Neither of them particularly positive. [:?]
The Sunday Times site certainly wins my award for the most annoying, and difficult to get rid of pop up adverts. [n][n]
I thought I had all pop ups blocked, as well. [?]
Nick
Not sure I agree with Mr Diggle's response:
They increased his compensation from 2 x £25 vouchers, to £250 CASH - without prompting, from how it appears - and he's unhappy?
This only affected ONE sector, and it was only while eating. What does he feel the compensation SHOULD have been, I wonder [?]
I donÕt think itÕs overly generous, but itÕll do..
They increased his compensation from 2 x £25 vouchers, to £250 CASH - without prompting, from how it appears - and he's unhappy?
This only affected ONE sector, and it was only while eating. What does he feel the compensation SHOULD have been, I wonder [?]
I also have mixed reactions to this story. On the one hand the complainant is justified in bringing to VA's attention substandard service; on the other his expectations of compensation verge on the excessive. The relentless march of the 'compensation culture' is a particular bug-bear of mine.
IMHO the inability of his seat to recline is the only issue meriting compensation. A solution to the tray problem was found - the fact that VA staff required numerous prompts before offering the UC seat may have been disappointing to the passenger but hardly merits compensation. Likewise for the screen that wouldn't stay-up - It's easy to play the victim here. I have had this problem myself; I just stuffed a screwed-up piece of paper behind it. Problem solved!
Noting that VA delivered the couple to their destination without injury, fully-fed and with PE legroom, the £50 offered seems reasonable, representing 10% of the fare paid for the faulty seat. I would have accepted this. In the event, by complaining to a national newspaper, he receive a cash compensation of 50% of his fare - about the price of an economy seat.
Personally, given a similar set of circumstances I would have complained, not with the expectation of compensation, but in the hope that VA might take note. (Knowing as I do that the problems complained of are far from isolated incidents).
On reflection, and since compensation is not an objective, a post on V-flyer would probably serve better than a letter to VA. If VA management do not regularly trawl these posts they are fools!
From my own experience, direct and indirect, and from browsing v-flyer posts, it seems to me that VA's greatest failings lie in the inconsistency of their service, a major part of which is broken seat and tray mechanisms and individual and systemic failures of the IFE system.
The difficulty for VA and indeed any airline is the fast turn around time of aircraft. My guess is that faults are not routinely reported or indeed fixed at the end of each flight but wait until the aircraft is scheduled for maintenance before action is taken. With good management this situation could be improved upon without undue costs. Equipment could be designed to be more robust and with a 'pit-stop' maintenance philisophy; faulty screens for example could be swapped-out in ten minutes by ground crew - even trays and seat-backs if cleverly designed. (In case anyone from VA is thinking of offering me a job at this point, I must warn them that this would increase their costs considerably;)).
IMHO the inability of his seat to recline is the only issue meriting compensation. A solution to the tray problem was found - the fact that VA staff required numerous prompts before offering the UC seat may have been disappointing to the passenger but hardly merits compensation. Likewise for the screen that wouldn't stay-up - It's easy to play the victim here. I have had this problem myself; I just stuffed a screwed-up piece of paper behind it. Problem solved!
Noting that VA delivered the couple to their destination without injury, fully-fed and with PE legroom, the £50 offered seems reasonable, representing 10% of the fare paid for the faulty seat. I would have accepted this. In the event, by complaining to a national newspaper, he receive a cash compensation of 50% of his fare - about the price of an economy seat.
Personally, given a similar set of circumstances I would have complained, not with the expectation of compensation, but in the hope that VA might take note. (Knowing as I do that the problems complained of are far from isolated incidents).
On reflection, and since compensation is not an objective, a post on V-flyer would probably serve better than a letter to VA. If VA management do not regularly trawl these posts they are fools!
From my own experience, direct and indirect, and from browsing v-flyer posts, it seems to me that VA's greatest failings lie in the inconsistency of their service, a major part of which is broken seat and tray mechanisms and individual and systemic failures of the IFE system.
The difficulty for VA and indeed any airline is the fast turn around time of aircraft. My guess is that faults are not routinely reported or indeed fixed at the end of each flight but wait until the aircraft is scheduled for maintenance before action is taken. With good management this situation could be improved upon without undue costs. Equipment could be designed to be more robust and with a 'pit-stop' maintenance philisophy; faulty screens for example could be swapped-out in ten minutes by ground crew - even trays and seat-backs if cleverly designed. (In case anyone from VA is thinking of offering me a job at this point, I must warn them that this would increase their costs considerably;)).
You know what though,I can see where he is coming from,for any airline,not just VS,to give a pax a seat that has a tray table that spills the food into your lap and a seat that has to settings,vertical and horizontal is just wrong,even more so on a long haul flight.
We've seen posts on here where aircraft have been sent out time and again with a faulty IFE system and people got a 25 pound duty free voucher.
Now ok if your in Y that can add up to a good size portion of your ticket,but if you are in W or J thats just a drop in the bucket and of course your not told about this till you get on the plane so no chance of buying a couple of extra books.
For an airline that promotes itself on it's entertainment options this just plain sucks,at least tell the pax before hand.
Now while I feel the pax in question was justified with his argument that the VS offer of 25 pounds compensation was to little I can also give a thunmbs up to the crew for allowing him and his wife to eat in UC,as a UC pax I wouldn't have a problem with this and yes his reply did seem to scream refund.
We've seen posts on here where aircraft have been sent out time and again with a faulty IFE system and people got a 25 pound duty free voucher.
Now ok if your in Y that can add up to a good size portion of your ticket,but if you are in W or J thats just a drop in the bucket and of course your not told about this till you get on the plane so no chance of buying a couple of extra books.
For an airline that promotes itself on it's entertainment options this just plain sucks,at least tell the pax before hand.
Now while I feel the pax in question was justified with his argument that the VS offer of 25 pounds compensation was to little I can also give a thunmbs up to the crew for allowing him and his wife to eat in UC,as a UC pax I wouldn't have a problem with this and yes his reply did seem to scream refund.
It can be understood in how annoying something like this can be and I guess it comes back to the good old thing I have mentioned before. Unless faults are indicated to the crew then engineering cant look at the problem because they are not aware.
It would also seem that as he was in Premium Economy with a TV screen which would not stay up he was also seated with an exit and unlike Economy would not have payed the £Extra legroom.
so overall it was really the tray issue a problem, and to what extent did it tilt? could a cushion or two be placed on a lap to eat to keep the table up or was it a case that Virgin Customer services are generous and well see what we can get. would he have written to the Times had it been another carrier such as AA or UA?
And I agree The times wins the pop ups award
It would also seem that as he was in Premium Economy with a TV screen which would not stay up he was also seated with an exit and unlike Economy would not have payed the £Extra legroom.
so overall it was really the tray issue a problem, and to what extent did it tilt? could a cushion or two be placed on a lap to eat to keep the table up or was it a case that Virgin Customer services are generous and well see what we can get. would he have written to the Times had it been another carrier such as AA or UA?
And I agree The times wins the pop ups award
I flew back from NY last year and the seat did not recline, Made the cc aware and was moved with no problems or fuss.
Personally, I always feel when I person writes into a newspaper to complain about an issue like this, it is to get £££. Sadly, any media savy company will pay out to avoid bad publicity.
As for my thoughts on the complaint... they should have just moved them to the other seats.
As for my thoughts on the complaint... they should have just moved them to the other seats.
Originally posted by milehigh
so overall it was really the tray issue a problem, and to what extent did it tilt? could a cushion or two be placed on a lap to eat to keep the table up...
When I flew PE last July (wow has it really been almost a year already), I performed the "pillot prop up" method. My tray table had a "v" shape of sorts to it, which I would imagine is a common problem once they get old and stressed. Of course I just grabbed my own pillow and stuck under it, as opposed to complaining about something that is just not worth making a fuss about...
Originally posted by webdes03
When I flew PE last July (wow has it really been almost a year already), I performed the "pillot prop up" method. My tray table had a "v" shape of sorts to it, which I would imagine is a common problem once they get old and stressed. Of course I just grabbed my own pillow and stuck under it, as opposed to complaining about something that is just not worth making a fuss about...
But if you don't even mention it then it won't get fixed. If something is wrong it should be brought to someones attention so at least they can log it and hopefully fix it at some point in the future.
Originally posted by locutus
But if you don't even mention it then it won't get fixed. If something is wrong it should be brought to someones attention so at least they can log it and hopefully fix it at some point in the future.
It honestly didn't even cross my mind at the time. I didn't think it was a big deal. It wasn't terrible, wasn't unusable, it just wasn't purely flat. If it happened again, I'd probably let someone know, but at the time it didn't seem like a big deal.
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