Broken seat on way back from Las Vegas

Had one of our worst flights with virgin on Monday/Tuesday. We where sitting at the very back 64A/C when 2 hours into the flight while putting the seat back, it broke and fell the whole way back. When the cabin crew saw it they where shocked and said it was the first time it ever happened. But to make things worse there was not a single seat free on the whole aircraft. so for the next 6 hours or so I had to stand or use the jump seat at the very back, right where the 3 toilets are. Needless to say I didn't get a wink of sleep. The cabin crew where sorry and gave us 25 worth of duty free and at the end of the day its not there fault there wasn't any other seats. But needless to say I will be doing a letter of complaint to Virgin as soon as i get over the jet lag.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?

Sorry I am just trying to get a clear picture. The seat just reclined really far back, and you were in the last row? Sounds like a winning situation to me.....you get lots of recline and not bothering the person behind you? Am I missing something?

Did the seat actually fall apart or something? Really sorry to hear you had a bad flight.

GG

It went the whole way back ie headrest touching the floor and wouldn't come back up again. We heard something snap and it just went back

I've worked for 10 years for virgin and never had a seat do that. What a nightmare for you!

are these the new flat bed seats in economy

I can't picture where an Economy seat could do this. I always thought there were bulkheads or partitions behind the last rows in Economy.

Sound's dreadful, and a candidate for some sort of Virgin good will gesture.

Where did you sit for landing ?

quote:Originally posted by ukcobra
I can't picture where an Economy seat could do this. I always thought there were bulkheads or partitions behind the last rows in Economy.

Sound's dreadful, and a candidate for some sort of Virgin good will gesture.

Where did you sit for landing ?


Not on a 747, behind is the emergency exit. I always try to get the last row, so that I can stand behind the seat doing my stretching exercises and still watch the IFE.

quote:Originally posted by ukcobra
I can't picture where an Economy seat could do this. I always thought there were bulkheads or partitions behind the last rows in Economy.

Sound's dreadful, and a candidate for some sort of Virgin good will gesture.

Where did you sit for landing ?


They twigged near the end that i needed a proper seat and couldn't use the jump seat. There was a member of staff onboard and she was able to use it and i took her seat for landing.

And as DarkAuror said its the emergency exit at the back.

Just out of interest whats the best address for complaints?

we came back from St Lucia in PE a few weeks ago, and 79A had the opposite problem - it wouldn't recline, any my wife was told she would get 20,000 miles - initially they only gave 15,000 though.

quote:Originally posted by gibbyni
They twigged near the end that i needed a proper seat and couldn't use the jump seat. There was a member of staff onboard and she was able to use it and i took her seat for landing.


Did they offer to move you to the seat that the staff traveller was in for anything apart from the landing part of the journey? Out of interest where was the staff traveller sat?

quote:Originally posted by DragonLady
[quote]Originally posted by gibbyni
They twigged near the end that i needed a proper seat and couldn't use the jump seat. There was a member of staff onboard and she was able to use it and i took her seat for landing.


Did they offer to move you to the seat that the staff traveller was in for anything apart from the landing part of the journey? Out of interest where was the staff traveller sat?


The first I heard of the seat was 5 Min before landing, something like 33C. I asked the fella next to me had it been free all flight and he said I was about the 3rd person to sit there. The girl had just left and he said she was Virgin staff. After landing I was trying to get back to 64A but got know where near it so asked the cabin crew where the seat came from and she said it was a member of staff returning from vegas that they where able to put into the jump seat for landing.

quote:Originally posted by Galley Guy
Sorry I am just trying to get a clear picture. The seat just reclined really far back, and you were in the last row? Sounds like a winning situation to me.....you get lots of recline and not bothering the person behind you? Am I missing something?

Did the seat actually fall apart or something? Really sorry to hear you had a bad flight.

GG



Not a winning situation at all, and really bad that Pax had to endure a jump seat until just before landing.[V][V]

Can I also ask is there more seats past the toilets at the rear of the aircraft on a few occasions during the flight we seen about 5 cabin crew come out from the back on the other side to me. The reason im asing is if there was, the 'Staff member' could have sat in there.

quote:Originally posted by gibbyni
Can I also ask is there more seats past the toilets at the rear of the aircraft on a few occasions during the flight we seen about 5 cabin crew come out from the back on the other side to me. The reason im asing is if there was, the 'Staff member' could have sat in there.



Maybe a crew rest area[?]

There is a crew rest area set the back of the 744 which is for the use of operating crew only.

Also to answer your question, there are no seats in there.

[Darren Wheeler]

The so-called 'attic'

quote:Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
The so-called 'attic'


'The attic' I like that, I have ever heard it referred to as that before, but I like it!

quote:Originally posted by goanmad
[quote]Originally posted by Galley Guy
Sorry I am just trying to get a clear picture. The seat just reclined really far back, and you were in the last row? Sounds like a winning situation to me.....you get lots of recline and not bothering the person behind you? Am I missing something?

Did the seat actually fall apart or something? Really sorry to hear you had a bad flight.

GG



Not a winning situation at all, and really bad that Pax had to endure a jump seat until just before landing.[V][V]


I said it sounded like a winning situation if the seat was getting really good recline. If you read the post you will realize I was trying to get a grasp of what actually happened to the seat. Of course it's no good that a seat actually broke in such a way while in the air.

Just to give an update, I put a message on virgins myspace page giving a quick outline of my problem and asked for a contact address for a senior member of staff. The girl in it said to Email my letter over to her and she would pass it on. I sent it to her on Sunday night, she replied Monday afternoon to say she had passed it on to the head of customer relations and she they would get back to me ASAP. Tuesday lunchtime I got a detailed Email from them going through each of my problems and apologising. She was able to tell me the engineers had looked at the seat and the pivot had broken and that was why it went the whole way back. As for the staff seat she told me it was a paying customer in it who could well have been upgraded just into the flight and the staff member given that seat but she couldnt check that. But she said if it was staff in it, it should have been given to us.

They also gave us 25k flying club miles each, were happy with this as it has just put us over the amount needed for a return upper class flight pretty much anywhere except Sydney. So all in all im happy with the outcome and surprised at the speed of response I got from them.

[Scrooge]

Your surprised..I am amazed at the speed of the response, very un VS like, but it is the way it should be, so [y] and 25K each...mmm me thinks the facebook page is the place to complain to now.

Disgraceful that an appeal via Myspace is required to get VAA to respond[V]. They should be ashamed of themselves for poor customer service. Again.

quote:Originally posted by vizbiz
Disgraceful that an appeal via Myspace is required to get VAA to respond[V]. They should be ashamed of themselves for poor customer service. Again.


To be honest I didnt even try the normal complaints route of sending a letter to customer relations. I had found there page a month or so ago and had used it to ask a few questions. I was only expecting an address to send my complaint to but when she said forward it to her and she would sort it I think was good customer service.

also I got it wrong its not myspace it was facebook http://www.facebook.com/virginatlantic

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