooling, no business account).

I actually wonder if management in Australia has any relationship with their customers, other than Beyond?

 

[Harrison_133]

Whether VA responds to follow-ups is unclear to me, but of course, if a human responds with a solution, I will report back. Wonderful.

They usually do respond to follow ups, but it will be the same scripted slop you got initially.

Makes me wonder now, that CM who refused to do any pre-departure service. The same email address said feedback would be passed on to the relevant department… I guess in hindsight that probably didn’t happen!

It does get passed on, but good luck getting any follow up on the outcome of your feedback...

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I will grant them that it's an incredible feat to be able to do such a good job training people to understand/pretend to understand that the customer is right while so shamelessly offering absolutely nothing. Almost as if it's what they're hired to do.

And one thing I'll grant Qantas: the few times I've complained to them and gotten nothing, they've at least respected my dignity enough to ignore me or unapologetically disagree with me and tell me to pound sand.