UPDATE, June 2005: This
letter was never acknowledged. Just another example of Virgin's customer
non-service.
Letter to Virgin's customer relations office
March 12, 2005
To: Virgin Atlantic Customer Relations
747 Belden Ave., Norwalk CT 06850
My husband and I were booked on Virgin Atlantic flight 12, due to leave
Logan Airport in Boston Tuesday night, March 8, 2005, at 7:25. The
flight couldn't go because of snow, ice, and wind, and we had to spend
the night
in the airport. Virgin, of course, couldn't do anything about the weather,
but it's what they did (and didn't do) afterwards that made the next
two days the worst airline experience of my life. Here's why:
TUESDAY
NIGHT
1. When Flight 12 can't leave because of weather, Virgin is the only
international airline that doesn't find hotel rooms for its passengers,
and discourages
us from looking for our own rooms by saying that nothing is available.
2. Virgin tells us to call their 800 number starting at 6:00 a.m. for
schedule information, saying that the flight would probably take off
after the crew
has their mandated 10-hour rest.
3. Passengers (who had been expecting dinner on the plane) are given
$5 food vouchers for that evening, then warned that the only food service
available is Dunkin Donuts, where the supply may be limited. In fact,
the
food (such as it was) does run out at Dunkin Donuts while people are
still waiting in line. Virgin thereby fails to meet its obligation
under European
Union’s Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 and in accordance with the promise
on Virgin's own web
site: "If your flight is delayed for more
than 4 hours we will provide you with meals and refreshments in reasonable
relation to the waiting time."
4. The above regulation also promises passengers "2 short telephone
calls, or telex, or fax, or e-mail messages." No provisions are
made for such service.
WEDNESDAY MORNING
5. Though some 20 passengers are at the VA desk at 6:00 a.m. no one
is there to give us information. Calling the 800 number only yields
busy signals
or hold times over 45 minutes.
6. At 11 a.m. a Virgin rep finally appears, probably because passengers
had called on Massport to use their clout. Rep has quite an attitude,
blaming passengers for being upset, and expecting sympathy because
she had slept
on a cot in the airport all night. Most passengers didn't even get
cots.
7. Rep tells passengers who happen to be at the desk when she arrives
that the flight will go out tonight, rather than earlier as we had
previously
been led to believe.
8. Passengers are told they cannot get their bags from the airplane
sitting on the runway, thereby preventing anyone from making alternate
flight
arrangements and requesting reimbursement under the five-hour
delay promise: "Where
the delay is five hours or more, we will reimburse the fare paid
for your ticket for the part of carriage not used or the whole amount
paid
if, as
a result of the delay, the purpose of the carriage used no longer
serves any purpose in relation to your original travel plans."
WEDNESDAY
AFTERNOON
9. Our original aircraft has been renumbered to Flight 112, scheduled
to leave at 7:25 p.m., a full 24 hours after the originally scheduled
departure.
This certainly appears to me to constitute cancellation of the original
flight, which would bring into play EU regulations governing cancellations.
However Virgin consistently refuses to designate the flight as cancelled,
even though Logan announcements later refer to the "cancelled
Virgin flight."
10. Meanwhile passengers are arriving to check in for Wednesday night's
Flight #12, which has been moved to 8 p.m. Unbeknownst to anyone
at this time (except Virgin personnel who aren't sharing this information),
the
plane designated for flight 12 is a small Airbus that is not big
enough
to accommodate all the passengers wanting to get to London.
11. Another piece of information that must have been known to Virgin
at this time is that the original plane (the 747) has engine problems
and
needs a part that hasn't arrived. A Virgin rep later admits that
they had been trying all day to obtain the part.
WEDNESDAY EVENING
12. Rather than bump passengers from the Airbus, and have to compensate
them, Virgin pulls a very dirty trick. When many of Wednesday's
passengers arrive to check in, Virgin switches their booking to the
rescheduled
Flight 112, telling them this change will give them an earlier
departure. Virgin
must have known perfectly well by late afternoon that the 747 was
very unlikely to fly, and certainly wouldn't leave on time, since
they told
us later they had been trying to get the needed part all day. But
they still switched passengers to the 747, presumably so they wouldn't
have
to bump them from the smaller plane, but could claim mechanical
failure later on as the reason they couldn't take off.
13. After pulling this nasty trick, Virgin leaves the boarding
gates for both flights completely unstaffed until 2 hours after
the scheduled
boarding
time. Information on the Logan signboards is confusing, showing
two Flight 12s and no Flight 112. Passengers' boarding passes show
3
different gate
numbers for the same flight. No one knows what is happening, and
there is no one from Virgin to tell us anything.
14. Unable to get through to Virgin's US 800 number, one passenger
calls the London office to find out why there is no one at the
Boston gate. London
says all the Boston staff is in a meeting. We later learn that
additional counter staff were flown from New York that day, so
there should have
been no shortage of personnel. Apparently staff meetings take precedence
over
customer service and communications.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT
15. Finally, about 90 minutes after scheduled departure time, a
Virgin rep shows up to tell us that Flight 112 will not take off
until probably
the following evening. We are told that our bags are being offloaded.
This procedure takes over 2 hours.
16. By this point the last thing I want to do is to set foot on
a Virgin airplane. In addition, my trip was part of a 6-day Virgin
Vacation
package, which will be half over by the earliest time Virgin can
get me to London.
Fortunately, I live nearby, so am able to get a taxi and go home.
More unfortunate are the British residents, who are still at the
mercy of
Virgin to find a way home, and don't know when they will ever see
British soil
again. (The only good part of this experience for me was meeting
so many nice British passengers, who reflected so much more credit
on
their home
country than did the UK airline we were flying.)
17. The worst part of this experience was the lack of communication
from Virgin. If the airline had only kept us informed and told
us the truth,
most people would have been understanding, even when the news was
bad. We know that problems often happen that no one can prevent,
even with
the best of intentions. But every passenger I spoke with commented
on how badly
Virgin had treated us, and how much we all resented their failure
to communicate honestly with us.
18. So ... thanks, Virgin Atlantic, for trashing the Virgin Vacation
in London my husband and I had been planning for months. Maybe
sometime we'll
manage to get there, but I don't think it will be on Richard Branson's
airline.
Where We Went -- NOT
Making Lemonade:
Lessons learned from a bad trip
Photos |