Contact Details - Re: Complaint
 

Does anyone have a contact e-mail address for complaints regarding Pacific Blue? I've tried talking to a couple of call centre staff, but they have been pretty hopeless.

The complaint is regarding a flight we booked on Pacific Blue from Wellington to Sydney last month, although the flight was operated by Air New Zealand, it was booked through the Virgin Australia website. There was a schedule change and the flight departed 30 minutes earlier than what our Pacific Blue e-ticket stated. We were very close to missing the flight.

We've talked to Air New Zealand who said the schedule change was made 2 days before our flight and that Pacific Blue were notified. Air New Zealand say that it was Virgin's job to notify their customers of the flight schedule change. The Virgin call centre staff keep trying to pass the blame back to Air NZ as they operated the flight.

Have you tried PMing the company rep here? He is pretty good with helping with these things. Beyond that i'd suggest the velocity platinum email address or the velocity platinum call centre (if you haven't spoken to them yet).

What do you actually want them to do now? It sounds like you didn't actually miss the flight?

Did you check flight departures info in case there were changes?
I know it can be difficult while you're away but changes can and do happen often. Did you receive an email of the flight change? I usually do if they have done one.
Unless you missed the flight there is little they can or would do and would probably claim they tried to contact you via your booking contact details.

This seems like a fairly minor thing to complain about. It was only 30 minutes earlier and if you were checking in 90 minutes before departure you would have actually been 60 minutes prior and still plenty of time to do everything you needed to do. Even a 60 minute check in would still have given just enough time to be rushed through departures to be on board 10 minutes prior to departure.

Are you saying that when you checked your flight on day of departure (as is good practice to do and something many a frequent flyer does) that it was still showing the original departure time?

Again, I would be interested to understand what resolution you are seeking.

I do not want to be rude - but perhaps you should complain about yourself. Every ticket says that passengers should check flight changes prior the departure.

E-tickets usually do not change with schedule change, they do change only if they are re-issued. So looking at e-ticket is not enough. You need to look at your PNR - although, in a case of DJ, it might be the same - not sure... Do not fly them often enough...

So do you not believe that airlines are responsible for trying to contact their clients when there has been a schedule change?

All I'm after is an apology from Virgin, we were traveling with some clients, so it wasn't a good look arriving to check in 90 minutes before departure time, to be told by Air New Zealand that check in had closed and the flight was now departing 30 minutes earlier. Instead Virgin have tried to pass the buck and blame Air New Zealand.

BTW, PacificBlue website recommends check in 120 min prior the departure...

30 minutes is not that big change, happens sooo often. I do not believe that airlines are responsible - they usually do try contact, but they are not responsible - traveller is.

Now, I have just travelled with DJ recently and there was slight change in the departure time. I just looked back in my e-mail and they sent me e-mail week before the departure, when the change did happen, and then I got another e-mail exactly 24 hours before departure again, inviting me to use OLCI. I have done 4 flights with DJ in the past three months and in all four cases, I received such e-mail...

So from that, I am somehow puzzled that you did not receive anything...

Just to put you in the picture. I book my long haul flights often 10+ months ahead and flight times do change more often than I would like to. I hardly receive any notifications about those changes, but I regularly check my PNR on-line and do see the changes there. I never ever rely on original printed itineraries or e-tickets.

You won't receive an apology. As stated here by other members already myself included, changes can and do happen.
You still haven't answered our questions if they emailed you or what contact details they had for you on file. If you had ticked SMS updates and your phone was not working, then you wouldn't have received anything if you had no service.

Personally I think you're being difficult over nothing. You got on the flight, had no luggage go missing and your still not happy?

I don't think I'm being difficult at all. Virgin had our contact e-mail address, landline and cell phone numbers. They were informed about the schedule change two days prior to the flight by Air New Zealand and never informed us. Sure we still made the flight, but that's not the point, we could have easily not been allowed to check in for the flight. I'll follow this up with management there and be in touch with their response.

Just out of curiosity, did you book that flight with a travel agent? A similar thing happened to a friend of mine,however he had booked the flight using a travel agent. Virgin had emailed the travel agent regarding the change,but the travel agent failed to pass that information to my friend.

Ah I imagine that happens quite a bit, but nope, I booked this myself online.

OK, so let me understand this. You turn up at 90 minutes, which is actually 60 minutes and NZ tell you check in is closed but they will re-open it for you and you make your flight? I have frequently checked in at SYD at 60 minutes and ex WLG frequently at 45 minutes and had no issues making general boarding. To me it seems like the issue has been solved, NZ let you on the flight, no one was left behind and it serves as a good lesson when travelling with clients (or in general) to always recheck your departure time on the day of travel.

Now if you are saying you got no notification at all and had supplied valid phone number, email address then I would say the integration is broken between Virgin and NZ IT system and that could be on either airlines side. That is something worthy of bringing to their attention so they can troubleshoot and get fixed.

Out of interest I see you are NZ Gold Elite, why didn't you book directly on the operating carrier in this case? For these sort of reasons I always try and book with the operating carrier where I have status with them as they generally look after you far better when things don't go to plan.

Just received this e-mail, much appreciated that Virgin could apologise for their error, look forward to flying with them again soon.


"Thank you for your feedback, we appreciate that you've taken the time and effort to contact us with your comments and apologise for the delay in responding to your query.

Please accept my apologies on behalf of the Virgin Australia Group for any inconvenience and confusion caused in this matter. I can advise that while we were unaware of any change to the flight schedule prior to subsequent guest feedback, there was a technical issue that has now been raised with our IT department for investigation and correction.

All our guests deserve to receive a dependable, reliable service, an expectation which we strive to meet wherever possible. As a relatively young and rapidly growing airline, we certainly appreciate and take seriously our guests’ and their representatives comments as they are a vital way for the Virgin Australia Group to continue providing and improving our level of customer service.

Once again we apologise for the delay in responding to your query and look forward to welcoming you on board one of our flights in the near future.

Kind Regards,

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Guest Relations Coordinator