Airlines Need to Meet Your Expectations

When you book a hotel room, flight or rental car you likely have booked or selected that vendor based on a certain set of expectations from previous experiences, advertising, reviews, etc… So, what happens when those expectations are not met?

When you set your expectations based upon advertising or something provided by a vendor – say the terms and conditions of a fare or rate, I believe the vendor is obligated to stand by those promises.

For example, if company A advertises that they provide breakfast, then they should be expected to provide breakfast. You may not agree with the company’s definition of breakfast, and you may not like what they provide, but your personal expectations – perhaps set by reviews – don’t have to be met by the company.

Similarly, when you book a room or flight, you expect that everything in that room or on the flight is in working order. I may not like the water pressure in a hotel shower, but I expect that there is water in the shower. Likewise, on a flight, if I pay for a lie-flat seat, I expect the seat to do just that.

I recently took a flight on Virgin Atlantic and paid to upgrade to Upper Class (their version of business class). On their website, and at the ticket counter they advertised Upper Class as having lie-flat beds, tabletops and more. So, I expected just that.

Once onboard, I discovered that the seat was broken. It did not recline – at all – and the table was stuck and could not be removed from its locked position.  The flight was full so there weren’t any other options. The flight crew tried very hard to fix the seat and table, but were unable to.

After the flight I spoke to a Virgin Atlantic representative who told me to contact the airline via email or in writing. I did just that, explained the situation and asked for a refund of the cost to upgrade. (As of today, I have not heard back from Virgin and their social media team has said it could take up to 28 days to hear back. Under the Customer Service Plan in a section called “Ensuring Responsiveness to Customer Complaints” the Virgin Atlantic website says, “We want you to enjoy your experience with us. Sometimes however things do not go according to plan and if you feel that we have not lived up to your expectations, or that we could improve our service in some way, please let us know. Under normal circumstances, we will respond to you within 28 days and at the latest within 60 days of receiving your complaint. If we can we will call you to discuss your concerns alternatively, or at your specific request, we will write or e mail you.”)

Whether or not 28-60 days is really “responsive” can be debated. Virgin Atlantic clearly thinks this is a reasonable length of time to deal with a customer complaint, I think that issues like this should be dealt with more promptly. Now, instead of having a satisfied customer they have a customer whose expectations weren’t met and who likely won’t ever book with them again since I know that their definition of customer service doesn’t meet my expectations.

Vendors walk a fine line when it comes to meeting the expectations of their customers. My expectation that the seat and table were in working condition are, in my opinion, completely reasonable.  I expect that the airline will resolve the issue one way or another. My expectation of how the airline should deal with customer service issues – well, that’s one expectation the airline may never meet based on their stated policy.

How do you set your expectations and when they’re not met, how do you deal with it?

Stacey Segal is the co-founder of First2Board.com. She writes regularly at first2board.com/verygoodpoints.