lindros2

After flying UC for years (JFK <> LHR), I've had the misery of flying them recently.

1. Cancelled flights for no reason <4 days prior to departure.
2. Rude call center employees.
3. Excruciating hold/wait times due to #1 (> 50 minutes).
4. No remorse/reconciliation.

Based on other posts I've seen, this appears to be a trend.

Did Delta essentially bail them out?

Acid

My frustration has been with the Flying Club program. I have several VS codeshares (VS ticket, VS flight numbers, operated by partners) that I am missing miles for. Several emails, calls, twitter and nothing can get it sorted for last 2 months....

lindros2

Wow.

Back 15-20 years ago, Virgin Upper Class was *the* place to fly. Massages, great seats, new aircraft, and decent infotainment (a little later).

4-5 years ago, innovating with Google Glass (albeit it was all smoke-and-mirrors behind the scenes, and overheated on agents faces).

But now it's like Delta got them for the slots and NOTHING else.

It's not "teething pain" as they claim - more like a chromosomal abnormality.

Acid

To be fair, the hard product was way better than BA on LHR-JFK (specially in Y) so I won't write them off - but yes, since the system change in Nov - its been a pain to get simple issues resolved.

lindros2

I dunno - the hard product is closer to "par" with other airlines. US airlines (shush my mouth) are catching up.

But the shop+book issue - plus zero-out-of-ten customer service - have relegated them to third world.

Branson has failed. Customer experience is a marathon, not a sprint.

CommanderB

I haven't had a problem with Customer Service from either DL or VS.

Sure, the seat is a little dated now.

But lets look at the positives -

AMAZING Clubhouses.
The newest/greenest fleet in the skies, once the A350's come.
Very good Y and W products compared with BA. J is still very good.
Great staff (haven't had a bad experience in the last 18 months and I've done.
Quick to attend to complaints and still offer decent service recovery, again unlike BA.

I could probably go on.

PaulH1

A lot of Virgin Atlantic telephone agents have been awful recently.
Many do not seem to have adequate training and give out incorrect advice and quite a few are blunt and rude this never used to be the case.
We have had many problems with our last few bookings after being given poor advice by telephone agents which have never reached a satisfactory resolution.
Managers and customer relations fob you off and are not interested which leave you frustrated and angry
Customer service is so important but in my recent experience has been badly lacking

SlimpyJones

I've never, ever had rude or incompetent call centre staff. I wonder if it's a non-UK thing? Everyone I've ever spoken to has been polite and courteous and on some occasions a pleasure to talk to.

UKtravelbear

1. they don't have to tell you why a flight was cancelled

2. rudeness is in the eye of the beholder

3. happens to all airlines

4. again in the eye of the beholder.

PaulH1

Yes but customer care goes a long way and means a lot.

For example on our last flight

1) Me and my wife are both Silver members which does not give you a lot of benefits but one of the benefits is being able to reserve your seats a week in advance.
We was travelling with our son who is only a Red member and they would not allow him to prebook his seat with us even though he was on our booking.
I was told me and my wife can reserve our seats but my son must wait until 24 hours before flight and will have to sit somewhere else.
I tried calling three times and every agent would not allow him to sit with us without paying a seat reservation fee.

2) On our return flight i prebooked our seats a week in advance only to find when checking in online the day before our flight that our seats numbers had been moved to the last / back row next to the toilets. I called Virgin Flying Club and explained was told nothing could be done. Didn't care less.

3) My seat was broken and none of our IFE were working the whole flight.
One one meal choice of three was left by the time cabin crew got to serve us.
The flight was 8 hours and very uncomfortable.
After pushing the matter I was eventually offered a very poor 2,500 miles.

The above situations are basic things to authorise and leave you feeling that they care but were immediately declined instead my son was expected to sit on his own or pay and we ended up sitting in back row by toilets, who at Virgin changed our seats was never looked into.

Our previous trip had various issues also and experienced a can't be asked attitude.
This never used to be the case with Virgin pre 2016 the telephone agents were amongst the most friendly and helpful but I have noticed a definite decline.

lindros2

As someone has flown 2 million miles - but quite honestly, don't care about being treated 'special' - getting me to destination or home even in a middle seat is a gift enough - Virgin has really been poor this trip. See my next post.

And they did tell me why the flight was cancelled - three of four agents didn't know, but the fourth said the reason almost nonchalantly - making me feel stupid.

lindros2

Here was my specific situation (this was the *best* of four calls re: booking issues and flight cancel):

1. Yes, there are seats.
2. No, we can't assign them before airport.
3. I can see the seatmap.
4. No I can't see the seatmap.
5. There might not be seats.
6. I can't see the seatmap.
7. If you call tomorrow it could be the same.
8. Tomorrow will be completely different.
9. There are seats - maybe 25% of cabin is holdback.
10. Not sure if there are seats.

This was in one 5-minute call.

SlimpyJones

So there was a reason then?

Sealink

I have had poor experiences with Virgin before the flight leaves, scheduled changes and even cancellations, the website is still not great, but man... those Clubhouses and the onboard experience just make it all evaporate.

I don't think Delta has any malign influence believe it or not, but VS needed discipline which DL provides.

Greenpen

All is great except the seat which is very narrow and uncomfortable to sit in. The booze is better on BA but as I have a limited knowledge of wines and drink to get drunk I don't mind that. The lounge is excellent.