Vport, what Vport? Not Happy

Hi all,

We got back from Miami on Tuesday and I have to say the flights out and back were less than acceptable. In short Vport was out for both flights and while we had books, magazines & ipods the lack of proper entertainment was a real pain especially on the way out with a hoard of bored kids running riot throughout most of the flight and parents that seemed happy to let them do so.

We've been flying to the US with VS 2/3 times ayear over the last 5 years and while we're not their best customers, we are loyal. I've dropped a line to Customer Service and are awaiting their response.

Miopyk[:(!]

[Nottingham Nick]

What date did you go out, and what aircraft were involved?
Was V-Port out throughout the plane, or just in your seats?

We went out to MIA last Saturday on Lady Penelope and came back on Thursday on Surfer Girl and had no problems at all with the IFE.

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
What date did you go out, and what aircraft were involved?
Was V-Port out throughout the plane, or just in your seats?

We went out to MIA last Saturday on Lady Penelope and came back on Thursday on Surfer Girl and had no problems at all with the IFE.

Nick

Hi Nick,

We went out on the 9th Feb and I think the plane was Lady Penelope, the whole plane was out. They tried rebooting several times without success and apparently contacted Heathrow for further advice. In the end they had one VCR working but not with anything either we or the junior hoards wanted to watch.

As an asside, we couldn't beleive that parents were happy to let their kids run around playing in the toilets and effectivly imposing this behavior on the rest of the plane. We paid the extra to get exit row seats as PE was full and spent the whole flight being crashed into. The FA's tried to calm the kids down but without the parents intervention there wasn't much they could do. I really hope those people got strip searched in immigration.

Coming back was on the 19th, the plane was Tinkerbelle and to start some seats were working and some weren't. The system was rebooted several times. In the end I got to watch about half of Pirates of the Caribbean, my wife got to watch nearly all of the Devil wears Prada (she missed about 15 minutes in the middle) and my son gave up on Borat after several tries to get it started. As I find it difficult to sleep on planes it was a long flight home but at least it was quiet.

What I didn't mention before was that coming back the FA's handed out letters to claim compensation but we only got one copy of this and having read it in detail it seems you need one each if you want to claim miles. This was an additional annoyance because no similar offer was made on the way out and of the 2 flights this was the worst experiance.

Miopyk

I too have been on planes with v-port problems in the past, and do sympathise. I guess I have been relatively lucky in that only a few seats have been affected and in all cases but one, mine was not one of the seats. In the one case where the V-port would not come on in my seat I was also lucky in that a DVD player was available (And the Cabin Crew gave me the rate-card 5k miles). I all cases, because so few were affected, we didn't have the hoards of bored children that you seem to have suffered on top of the entertainment problems. I don't think we have heard of a complete aircraft failure of v-port on the site, although no doubt someone will come along and correct me. So like NN would be interested to hear just how extensive the problems you had were.

I hope you get an appropriate response from VS which specifically addresses the issues you have bought up with them. IMO the fact that your are not their most frequent flier is not relevant - you are still a customer, and a loyal one to boot.

This is clearly not acceptable and you should be entitled to compensation - each. You paid for the product and did not recieve said product so you definitely deserve a response.

VS.

[Nottingham Nick]

I don't think there is any issue about compensation. Virgin seem to have a boiler plate response to claims and miles will appear in your accounts. I know it has been said in previous threads on the same subject that Virgin are under no legal obligation to provide IFE, but it is one of their big selling points and should be provided.

The wider issues are the reliability and consistency - it is all well and good throwing miles at the problem, but the damage to the brand is the main problem. It has been said many times that other charter / holiday maker airlines have raised their games. We already have the LGW / MAN planes without V-Port but any IFE is better than a broken system. [8D]

Nick

[Scrooge]

Just out of interest, would it not be better to keep the IFE servers turned on while the plane is at the gate, surley once it is up and running, being LINUX based servers they will stay up for ever and ever.

[mitchja]

I've been on a couple of VS flights where V:Port has been left during boarding.

It's much better that way as you dont have to wait for it and it doesn't go in slow mode for the 20 mins after it's been switched on when everyones trying to access it at the same time.

Regards

Hmmm Vport [:?] - chance would be a fine thing from MAN, broken or not [:o)]

It's much better that way as you dont have to wait for it and it doesn't go in slow mode for the 20 mins after it's been switched on when everyones trying to access it at the same time.

Actually, on my last two flights (on A346s) the IFE did not have that "slow mode" and everyone seemed to be able to get what they wanted without having to wait for a few minutes just to select something.[:?]

VS.

Purely out of interest... Despite the fact it would be incredibly annoying to fly without v:port (or any IFE) does it form a part of the contract with Virgin? Surely when you buy a ticket, all you're buying is transport from Point A to Point B? All the entertainment, etc., is surely a bonus hence the usual blurb along the lines of "all services may not be available on all routes"?

Not trying add fuel to any fire, I was just wondering what the actual position would be. In that case, surely any miles/gestures/vouchers etc. from Virgin be as a gesture of goodwill?

Forgot to say, on our recent flight to Tokyo, my seat was busted for v:port on the way out, but the load was light enough for me to move across the aisle with no problems. On the way back, the system behaved perfectly the whole way (no reset seats around us either as far as I can recall!).

Thanks,
Scott

I've noticed that V:PORT problems have been well documented on here lately. I agree with others that this is not acceptable and VS really do need to get this sorted out whether or not they are entitled to provide IFE.

A lot of customers would've switched over to VS purely because of the IFE (ex-LHR flights at least) and before we know it, the whole V:PORT fiasco will turn out to be egg on the faces of VS management.

Originally posted by Scott
Purely out of interest... Despite the fact it would be incredibly annoying to fly without v:port (or any IFE) does it form a part of the contract with Virgin? Surely when you buy a ticket, all you're buying is transport from Point A to Point B? All the entertainment, etc., is surely a bonus hence the usual blurb along the lines of "all services may not be available on all routes"?

Not trying add fuel to any fire, I was just wondering what the actual position would be. In that case, surely any miles/gestures/vouchers etc. from Virgin be as a gesture of goodwill?

As per Nick's post, your understanding of the position is correct. However, although there may be no legal obligation it is nevertheless part of the marketing offering of VS. So there is considerable commercial pressure to provide a working system.

If working IFE is an issue then fly EK. They've swapped aircraft out of DXB before for having 60 screens inoperative & take all defects very seriously.

As for VS, they are working the aicraft hard & the Panasonic 3000 system does need some TLC from time to time.

Originally posted by Denzil
If working IFE is an issue then fly EK. They've swapped aircraft out of DXB before for having 60 screens inoperative & take all defects very seriously.

As for VS, they are working the aicraft hard & the Panasonic 3000 system does need some TLC from time to time.

Flying EK is all well and good, but Miopyk was flying to MIA which isn't going to help him! I doubt he is going to go via DXB! [:w]

I did understand that, it was more as a pointer to how other airlines deal with their IFE & ensuring the pax are entertained!!!!

Anyway EK could offer you LHR-DXB-JFK which would still leave you a little short of Miami Beach!!!!

Well it's been 4 days since I contacted VS Customer Services and other than the confirmation that my email has beeb recieved I've not heard anything. Could anyone advise how long it normally takes them to respond.

I'm in the process of sorting out next year's winter trip and based on this experiance I'm seriously looking at using BA.

Miopyk[8D]

Originally posted by Denzil
If working IFE is an issue then fly EK. They've swapped aircraft out of DXB before for having 60 screens inoperative & take all defects very seriously.

That could explain why I've seen Boeing 777-300s operate in place of the booked 777-300ERs on EK017/018 (DXB-MAN) on a few occasions.

[ChuckC]

Originally posted by miopyk
Well it's been 4 days since I contacted VS Customer Services and other than the confirmation that my email has beeb recieved I've not heard anything. Could anyone advise how long it normally takes them to respond.

I'm in the process of sorting out next year's winter trip and based on this experiance I'm seriously looking at using BA.

Miopyk[8D]

Hi, Miopyk:
You did the right thing to send a note to Customer Service. There's nothing wrong with that approach but if you want to put the issue to rest a bit sooner I might also suggest that you ring up the Customer Service folks and reference your e-mail.

Thanks and please keep us posted on VS' response.

Regards,
Chuck-