Worst Queue !!!!!!! part two

Hi Everybody Im back

No I have not been scared off. It's not that I don’t care about the poor Floridian's of course I feel for them, I even made a contribution so dont ever accuse me of being selfish and not careing.
I love Florida and would love to live there if I could.
The frustrations of fellow passengers, and myself most of which were by the way wingeing as someone on here put it.
This site seems to be very one sided, mainly with Virgin crewmembers, who will obviously support their employer.
I would like to point out one thing, Virgin only flew us out because they run a business and not as someone put it, as a favour and to leave passengers stranded would break their contract and be bad for publicity.
There was no reason not to load the aircraft with catering and duty free at Gatwick because as I understand it the aircraft came out empty.Yes the flight was under staffed but they were wonderfull never the less.
There were 4 flights leaving that evening between 8pm and 4 am the problem was only caused because they told all 4 flights to check in at the same time. Many families had like myself small children on tow not easy to control in a 4 hour queue !!!!
What made things even worse was the Virgin crew who went straight to the front of the queue and had a check- in opened especially for them, surely it would have been more appropriate to check them in more discreetly.
I love flying Virgin but certainly will be thinking twice before doing so again.

Does anybody know of a longer queue or is 4 hours a record for Virgin Atlantic?

Still at least this subject has kept you all busy.Keep on typing

Actually, if you look on other forums, other airlines had exactly the same problems, both at MCO and Sanford.

Throughout the carribean and Florida, people have lost their lives, lost their homes and their livelyhoods, they are without electricity or water,or food, they have another hurricane coming at them, and you winge because you had to queue for a longer time than normal, because Virgin and other airlines had put on extra flights to get people home, the 9,000 odd who could not return on their chosen date.
The state is short of fuel, food and you are complaining that they did not have the catering service producing airline meals for you! Difd you not think that they would be stretched with the above conditions to provide catering for the normal flights?

Get a sense of perspective will you. Virgin got you home in one pice, more than a lot in Florida.

Alana,

May I congratulate you on the best post I have read since joining this forum.
Your post dito's my opinion entirely!!

Thank You

Alan A - (In my opinion)I feel you have spoken for all of us here.

dan - I'm sorry but you and your family should feel lucky to be alive. Many others in that region would have been happy with a dry bread roll for breakfast

dear dear.

[honey lamb]

AlanA, I agree entirely and congratulations on your post.

I have friends living in Orlando who have had damage done from hurricane Charley and they have not managed to have the repairs done before Frances hit. Their son has not even had the insurance assessors out from the first hit. They have had no air conditioning at home and my friend is elderly with respiratory problems. Having said all that, they consider themselves to be among the lucky ones..... and dan whinges because of an extra long check-in delay and a slightly uncomfortable flight before he arrived safely at his (undamaged) home. [:0]

Personally I would have been grateful for all the stops the airline had pulled to get me home after a four days delay and chalked it up to experience and a tale to dine out on for months to come.

The mind boggles!

Must have taken the comments to heart - (almost) deleted his original post.

The original post had been deleted before I read it. However as a crew member who operated one of the relief flights from Orlando,I thought I would give my perspective.

The queues at check in were very, very long. That was to be expected with so many flights operating. Extra staff had been brought in and I thought they were managing the situation very well.

Boarding of the flights also took longer because of the length of queues at check in. A small minority of customers decided they were going to take their frustrations out on myself and my colleagues.

The catering onboard was sent out with the flight from London. Virgin was well aware of the pressures faced by our caterers in Orlando. Although not up to our usual standards, it was certainly better than having nothing at all.

We operated the flight with minimum crew. It was important to us to ensure that people got back to the UK. Thankfully the majority of passengers were grateful for our efforts.

[buns]

Jetstreamer

Although I have not been directly involved in the events surrounding these recent hurricanes I have experience of being in Florida when Hurricane Georges struck and was safely evacuated - thanks to VH - and I have seen both the best and worst of emotions of passengers as a result.

My heartfelt admiration goes out to you and your colleagues for dealing with a very difficult situation by doing your best in the circumstances. This is particularly true of the ground staff who not only having to deal with the displacement of PAX, no doubt have real concerns of their own about their homes and family yet still continue to do their best.

VS staff in the air and on the ground are having to deal with the consequences of 3 major Hurricanes in as many weeks - this has surely tested the professionalism of many in such unprecedented circumstances and, in my book, those of you who have been closely involved are true "VS Heroes" - perhaps next years awards should have a special category.

The thoughts of Mrs Buns and myself continue with all those working in these difficult times and those who have been effected so far.

Buns

[Nottingham Nick]

After Dan deleted his original comments I have added an explanation as to how this thread started.

I have never experienced a hurricane at first hand, though I did see the aftermath of Andrew a few years ago, and have spoken to friends since Charley and Francis.

My thoughts and prayers are more for the victims of the weather rather than someone who had to put up with not having butter on his bread roll that he was given with his inflight meal.

Nick

Nick,

Totally agree

bums4vs

I echo your final sentiment. I enjoyed a holiday in Orlando at Easter and it saddens me to think of the destruction wrought and fear engendered by this series of hurricanes.

'Tis is a wonder that flights are operating at all with hurricanes sweeping through the airport without expecting full in-flight catering.
(besides which, most US butter is unsalted and tastless for that:))

Just to lighten this up a bit....

Pat - "buMs4vs"???

buns - sounds quite good eh??:):):)

John

[buns]

John

I agree;);)

Up to now I have always prided myself on being a "model" passenger

All the best

Buns

I've got to get a new keyboard.....

This one insists on typing the keys I hit instead of the ones I meant to hit:)

Sorry Buns[:I]

Goshdarnit, looks like I missed all the fun

Ok, I haven't seen the original post, but I think I can guess what it's about! Excellent reply Alan, think you just about summed up what everyone else was thinking

Cheers

Michael

Alan

Just to add my support for your statement.

Having been luck enough to visit Grenada recently the pictures on the news are heartbreaking.These Island's economies are fragile at the best of times and I hope they reciver asap.

My thoughts are with everyone who has been effected.

Alex

do you think Dan will ever post on this website again

I think he has been scared off!

b

I hope he does. He shared his opinion, most people disagreed as they are entitled to do, but that's no reason why he shouldn't contribute to and enjoy this site in the future.

[Nottingham Nick]

Text cut and pasted from the start of the thread by Nottingham Nick following Dan, re-editting the original. This was done to make the thread more readable and to make sense.

Posted by Dan:

Hi Everybody Im back

No I have not been scared off. It's not that I donÕt care about the poor Floridian's of course I feel for them, I even made a contribution so dont ever accuse me of being selfish and not careing.
I love Florida and would love to live there if I could.
The frustrations of fellow passengers, and myself most of which were by the way wingeing as someone on here put it.
This site seems to be very one sided, mainly with Virgin crewmembers, who will obviously support their employer.
I would like to point out one thing, Virgin only flew us out because they run a business and not as someone put it, as a favour and to leave passengers stranded would break their contract and be bad for publicity.
There was no reason not to load the aircraft with catering and duty free at Gatwick because as I understand it the aircraft came out empty.Yes the flight was under staffed but they were wonderfull never the less.
There were 4 flights leaving that evening between 8pm and 4 am the problem was only caused because they told all 4 flights to check in at the same time. Many families had like myself small children on tow not easy to control in a 4 hour queue !!!!
What made things even worse was the Virgin crew who went straight to the front of the queue and had a check- in opened especially for them, surely it would have been more appropriate to check them in more discreetly.
I love flying Virgin but certainly will be thinking twice before doing so again.

Does anybody know of a longer queue or is 4 hours a record for Virgin Atlantic?

Still at least this subject has kept you all busy.Keep on typing

[Nottingham Nick]

Dan

As you can see (and read in a PM) I have copied your new text to the end of the thread to make it fit in with the debate you sparked.

I have difficulty commenting on your original post, as you deleted it so quickly and I can't remember everything you said. My main memory is your complaint of no butter for your bread roll!! It struck me as a post written in anger - never a good idea!

I will try and comment on some of the points you have raised in your new post though:

The logistics of getting planes out there to ferry the amount of people back that needed to come home must have been an exercise on the scale no one had experienced before - if it didn't run as smoothly as normal VS operations, that hardly comes as a surprise.

You say 'This site seems to be very one sided, mainly with Virgin crewmembers, who will obviously support their employer.'

This site is an independent site and is nothing to do with Virgin Atlantic or any other Virgin company. Yes, most people here, including the mods, support VS and use them frequently - in favour of other carriers, but that is because we choose to and like the way they operate (usually).

If there are things that go wrong, or things we do not like, we say so and try to give constructive opinions on how things could be made better.

We are pleased that several VS staffers choose to post on the forum, we value their insights, but they are certainly not obliged to post opinions that support their employers. They are also a very small percentage of the forum members.

We are fortunate, we always have a choice of carriers, taking up what AlanA said in reply to your original post - were VS any worse than the other carriers in the way they handled things?

Please keep posting your opinions, we encourage healthy debate here - despite what you may think. However, don't expect people just to lie back and accept what you say.

Nick

I have to agree with what Nick has to say.

I can only think of 5 out of the 500+ members who are VS staff the rest of us choose VS for there service they have to offer and for a small airline to do what they do against the big boys isnt bad.

Cheers

Phil

To continue what i said earlier, Dan is welcome to post his opinions here, but i wish he would stop mucking up this thread!:D

It's becoming impossible to follow - the subject is now in its 4th incarnation and its all upside down!

Anyway, to answer Dan's latest points: Virgin has its reasons for operating as it does, but i have no idea why the flight was not stocked up on the way out. It's almost certainly related to the difficulties involved in messing around with the schedules in such a widespread manner.

Fully take your points on board about Virgin Atlantic running a business, not doing you a favour, and i sympathise with your own difficulties in having to queue so long with youngsters in tow.

It's hard to tell really whether Virgin staff were still not up to scratch, or whether it was all due to the strain of the situation on them. Therefore i propose you give Virgin another try when hopefully everything will be running like clockwork, and you will get to judge them fairly without the havoc caused by the weather.

You've noticed the many Virgin supporters here - that's because we have all received excellent service from them in the past, not because they are paying us off ;). Give them the benefit of the doubt and try them again, and you may well be pleased to see that excellent service is the general rule!

Just in case it's causing any confusion (I know it did me when I first found the board), it might be worth pointing out that the membersip designations (in-flight supervisor etc) are purley a reflection of how many posts people have made, rather than a reflection of any employment status with VS.

Dan

Well, welcome to V-Flyer, I guess you know how to make an impression

quote:This site seems to be very one sided, mainly with Virgin crewmembers, who will obviously support their employer.

Actually this is an independent site, but obviously the very nature of it means that it tends to attract a number of people that are more positive about flying VS - there are indeed some VS staff present, but like Nick says, they make up a small percentage of the membership. We do welcome objective & constructive comment, positive or negative.

quote:There was no reason not to load the aircraft with catering and duty free at Gatwick because as I understand it the aircraft came out empty.

And of course, with all the hectic schedules trying to rearrange aircraft positioning, getting the relief flights out to pick up some 9000+ people, etc, the first thing on anybody's mind was whether you'd like to buy a carton of smokes or some alcohol perhaps?

quote:What made things even worse was the Virgin crew who went straight to the front of the queue and had a check- in opened especially for them, surely it would have been more appropriate to check them in more discreetly.

I think I'd usually like the crew to get to the plane before I do to be honest, but as always, YMMV

quote:I love flying Virgin but certainly will be thinking twice before doing so again.

To be honest, I would use a modicum of realism, a pinch of commonsense, with a dash of understanding thrown in for good measure here and probably not judge too harshly. I guess that your experience was probably not of the norm, and somewhat influenced by the small weather problems in FL.

Cheers

Michael

Passengers who booked with Virgin Holidays were given Priority.

Passengers who just booked a flight were then taken care off.

I would welcome suggestions on how you contact over 9000+ holiday makers staying all over Florida to advise of flight changes.

If you booked with VH they would have contact details not so if you booked a flight only with a travel agent the only information VS would have is your Travel agent contact number, in that case VS would contact the agent then it would be the job of the Travel agent to call the passenger.

Suggestions are also welcome on how you arrange for 6000+ to stagger arriving at an airport checking in for flights leaving at the same kind of hour.

I beleive VS did an excellent job of sending recovery flights to Florida, many other flight from LHR were delayed or even cancelled so as many holiday makers could be returned home.

Being a florida flight it ws bound to have a high number of children travelling.

Im sure if DAN has a good suggestion on how to manage this situation better in the future then VS would love to hear from you.