Virgin Australia Involuntary Cabin Downgrade

[Unclebully81]

So I heard back from VA after sending an email to the platinum email address. Was finally told I was offloaded due to payload restrictions on ZQN-SYD on 03FEB and as VA offered me an economy seat on the direct ZQN-BNE flight on 03FEB they wouldn’t provide any compensation or cover any costs for the additional nights stay in ZQN - as it was my decision to take the business class seat on the flight on 04FEB. They suggested I reach out to my travel insurer.

Rather a disappointing outcome. I still can’t understand why a platnium member on a firm business class ticket would be your first choice of pax to offload, when facing payload limitations out of ZQN. Wouldn't you make the decision to offload pax closer to the time of departure, in case any pax fails to check in or baggage weights are lower then expected or conditions improve. I find it hard to believe they would make such a call at 0100 on the day of departure, even more so when the direct ZQN-BNE flight departs after the ZQN-SYD service, if you had the payload issues you could shift the pax to the later flight at the airport. I do wonder if the business class cabin was fully occupied on the ZQN-SYD flight on 03FEB or if any other pax offloaded from the same flight due payload restrictions.

Also I only received the points & status credits based on ZQN-BNE direct - called the velocity team and they corrected the status credit earn to reflect the original route - but it took an hour on the phone and speaking to three agents to get it sorted.

Its clear to me Virgin is no longer then airline they used to be, maybe it’s time I reconsider my loyalty to the airline, if this is how they treat their supposedly most loyal flyers.

 

[Bagpuss]

This weekend, following a flight cancellation I was moved to the next flight from business class (D fare) to economy (Y fare). I had to deal with lounge staff as it was a connecting flight and less say calling them "rude" is highly complimentary.
They said to accept the downgrade and a delay of 1 hour or way 6 hours for a business class flight (journey length is 1.5 hours). I looked up fares and choice fares available to be told all down grades go to a Flexi fare to ensure flexibility. I stated that I had no flexibility given and obviously not required. The more the conversation went on I was told how it was a bad bad and lots of oversold flights etc.
I accepted the downgraded and then as I had time in the lounge which was unexpected I took advantage of the lounge offerings!
I emailed Platinum straight away and then yesterday noticed I hadn't received an auto response acknowledging the email so I sent it again.
I also provided feedback on the Virgin Australia website as that's what the lounge staff said which really was a copy and paste.
From this experience, and then on another trip in business on an ex SilkAir aircraft (with no divider) the crew were happy for economy to use the front toilet so the queue went right through the business class cabin! End result, being a plat I think it's much better value being in Economy X, eating and drinking in the lounge as flying business class just ended up being somewhat annoying especially on fully cash paid tickets!

 

[AFF Editor]

I was downgraded on a VA flight earlier this year and to be honest, it wasn't handled well. I did eventually get a partial refund of the difference between my Business fare and an Economy Choice fare, which was good, but it took 2 months and the communication from Virgin was non-existent.

I've written about this experience here:

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/virgin-australia-involuntary-downgrade/

 

[Gold Member]

With such unprecedented demand and limited supply across the industry, the airlines are taking us for a ride. Their attitude is take it or leave it, and if you don’t like the downgrade, stiff bikkies.

I would normally advise to vote with your wallet, but what choice do we have? Qantas? LOL.

 

[elanshin]

I was downgraded on a VA flight earlier this year and to be honest, it wasn't handled well. I did eventually get a partial refund of the difference between my Business fare and an Economy Choice fare, which was good, but it took 2 months and the communication from Virgin was non-existent.

I've written about this experience here:

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/virgin-australia-involuntary-downgrade/

I wonder how Rex deals with these situations. I know that for QF its very similar and in fact thry will often refund the difference between flex fare and business so at least virgin has that going for them.

Still just such a hassle to deal with as a customer.

 

[Warks]

I was going to write a separate thread about my current experience which is similar but not the same as it doesn't involve downgrades.

I made a revenue booking a month or so back: SYD-TSV via BNE for next week. I made a points booking for Mrs Warks to travel on the same flights so a separate booking reference. Days out I got an email saying that she has been moved to a much earlier flight (0630) and had to accept the changes or a credit. My flight stayed the same. I called customer service the first time who said my flight was cancelled (0800 flight) but I had received no notification. She then went to do something but the call dropped out and she didn't call back.
Today I called again and was told one of the legs was a full flight (and no flights had been cancelled yet) so she'd been moved. But I checked online looking at the seating maps for both flights and neither was even 50% full. I couldn't get anywhere with customer service and their manager no matter what I said as they insisted the BNE-TSV leg was full. I said we had to be on the same flight so they booked us on a later flight departing at 1500 losing half our day. This was a pretty poor outcome. There's no excuse to bump passengers flying on points when the plane is clearly not full anyway. Not that there's any excuse if one passenger has booked before another.
I went back to the FB site and sent a message via FB messenger. They said I should ring again but "ask to be transferred to one of our Brisbane agents". Talking to the Philippines customer service people is a bit of a lottery. Some are very hard to understand, some struggle to understand me. If we were sitting across from each other we would understand each other almost perfectly but over the phone a lot of things are said I have to get repeated multiple times and I still don't understand. And I'm pretty good understanding people normally, maybe it's my hearing going.

Anyway I lodged a formal complaint through their feedback site. I doubt it will go anywhere. At least it didn't cost me any money yet.

The other thing I noticed is that BNE-TSV is operated by "Air North" and they were using this as an excuse to not be able to do anything. I said both planes we are catching have the same logo on the tail.

 

[jad01]

Had the same experience last week Brisbane to Perth where I scored a middle seat for 5.5hrs.
Furthermore, once they allocate you an economy seat your boarding pass shows the fare class 'Y'.
At the gate there was a no show in business but they wouldn't let me have it because to them it showed I was travelling on an economy fare.

Had another similar experience where I used platinum upgrades, was downgraded and they never recredited the upgrades.
After a series of these events I have made the bold decision that after 12 years of platinum status, I won't be making any effort to maintain it.

Their response will be they 'can' under their terms and conditions.
Equally as a customer, I 'can' fly with another airline.

 

[Howie50]

They are as bad as QF but play the politics as well as QF, after all Jane was trained by Alan. I had a recent experience with them where it took 4 months from lodging a claim for missing points to getting them for a VS flight from LHR to JFK. So, whilst they aren't in the headlights atm, there needs to be an EU261 law in Australia to bring these cowboys to heal. No wonder I am considering Rex for my domestic travels.

 

[warrenr]

Qantas did this to me. Downgrade from business to economy. After three months of frustrating emails and phone calls, I contacted the state government's office for fair trading, and also contacted a lawyer. Then I advised Qantas what I had done. Refund was processed within 24 hours.

An earlier refund took more than 9 months to process.

 

[trisreed]

Yesterday, I ended up being swapped between three Virgin flights between MEL and PER, in fact ending up on one of the same flights twice in the process (the first and last time of four different bookings) with a cancellation inbetween. Both myself and another displaced passenger flying the same route were downgraded to Y on an earlier flight, but then chose the later flight so we were both back in J.

The original flight was CBR to PER via MEL from about 6PM to 11PM last night; Virgin's original suggestion was 7:30AM to 12:30PM today. This was originally driven by a delay on the CBR to MEL leg, but what followed was a cancellation of the MEL to PER flight.

My observations were that the Virgin call centre (even the Platinum line) were confused and unhelpful in this situation (although to give them credit, got there in the end) and that SC's / points have not credited as quickly as previous flights. Certainly suggesting that they should put me up in a hotel for the original new itinerary was not something that seemed to be even remotely entertained by the call centre, I guess I should have waited 13 hours out in the cold Canberra weather

 

[DLD]

Bought Business from Sydney to Melb earlier this year. First time Business and first time using points. Early morning flight ~830 was cancelled and my seats were shifted to a ~5pm flight, but still business. 'Voluntarily' downgraded to get on a flight that wasn't half a day later and got no refund.

Only upside is, the flight we got moved to was also cancelled, so if we didn't change we would have spent an entire day of annual leave waiting in the lounge then having to get the car out of Blu Emu and drive home!

 

[dvb2000]

we need laws like in the rest of the world where refunds and compensation are automatic, and not negotiable.

 

[BVT]

I too have had a VA downgrade experience. Second leg of a J status run downgraded to Y. The Lounge angel at OOL tried to be helpful, especially when I responded in the affirmative after she asked me if I was doing a status run. Sadly, her efforts were to no avail.

In the result I got to my destination only 2.5 hours late.

Ater two weeks I received the difference in fare paid for the downgraded sector, 7000 points compensation and ORC which took me to Platinum.

I had to be firm and persistent with the call centre to achieve my goals. My impression was that there are well meaning, but unless the task is in their "script" there is little hope of resolution unless it is escalated.

Two weeks seems to be extremely prompt given the experiences related by others! Persistence, patience and politeness appear to be the key.

 

[sambo]

we need laws like in the rest of the world where refunds and compensation are automatic, and not negotiable.

Agreed. Isn’t it remarkable how often companies state that a user experience was “inconsistent with our policy” when that inconsistency just so happens to benefit the company financially.

 

[IH8Qantas]

In my case I am tall with long leg.. and I have had my knees rebuilt after a accident. So it is painful to travel in the rubbish economy seats on offer in Australia due to lack of legroom.
So if I got bounced like in this example it would be a big issue for me.. I would either have to cancel the flight or risk a painful flight and worse further injury to my knees.

 

[RooFlyer]

I was downgraded very early in my transition from QF to Va domestic flying after a flight from Canberra was cancelled:

OK, I know it was our *second* date, but still ...

I'm doing the VA 'Switcheroo' from QF long-time Plat and booked for today HBA-xMEL-CBR-xMEL-HBA for a bit of research at the National Library. All in business. Was looking forward to how my new aero-lover would perform. The SCs will get me to Plat and this will dovetail well with my frequent...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

But the recovery was very good:

Recovery continued. Today I got an email with an apology for not getting my flight in business ( with an accurate description of the nature of the disruption), 10,000 points into account and refund of fare difference. The refund was expected (probably won’t be much) but the quick apology and points compo not expected and never such received from QF.

 

[Kremmen]

If they are so slow and incompetent regarding paid bookings, the refunding of which is simple and requires no interaction with other companies, I wonder what happens if they downgrade a passenger booked by a partner airline, either on points or as part of a paid itinerary.

 

[The world is small]

Same, was down graded from Business SYD -BNE then had a ecomomy on to CNS. 0200hr text for 0700flight. Flight cancelled moved to ecomomy. I wanted thos extra status credits. Have called twice have got no where. No acknowledgement of my initial booking. No refund! I just wanted the status credits.

 

[Doyen]

If we could only substitute Australian dollars for Jamaican dollars the way they substitute economy for business.

 

[Happy Dude]

VA were pretty good when I went through a flight cancellation, complicated by the issue of J flights b/w CBR-SYD being Y only.

CBR-SYD-ADL in J - SCs less than advertised

I flew CBR-SYD-BNE on J on 9 March, and the same thing happened - 25 SCs for CBR-SYD. When I called up to get the extra SCs, the operator said it was a Y seat, so only 25 SCs. This time, however, I pushed back (politely but firmly) and said that the itinerary says a Business fare type. They...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

As a PS to my post #65 in that thread, we were given 2 x $335 refund to my credit card as compo for not flying J b/w CBR-OOL. Had to work hard to get all I got - no surprises there given the mess - but no complaints otherwise.

At a minimum, for a downgrade, I would expect to a refund of some sort and ORC. If the refund is miserly, or the flight I ended up on resulted in me losing several hours, then I'd push for some points too.