Both my flights were cancelled!

I know about the Antigua 'incident' which meant my VS028 last night was cancelled (I was fortunate enough to be given one of the last 2 seats in UC on the VS016), but my VS028 was also cancelled on the 2nd December (again, I was very lucky and was allocated the last UC seat on the VS015).

I am very unhappy with how this was handled, although must stress the cabin crew and ground staff at Downtown Disney check-in were exceptional.

Does anyone know why my VS027 was cancelled on the 2nd December?

I'm just feeling that yet again those of us who fly UC (or PE/economy for that matter) on the Orlando route are undervalued.

Clare

[preiffer]

Hi Clare,

Ummm... You say you were fortunate in BOTH cases to get allocated an Upper Class seat on the next flight. You then point out that the cabin crew and ground staff were 'exceptional'.

So, why then continue on to state that you're 'very unhappy with how this was handled'? Have you missed some detail out from your original post?

Sorry, should have elaborated more.

In both cases I had done online check-in and was not aware of any problems until arrival at the airport, although other passengers had been contacted beforehand so were aware (Virgin have all my contact details).

A comment was made by ground staff at Gatwick that I do not feel appropriate to post but it is something I am taking up most strongly with Virgin. I was allocated the last remaining UC seat due to my 'special assistance' medical needs, but was made to feel very uncomfortable about this.

The ground staff at DTD were wonderful and pulled out all the stops for me, they really did go above and beyond.

[Neil]

Originally posted by firsttimer

I'm just feeling that yet again those of us who fly UC (or PE/economy for that matter) on the Orlando route are undervalued.

Clare

I don't understand what you are basing that comment on.

How can the fact that an LGW/MAN a/c had a accident/problem in ANU, causing the need for a flight to be cancelled, be VS undervaluing the MCO pax?.

The most sensible and least disruptive option for VS is to merge the two MCO flights together (especially a this time of year when it is highly unlikely they were both anywhere near full). MCO is the only LGW/MAN route where VS have 2 flights to the same destination on the same day, would you have preferred the single LAS flight to be cancelled instead?

It seems to me that VS did a great job that meant you got a flight on the same day/same cabin as you paid for. Or am I missing something[?]

I have been flying with Virgin, in particular the MCO route, for many many years and have never had problems until this year. I had read of other people not being happy on this route (widely posted on certain Disney forums), but thankfully I had nothing but praise for Virgin.

It would probably be easier if I were to post the full story, but as I have posted earlier, I do not feel it appropriate to post the comment(s) that were made to me at check-in at Gatwick, but they were competely out of character and extremely unprofessional for Virgin and I am taking this issue up.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have got on the flight(s) but I still do not feel it was handled correctly for an airline such as Virgin (in respect of above). However, there were an awful lot of people who were not so lucky as myself - both flights were practically full in the premium cabins (1 or 2 spare seats in UC on each flight, and only a few spare seats in PE on both flights). A number of people were unable to depart on the day and it took, according to DTD check-in staff, 3 days to clear the backlog so there was a good deal of disruption.

Can I ask the moderators to close this thread please as I don't want to be pulled to pieces for something that I am not happy about - I just wondered if anyone knew why my flight had been cancelled twice in a week.

[Neil]

I am not trying to pull you to pieces at all and apologise if you feel that way.

I guess this is one of those cases where without the full facts it is difficult to understand where you are coming from and maybe it would have been better to have just asked if anyone knew why your flights were cancelled rather than talk about the problems you encountered if you were not happy (which is your right) to post the whole story/facts.

Neil

Thanks Neil, my being jet lagged doesn't help.

[HighFlyer]

Firsttimer,

I am sure nobody here intended to 'pull you apart'. The difficulty is that you have been personally affected by these cancellations and so look upon the situation with a level of upset and emotion, as i am sure many of us in your situation may do. For those of us who were not in your situation, such as the posters who replied to your thread, they can see that while your flights were cancelled, you did manage to fly on the day and in the class you originally booked (which very often does not happen in such a situation), so find it hard to see where your upset lies.

You mention that a member of ground staff had spoken to you in an inappropriate manner? If that is the case, the correct course of action would be to follow that issue up with customer services at VS. It is difficult for any of us to give you further insight into this part of the issue without you divulging exactly what had been said. Given this is a public forum, you may wish not to do that. Do bear in mind that in these situations we are all stressed and agrivated, groundstaff as well as flying passengers.

As for why your flight got cancelled. I can only speculate that the troubled ANU flights caused a knock on effect. LGW is run as a very tight ship and having one aircraft down will affect other flights for the next day or so.

Thanks,
Sarah

[RichardMannion]

Thread has been locked in response to request by the original poster.