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#258934 by rupsingh
27 Apr 2009, 13:27
Following a rather poor flight heres the letter, I just fired off to virgin. Interesting to see if i get a template reply on this or not?


Firstly let me just compliment the outbound crew on VS300 on the 1st of April who were nothing short of excellent, and for the 1st time the inbound crew were excellent as well. Although this email is partly being sent because of poor service it was not in any part due to the failing of the crew

As a frequent flyer in Upper class on the Delhi route I have become quite familiar to the check in crew at delhi who now recognize me and address me on 1st name terms, a lovely touch I might add. On this occasion the check in agent commented on how there would be approx 20 OP-UPS into the upper class cabin due to economy and premium being heavily oversold. I did not think this would be a matter of concern at this stage.

When we boarded this was confirmed as all the suites in upper were taken and there were even passengers on the jump seats! service was slow during the flight due to the full flight, but as the flight progressed the service slowed down to unbearable. Just to give one of many examples, I waited over 40 mins from finishing my main course to my plate being cleared and a further 20 mins for dessert to appear. Once again I must stress the crew was doing their very best absolutely run of their feet and even the FSM was helping out in all the services. This level of service falls well short of what should be expected in the upper class cabin.

Secondly the earphone socket was loose on the suite resulting in the slightest movement causing a loss of sound on the earphones!

Thirdly I found my seat would not recline, it just kept getting stuck despite the best efforts of 3 different members of crew. Not too much of a problem I thought as I had planned to get some sleep, but when the seat tried to be converted into a bed, it completely jammed, resulting in myself having to stand in the isle for approx 20 mins while the seat was finally taken apart and flipped into a bed. After waking up still feeling rather embarrassed by the time this was taking up of the already burdened crew and having to stand in the isle for so long I chose not to get it converted back into a seat until afternoon tea was served choosing to just seat on the ottoman end instead

If there were not so many upgrades given on the day there would have been a vacant suite i would have been able to swap to a fully functional suite, but this was not possible under the circumstances

I understand operational upgrades are a necessity but they should not be at the detriment of the service available to Upper class ticketed passengers. This experience has soured an otherwise perfect flight experience in Upper class, and has left myself wondering that if On a full flight the service falls to bits and with the poor standard of maintenance of the suite I occupied on Virgin is it time to maybe try a different carrier


Regards

Mr Rupsingh
#713415 by Guest
27 Apr 2009, 13:37
Thanks for sharing.

I would interested to see your reply also as the flight was merely full (something I experience very regulary)with op-ups rather than fare paying pasengers should not have made any difference to your journey in the way you describe it. Many times I have not seen a spare suite so having op-ups would not necessarily prevent you from swapping. I have to say that unless the crew were done by quite a few then the problems with that 'lack of staff' you encountered seem to fall to the FSM - I have been on may full flights from Dulles and LAX and, thankfully, never experienced such issues as you describe.

Regards,
#713420 by Alex V
27 Apr 2009, 14:35
I too would be interested to see your reply, its a real shame to have had such shoddy service and hope they compensate accordingly.

cheers

alex
#713427 by JoeyVS
27 Apr 2009, 15:31
There is now 1 less crew member working in Upper class on all flights. It is very dificult to cope on a full flight!
#713429 by McMaddog
27 Apr 2009, 15:44
Sorry to hear your problems, I wonder if VS would've been better approaching this a la BGI flights when a large number of PAX are opp'd up and although those PAX are sitting in UC they receive PE service levels.
#713431 by mike-smashing
27 Apr 2009, 16:19
quote:Originally posted by JoeyVS
There is now 1 less crew member working in Upper class on all flights. It is very dificult to cope on a full flight!


Out of interest, how long has that been in effect?

The last full VS20 I flew on (back toward the end of last year) wasn't much better than Rupsingh's experience in terms of how glacially slow the service was.

Mike
#713434 by easygoingeezer
27 Apr 2009, 17:07
Some time ago I saw a lady who had been op-up'd be asked to move in to a seat that wasn't working and the paying passenger from that one moved in to hers. Perhaps you should have asked in the nicest way possible was there a fully operation suite that was occupied by a person who had been moved in to a higher cabin.
#713451 by sixdownkeepsafedepth
27 Apr 2009, 20:26
quote:Originally posted by easygoingeezer
Some time ago I saw a lady who had been op-up'd be asked to move in to a seat that wasn't working and the paying passenger from that one moved in to hers. Perhaps you should have asked in the nicest way possible was there a fully operation suite that was occupied by a person who had been moved in to a higher cabin.


EGG

Absolute tosh and a silly idea, what a very nice lady you came across! Let us face facts the op up to J is the holy grail of airline travel and would only be issued due to the very significant overselling of seats by the carrier. If it happened to me (which it has not) I would not give up my allocated seat to anyone full fare paying or not. [:D]

Selfish? Moi?

Regards
Bryan
#715074 by rupsingh
14 May 2009, 13:10
Well after not reciving a reply, decided to go through the facebook page and a response within 22 hours! if only they could be this efficent without having to complain on facebook:

Dear Mr Singh

Thank you for our email.

Im delighted to read your positive comments about the crew and ground
staff in Delhi - we really do appreciate your kind feedback.

However, I'm sorry that you were disappointed with some aspects of our
service and I can certainly see from your comments why this was.

Ive checked your return flight and I can advise that due to an oversale
situation in our Premium Economy cabin that day, it had been necessary to
upgrade some passengers for commercial reasons. However on these
occasions, priority is given to our Flying Club members firstly.

I was concerned however to hear that you felt that this affect the on board
service that you received from us.

Usually we carry more than the required number of attendants on a flight
and therefore a full flight should not unduly impact on service. Ive
forwarded your comments to our head of cabin services for their review.

Im really sorry about the problems experienced with the electrical system
in your seat and do understand your dissatisfaction at not having fully
operable equipment on your return journey.

Usually, all faulty equipment is reported to the ground engineers and every
effort is made to rectify the matter during the aircraft turnaround.
Unfortunately, there will be times where we experience difficulties in the
air, and the cabin crew will manually move the seats in to the various
positions.

I realise that the most important thing is to get it right and Im sorry
that we didnt on this occasion. As a gesture of goodwill for the concerns
raised, I've credited 20,000 Flying Club miles to your account, which I
hope you'll accept with our compliments.

The miles are sufficient for a one way upgrade from Premium Economy to
Upper Class on most of our routes or any other reward you may wish to claim
for this amount.

Mr Singh, I hope well see you on one of our flights again soon, and that
next time youll have a smoother, more enjoyable experience with us.

Kind regards


XXXXXX XXXXXX
Executive Assistant to Richard Branson
#715081 by DMetters-Bone
14 May 2009, 14:26
quote:Originally posted by rupsingh



Usually we carry more than the required number of attendants on a flight
and therefore a full flight should not unduly impact on service. Ive
forwarded your comments to our head of cabin services for their review.



Well with the one less crew not too sure how true this is now. As many of the CC members on here are saying how difficult it is with a full J Class??? I think that losing one crew member is a false economy as if J pax start leaving in droves this could be a lot worse for VS financially in the long run!
#715085 by virginboy747
14 May 2009, 14:38
The 'required' crew refers to the minimum account of crew the CAA will allow the aircraft to fly with (usually one for each door) so this has no bearing on the number you require for the service.
As already mentioned in other threads the removal of one crewmember from each fleet is of course going to result in slower service. However, as we know, once something is taken away, it never come back! Though is enough pax complain about the speed of the service who knows?
It's been about two months now since we lost a crew-member and it is noticeable, but you just have to get on with it and try to ensure it doesn't affect the passengrs' overall experience, a bit like when we have to operate crew down.
#715094 by ChuckC
14 May 2009, 15:20
Rupsingh,

Thanks for sharing the entire story.

One positive: the reply was not a 'form' letter, although this is likely of small comfort for the future, given the crew reduction.

VS has to know the effect its changes are having on passengers. Please keep the feedback coming.


Chuck-
#715097 by ukcobra
14 May 2009, 16:13
quote:Originally posted by easygoingeezer
Some time ago I saw a lady who had been op-up'd be asked to move in to a seat that wasn't working and the paying passenger from that one moved in to hers. Perhaps you should have asked in the nicest way possible was there a fully operation suite that was occupied by a person who had been moved in to a higher cabin.


I caused this to happen when a screen was not working on a PE seat upstairs on the way to Vegas.

The person who was moved was a boyfriend of a member of staff, and they know that in the event of an issue they have to move without issue. In this case, he got to sit next to his girlfriend.

It may have been a member of staff / or family of staff that got asked to move.

Mark
#715102 by Howard Long
14 May 2009, 18:04
quote:Originally posted by virginboy747
It's been about two months now since we lost a crew-member and it is noticeable, but you just have to get on with it and try to ensure it doesn't affect the passengrs' overall experience, a bit like when we have to operate crew down.


And what happens now when there's a crew member down? One wonders if the a/c could still legally fly... [xx(]

H
#715104 by virginboy747
14 May 2009, 19:43
We usually have two or three crew above the required minimum. The a/c cant go with less than the required minimum.
Virgin Atlantic

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