V-Flyer

The 9am phone-in today was "who is to blame" with regard to the mess at the airports, cancelled flights, children getting on planes etc.

Paul Charles - who I think is Communications Manager for VS was on for half an hour.

He was aksed who he thought "was to blame" and he gave a lame answer about it being a combination of factors blah blah blah!!! He should have said BAA and got on with it!! Ah well.

There were all the views expressed that we have seen on v-flyer and as Paul rightly said, none of this would have happened if it hadnt been for the terrorists! Paul said that VS had ofered BAA the use of VS customer services staff to help the security lines - making sure all the "simple" stuff was done - clear palstic bag, no prohibited items - so that BAA could use their staff for the more techinical scans and body searches - but they declined their offer DER!!![V]

Questions were asked about getting on planes with out of date passports and this was proved to have happened - a lady in customer services from the Dark Side said that they NEVER let it happen - it appears that some charter airlines will accept a driving licence providing the receiving airport agrees to accept the passenger.

Finally Paul Charles finished off by responding to a lady who said she needed to clean her teeth on a long haul fliggh and was disappinted she could no longer take tooth paste.

Paul said that Virgin would ensure that ALL passengers woudld have toothpaste on VS flights!!![:?]

I sent in a text at that point to ask him if that meant toothpaste in the UC amenity kits - but unfortunately he had left!!

He did come across well and did his best to answer general points about the situation.

I think that was the chap that was on GMTV this monring around 6.30 ish.He was good!

VS do seem to be taking more care than BA in not laying the blame at BAA's feet.

Wheather BAA is to blame or not, the airlines do need to take care with this, as they need to continue a good working relationship with their airport operators.

IMHO I think VS are right in not openly playing the blame game.

Regards

I agree - all I have seen in the last 48hrs is BA blaming BAA, no other airline (to my knowledge) is doing this. Not good as BAA could make life difficult for people if it wanted to!

G.

Hmm, saw this chap a couple of times yesterday and my over-riding feeling was, stick up for your passengers! He seemed to take more care to take a pop at BA than BAA, didn't even in the slightest call for a return to normality and was just insipid. If he listed to some frequent fliers and some V-Flyers he might have had some more oomph!