Hi All,
Sorry for the lack of posts lately but i've been away. I have YET to receive a response from Virgin, despite it being a month since our trip. It seems incredible to me that such a prestigous company such as Virgin would let their customers down in this way. Anyone else managed to get a suitable reply yet?
Charlie
Sunday 11 March 2007
Monday 5 March 2007
The compensation is less than the letter says it is...
After sending and email chasing them, I got a reply over the weekend from their Customer Services Team. This was interesting in itself since they had about 10 days ago sent an email saying my complaint had been forwarded to Richard Branson's office.
What I got, despite the detailed letter I had sent, was the same standard reply someone earlier has posted but with a change saying as Upper Class I would get 50000 miles. The letter clearly states that they were offering a free round trip and miles. But when I queried how to claim the flight they sent an email back saying you can choose EITHER the miles OR the flight. 50000 miles is not an upper class return flight.
Here is the text of the email they sent:
"Dear Mr Bembridge
Thank you for your email. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding.
I’m so sorry to read that you were delayed by two days after flight VS18 diverted to JFK, following its departure from Newark on 15 February. The precautionary decision to divert was taken after the crew discovered a technical problem. It was clear from the outset that the necessary repairs would take some time and two engineers were flown in from London to start
work.
Ordinarily we would have re-booked everyone onto other flights with us, or with other airlines, but there were only a handful of spaces available. We arranged hotel rooms in New Jersey as there weren’t enough in the New York area, and five coaches to take everyone there. A combination of bad weather and confusion over the correct route meant that this was a very
long journey too. We accept that this wasn’t handled very well and we took this up with the bus company before they returned on Saturday 17 February to collect everyone again.
Although Virgin Atlantic staff were sent to the hotel, we’re aware that some didn’t arrive until after the coaches. By early morning on Friday 16, we knew that the flight wouldn’t be leaving until Saturday so staff were on hand to answer questions and handed out letters explaining this.
On Saturday 17 February, your flight was re-numbered VS118 and left JFK at 10:43, 50 hours and 23 minutes late.
It’s very difficult in a letter, to acknowledge how much frustration an experience like this causes and we’re so sorry that you were affected. Of course, we occasionally have flight delays but rarely this long and very rarely when there are no options to move people to other flights. It was
for this reason that we offered you a free round-trip ticket on a future service, which I do hope you’ll get a chance to use.
Regarding the compensation, all Upper class passengers were offered 50,000 miles to be credited to their flying club account, which I have done for you.
If you incurred any costs for your immediate needs during the delay, like meals, phone calls, emails etc, please send us the receipts for consideration. We will also be passing on your comments within the airline, when we assess how this was handled.
Thanks very much for taking the time to write.
Yours sincerely
Nella Ellams (Mrs)
Customer Relations Executive"
What I got, despite the detailed letter I had sent, was the same standard reply someone earlier has posted but with a change saying as Upper Class I would get 50000 miles. The letter clearly states that they were offering a free round trip and miles. But when I queried how to claim the flight they sent an email back saying you can choose EITHER the miles OR the flight. 50000 miles is not an upper class return flight.
Here is the text of the email they sent:
"Dear Mr Bembridge
Thank you for your email. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in responding.
I’m so sorry to read that you were delayed by two days after flight VS18 diverted to JFK, following its departure from Newark on 15 February. The precautionary decision to divert was taken after the crew discovered a technical problem. It was clear from the outset that the necessary repairs would take some time and two engineers were flown in from London to start
work.
Ordinarily we would have re-booked everyone onto other flights with us, or with other airlines, but there were only a handful of spaces available. We arranged hotel rooms in New Jersey as there weren’t enough in the New York area, and five coaches to take everyone there. A combination of bad weather and confusion over the correct route meant that this was a very
long journey too. We accept that this wasn’t handled very well and we took this up with the bus company before they returned on Saturday 17 February to collect everyone again.
Although Virgin Atlantic staff were sent to the hotel, we’re aware that some didn’t arrive until after the coaches. By early morning on Friday 16, we knew that the flight wouldn’t be leaving until Saturday so staff were on hand to answer questions and handed out letters explaining this.
On Saturday 17 February, your flight was re-numbered VS118 and left JFK at 10:43, 50 hours and 23 minutes late.
It’s very difficult in a letter, to acknowledge how much frustration an experience like this causes and we’re so sorry that you were affected. Of course, we occasionally have flight delays but rarely this long and very rarely when there are no options to move people to other flights. It was
for this reason that we offered you a free round-trip ticket on a future service, which I do hope you’ll get a chance to use.
Regarding the compensation, all Upper class passengers were offered 50,000 miles to be credited to their flying club account, which I have done for you.
If you incurred any costs for your immediate needs during the delay, like meals, phone calls, emails etc, please send us the receipts for consideration. We will also be passing on your comments within the airline, when we assess how this was handled.
Thanks very much for taking the time to write.
Yours sincerely
Nella Ellams (Mrs)
Customer Relations Executive"
Friday 2 March 2007
Inconsistent
Hi All
Just to let you know I received a totally different letter from Virgin (shocking that they are inconsistent!!!) Mine was a standard letter confirming I am entitled to a free round trip as long as I send in my receipts and travel within the next 18 months. What annoys me about this is they are obviously trying to get more business as I will have to take someone with me who will have to buy a ticket which means more profit for Virgin!!!!!!! They are obviously trying to profit from our unfortunate situation. The other 2 people I travelled with have still had nothing even though we all emailed and posted our letters on the same day!! Surely Virgin can do so much better than this
I also received a random email from their customer service team asking for the home addresses of the people I was travelling with, why is it up to me to provide them with this?????
Just to let you know I received a totally different letter from Virgin (shocking that they are inconsistent!!!) Mine was a standard letter confirming I am entitled to a free round trip as long as I send in my receipts and travel within the next 18 months. What annoys me about this is they are obviously trying to get more business as I will have to take someone with me who will have to buy a ticket which means more profit for Virgin!!!!!!! They are obviously trying to profit from our unfortunate situation. The other 2 people I travelled with have still had nothing even though we all emailed and posted our letters on the same day!! Surely Virgin can do so much better than this
I also received a random email from their customer service team asking for the home addresses of the people I was travelling with, why is it up to me to provide them with this?????
Hello is anybody out there?
Weirdly, I had a letter this morning ... again nothing about what they'll be doing about it, just a holding message saying they'll be in touch within 21 days. TWENTYONE DAYS! That's completely ridiculous don't you think? Why am I surprised. This is typical of Virgin's lackadaisical approach to customers. In case you're wondering who Steve and Anna are - they're they CEO and Head of Communications for Virgin Atlantic. Let me know if you'd like their details - if you all email them maybe they'll take more notice. Maybe.
---------------------
Dear Miss Morgan
Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your feedback. Steve Ridgway and Anna Knowles have also taken note of your concerns and have asked us to reply on their behalf.
I have passed your comments over to our team of customer relations executives and they'll get back to you in the next 21 days.
Thank you for your patience while waiting for our reply.
Yours sincerely
Nikko Rocha (Miss)
Customer Relations
---------------------
Dear Miss Morgan
Thank you for taking the time to write to us with your feedback. Steve Ridgway and Anna Knowles have also taken note of your concerns and have asked us to reply on their behalf.
I have passed your comments over to our team of customer relations executives and they'll get back to you in the next 21 days.
Thank you for your patience while waiting for our reply.
Yours sincerely
Nikko Rocha (Miss)
Customer Relations
Thursday 1 March 2007
has anyone heard from Virgin, got compensation??
It is now a LONG time since the experience and I still have had no letter, no offer of compensation from Virgin...
As you will have seen from an earlier posting I did get an email on 23 Feb that my complaint had/ was being sent to Richard B's office..... and nothing..
I am still sticking to my guns and have made NO bookings on Virgin despite having flown with them long haul on average twice a month. I am using BA. It is costing more as my company has better route deals with Virgin but until I get a reply I will stick to BA.... I don't think Virgin cares anyway but it makes me feel better....!
As you will have seen from an earlier posting I did get an email on 23 Feb that my complaint had/ was being sent to Richard B's office..... and nothing..
I am still sticking to my guns and have made NO bookings on Virgin despite having flown with them long haul on average twice a month. I am using BA. It is costing more as my company has better route deals with Virgin but until I get a reply I will stick to BA.... I don't think Virgin cares anyway but it makes me feel better....!
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