trip reports

[lexton]

Arrived home Monday morning after a 2week stay in a rental villa.Villa superb,holiday itself fab,flights to and from awful.Will never fly with Virgin Atlantic again.Outward journey had a 25.5hour delay due to technical fault,resulting flight to be cancelled.Re-scheduled for 10-25am day after,but that flight delayed for 1.5hours.We eventually flew out on what can only be described as an ancient converted cargo carrier.No seat-back T.V's,no nintendo games for kids,2 films shown from what looked like a cinema projector onto a screen in the middle of the plane,whereas if you are as small as me you almost had to stand up to see the film!We decided to fly Virgin,twice before we have flown Airtours,and your hand is never out of your pocket,what with having to buy headphones and drinks,we thought we would'up-grade'just for the 2 of us.What a rip-off!The return journey was just as bad ,although there were no delays.We flew home back to Manchester on the Virgin plane,2 loos on entering plane out of order,not long after take-off 2more flooded,only loos available 4 ,at the back of the plane.Entertainment system kept crashing cabin crew were continually having to reset system.Seat back T.V's far too close to watch when passenger in front reclined seat.Once again plane was well past its fly by date!Hubby and I feel totally ripped off by Virgin Atlantic ,having paid about £200 more per seat this time and had nothing 'extra 'to show for it.We wished we had gone on a charter flight, as you pays for what you get!The flight cancellation was unavoidable ,these things happen but the way Virgin have treated all the passengers on that flight was awful,the complete lack of information.We all lost a complete day off our holiday,and for our inconvenience we have been offered 50% off our next Virgin Atlantic flight.No chance! There were many disgruntled passengers when they were giving out these letters.My letter of complaint is winging its way to Sir Richard on his tropical island!

[jewell]

Don't give up on your claim for reimbursement Lexton. We had a bad experience a few years ago with Virgin putting us in the Luxor in Las Vegas when there was extension work going on 24/7. This was our wedding!!! Sounded like there were motorbikes going through the reception area. Letter of complaint went off, we were offered discount off next hol, refused it politely and explained that it wasn't good enough, another offer of £100 arrived which we refused and we explained we felt we were not being treated in a fair manner. A cheque arrived for £800 a week later! So I think perseverance is the answer, if you genuinely feel you have a complaint, and I personally think you do, stick with it! Good luck !

[chris]

How awful for you. As Sandra says push for all you can get, totally free flights (At least you know the flight cant be any worse!), and particularly loss of a days holiday, car hire, villa etc. Don't forget to claim on your travel insurance too.

Chris

[esprit]

Most travel policies will give compensation on a delay of more than 24 hours so you should get something there. As to Virgin, if you do not like the offer you get back, you should send an official letter before action threatening to go to the small claims court and publicity. Travel cos hate bad publicity. Alternatively, you could use ABTAs arbitration service. Glad to hear that the villa measured up and you had a good holiday anyway.

[tinkerbell]

I am not surprised at all lexton to hear what you've said. I have flown with Virgin many times, and for the first 4 trips all was perfect, then on our next return trip, the service was apalling. The cabin crew were all having personal conversations in the aisles, and the food was beyond a joke.

After this experience, I no longer feel the loyalty I once had towards VA. I am now only interested in the cheapest flight going! As long as I get there in one piece I can cope with it!! At least then I wouldn't be surprised with the terrible service!

I have to say aswell, definitely go for all you can with regards to compensation, Virgin pride themselves quite highly on their customer care, and will evetually trip over themselves to convince you that what you experienced was a one off!

Good luck!

[Kissyme]

I am shocked to hear about your bad experiances on Virgin I know I am not very well travelled having only flown wit them three times but could`nt fault them I have always felt safe with them and the service has been great I hope this will not change when we fly in Oct 2003
Kym

[athurstance]

I've flown many times with Virgin and would have said I was a big fan of theirs. I have to admit our flight back from Orlando in January was awful. Still I won't write them off just yet - we're flying with them again at Xmas but if its still the same that will be it. We had fantastic flights to Barcelona with BA - I know short haul isn't the same but I was VERY impressed.
On the other hand I can't agree that they're that much more expensive. I've looked at charter flights several times and they always seem to cost more than Virgin. The only cheaper flights I've founds are indirect ones which I don't fancy.


Angela
Angela

[Kissyme]

Do you think that the service has declined following tha massive loss airlines incurred after 9/11 ?

[chris]

If you really look into it the airlines did not suffer such great losses after 9/11 as they claimed! In my copy of Financial Times I got 2 weeks before the incident BA were saying how much trouble they were in and stated the sort of job losses they were expecting to have to make. Then 9/11 happened and they had just the excuse for making the cuts they were going to make anyway[}]!!!!

Chris

[florida4sun]

The airlines used this as an excuse for sever cost cutting. They dropped thousands of staff very quickly. They must have had a plan in place pre sept 11th. FLight prices have since gone up. So less staff and hire prices means they are still doing ok.

quote:Originally posted by Kissyme

Do you think that the service has declined following tha massive loss airlines incurred after 9/11 ?