V-Flyer

Today is Saturday Sep 4th, 11:00AM.
I fly at 11:30am, on the 5th Sep to Miami.
I am waiting for someone in customer services to get back to me (she said about 3 hours) to let me know what is going on with my flight.
Virgin Airmiles booked me, so Virgin tells me to bugger off.
Virgin Airmiles wont know if the flight is cancled untill they have a meeting.

It is now less than 24 hours.

Is normal opperating procedure for letting someone know about a cancled international flight less than 24 hours?

Am I a victem of corporate abuse?

Who do I get answers from?

Who is in charge of the managers, who control the customer service people, that put me on hold, then tell me they can't help?

There are about 9,000 other Virgin travellers caught up in the problems caused by Hurricane Frances so I don't think you're being singled out for abuse of any nature. I suspect customer services are also exteremely stretched trying to rebook those affected.

With respect to your particular flight, you're probably better checking the VS website as advised below:

quote:At this point we cannot confirm the schedule for VS005 on 5 September. An update will be placed on this site at 21:00H UK local time on 4 September

I can understand your frustration, but the situation in Florida is very serious with mass evacuations - try not to take it so personally!
From experience here we know that people who speak to customer services when angry rarely do themselves justice and tend not to get the most positive of responses.

Also worth noting that VS's decisions may well be dependent on decisions in other quarters (eg the Florida airports), which in turn are likley to be based on what the weather is forecast to be doing.

Hi,

The latest info from VS ( click on the Severe Weather link ) at the bottom of the front page on http://www.virign-atlantic.com suggests that there is a possibility of the VS flight ot MIA leaving tommorrow ( 5th) although it may be delayed ( this is what is showing on the page at 22hr30 BST Sat)

Good luck

Regards

TBS

It appears that flight was only 5 hours late departing - surprising considering that 50% of Florida is still under a curfew with the huricane. Looks like Virgin will be one of the first flights back into Florida!

Just spoke to a mate in Boca Raton Fla. 7pm ish UK (2pm Fla.) She is still in her house and likely to stay there for a while. There are fallen trees all around her complex and she said the noise of the storm last night was unbelievable.

She lost power for a while, but it is now bacj, she has lost cable TV, but is able to get one channel on her TV, so she can keep in touch with what is going on.

She heard that some planes MAY be allowed to LEAVE MIA tonight, but she hasn't heard that any were due to come in. Although the worst is passed it still isn't pleasant. I can't imagine that many roads are passable, nor will there be many spare hotel beds in MIA.

I hope the arriving pax are sorted out.

Nick

icucimok

A few facts for you:
1. On Friday when the list of cancelled MCO/MIA flights was announced, the Met people predicted the hurricane would be clear of these airports by Sunday night. I'm sure you're aware that the weather isn't always predictable and Frances tracked through Florida slower than was originally forecast, meaning that MIA was still being battered.
2. At 7am on Sunday 5th (when I left work) MIA was still closed with no definite time as to when it would re-open. I understand it didn't actually re-open until about 2000 UK time.
3. The previous hurricane did major damage to Florida and its airports, hence this time the authorities decided that they would close them and give staff the opportunity to secure their homes and/or evacuate.
4. There's more to opening up an airport than raising the shutters on the duty-free shop. After a hurricane there can be debris all over the place, damage to buildings and equipment, navigation/lighting/fuel/etc all need to be checked, and an airport can't operate without thousands of workers who were all hundreds of miles away if they had any sense.
5. VS also has 4 747s per day at the weekend flying to MCO...that's approximately 5000 people who were ringing VS this w/e trying to cancel, re-time or re-plan their trips, and another 5000 people in Florida who VS were trying to get home. I can assure you that VS customer services weren't sitting with their feet up reading the newspaper all weekend.

If you're still in Miami in a few days when Hurricane Ivan goes through, perhaps you'd be good enough to let us know what it's like!