Hey ladies and gents,
I am after what you would feel is a reasonable response from Virgin to a situation i encountered last year. It is a bit of a story so here it goes.
Myself and SWMBO a reward economy flight booked Syd-Mel at 1700 on a Sunday night. Did OLCI that day as had no need to change anything (was a personal leisure trip) Went to airport, through security and waited at gate lounge. As the time approached for boarding I check the screen again, mysteriously my flight was showing as cancelled.
Naturally I approached the desk and ask what the go is. I am told that there has been a crewing issue (take note of that) and they have had to cancel the flights but wait here and it will be sorted. The gentleman I spoke with was polite and helpful as possible in the situation, but had to keep going down the aerobridge for some reason. He eventually came back looked on the computer and said he cant help, and I need to go upstairs to the service desk.
Well when I got upstairs it was chaos! There were two girls on the desk with one floating behind them on the phone/radio etc. Given the situation they were fantastic. Always calm, despite some passengers taking personal offence to the fact the flight had been cancelled. due to my younger days in retail, I always remain calm and polite in these situations, as I know getting mad at a person who has no control will never yield you a positive response. We waited in line for easily 2 hours. Once we arrived at the front we were politely told there is no way we are getting to Sydney tonight and we will be transported to the hotel that night, given $50 room credit per person and then brought back to the airport for a 6am departure to Sydney going via Brisbane. At this time we were given some vouchers to use on food at the airport to the value of $15 each. We were told a bus will come and collect us at 2130 and someone will be waiting downstairs for us to direct us.
At 2100 we went downstairs and looked around, all we could find were passengers in the same situation as us. I asked a few wandering ground staff if they knew and they apologised and said they didn't. This went till 930 when one of the other passengers came and saw us and said its over the road. So we all made a dash to get to the bus. This took approx an hr and a half, as the bus driver didn't know where he was going (I ended up directing him into the hotel), but we can't really blame Virgin for that can we? The put us in the Pullman Albert Park which was nice. While on the bus one of the passengers mentioned that there heard there will be no bus to pick people up cause all the flights are at different times. I didn't believe them and thought rumors in this situation would be crazy. By the time we got to the room, ordered dinner and got to bed it was approx midnight.
Come 430am we are waiting downstairs to get to the airport with plenty of time for our 6am departure. We ask the front desk if they know what time the bus is coming to get us and they said as far as they knew there was no bus, but they will call us a cab like have done for the other passengers. Not what I expected but I went with it. A couple of weeks later on the credit card statement I noticed a charge for ~$35 on my card. I rang the hotel and was told it is the amount we went over the credit. I argued and said no way did we spend $135 on dinner, to which they replied no, you only get $50 credit PER ROOM.
Once at the airport, all was good. Obviously we didn't have time for breakfast at the hotel so left it and decided to eat on the plane. We bought a sandwidch and a drink each and arrived into Sydney around 11am, got to the car and of course our pre paid parking was expired so we needed to pay $64 for another day of parking. Both myself and my wife then needed to take a day of leave as we couldn't get to work before 2 so were told to take it off.
I complained to Virgin about it 2 days after the fact and after waiting 4 weeks (Christmas was in the mix so can understand), then being told its not their fault and I'm not entitled to anything, I escalated it. This meant another 3 week wait. This person was more helpful and asked me to send my receipts for expenses and they would get back to me. That was another 4 weeks. Yesterday I received a response and was told the processing of the credits will be 3 weeks.
In summary my out of pockets are
- Food at the hotel
- Transfer to the airport
- Breakfast/lunch on Monday
- extra day parking
I Hope you haven't died of boredom, but what would you consider fair as compensation? Just the money I am owed or some sort of goodwill?
I am after what you would feel is a reasonable response from Virgin to a situation i encountered last year. It is a bit of a story so here it goes.
Myself and SWMBO a reward economy flight booked Syd-Mel at 1700 on a Sunday night. Did OLCI that day as had no need to change anything (was a personal leisure trip) Went to airport, through security and waited at gate lounge. As the time approached for boarding I check the screen again, mysteriously my flight was showing as cancelled.
Naturally I approached the desk and ask what the go is. I am told that there has been a crewing issue (take note of that) and they have had to cancel the flights but wait here and it will be sorted. The gentleman I spoke with was polite and helpful as possible in the situation, but had to keep going down the aerobridge for some reason. He eventually came back looked on the computer and said he cant help, and I need to go upstairs to the service desk.
Well when I got upstairs it was chaos! There were two girls on the desk with one floating behind them on the phone/radio etc. Given the situation they were fantastic. Always calm, despite some passengers taking personal offence to the fact the flight had been cancelled. due to my younger days in retail, I always remain calm and polite in these situations, as I know getting mad at a person who has no control will never yield you a positive response. We waited in line for easily 2 hours. Once we arrived at the front we were politely told there is no way we are getting to Sydney tonight and we will be transported to the hotel that night, given $50 room credit per person and then brought back to the airport for a 6am departure to Sydney going via Brisbane. At this time we were given some vouchers to use on food at the airport to the value of $15 each. We were told a bus will come and collect us at 2130 and someone will be waiting downstairs for us to direct us.
At 2100 we went downstairs and looked around, all we could find were passengers in the same situation as us. I asked a few wandering ground staff if they knew and they apologised and said they didn't. This went till 930 when one of the other passengers came and saw us and said its over the road. So we all made a dash to get to the bus. This took approx an hr and a half, as the bus driver didn't know where he was going (I ended up directing him into the hotel), but we can't really blame Virgin for that can we? The put us in the Pullman Albert Park which was nice. While on the bus one of the passengers mentioned that there heard there will be no bus to pick people up cause all the flights are at different times. I didn't believe them and thought rumors in this situation would be crazy. By the time we got to the room, ordered dinner and got to bed it was approx midnight.
Come 430am we are waiting downstairs to get to the airport with plenty of time for our 6am departure. We ask the front desk if they know what time the bus is coming to get us and they said as far as they knew there was no bus, but they will call us a cab like have done for the other passengers. Not what I expected but I went with it. A couple of weeks later on the credit card statement I noticed a charge for ~$35 on my card. I rang the hotel and was told it is the amount we went over the credit. I argued and said no way did we spend $135 on dinner, to which they replied no, you only get $50 credit PER ROOM.
Once at the airport, all was good. Obviously we didn't have time for breakfast at the hotel so left it and decided to eat on the plane. We bought a sandwidch and a drink each and arrived into Sydney around 11am, got to the car and of course our pre paid parking was expired so we needed to pay $64 for another day of parking. Both myself and my wife then needed to take a day of leave as we couldn't get to work before 2 so were told to take it off.
I complained to Virgin about it 2 days after the fact and after waiting 4 weeks (Christmas was in the mix so can understand), then being told its not their fault and I'm not entitled to anything, I escalated it. This meant another 3 week wait. This person was more helpful and asked me to send my receipts for expenses and they would get back to me. That was another 4 weeks. Yesterday I received a response and was told the processing of the credits will be 3 weeks.
In summary my out of pockets are
- Food at the hotel
- Transfer to the airport
- Breakfast/lunch on Monday
- extra day parking
I Hope you haven't died of boredom, but what would you consider fair as compensation? Just the money I am owed or some sort of goodwill?
