Most Embarrassing Experience

Hi, just joined, and would like to share the most embarrassing experience on a flight with you.
We were traveling to LAS via Gatwick, did twilight check in, and asked if there might be a chance of upgrade to Upper if available, as we were going to Las Vegas to get married, we were booked in Premium(sorry, I know it is corny, but you don't get if you don't ask)we were told that if the flight was overbooked we might be in with a chance, would be put on the list, and would only be told when we boarded the plane, as the crew are told not to make it obvious to the Upper passengers that you have been bumped up. The plane was changed at the last minute to an Airbus, instead of the usual Jumbo. If you know the layout, as you enter the plane you have to go through the first class cabin to get to Premium, on entering the plane, to our delight the cabin crew looked at our tickets, and ushered us to UPPER SEATS!!! As the plane taxied back, the purser entered the cabin, and told us that 2 seats had been found for us in Premium, and we would have to move. So we had to gather up our stuff, and with everyone in Premium watching, sat us back in Premium, all this while the plane was taxing back. I have cut this very short, but be aware, I ARGUED till i was blue in the face, but was threatened with ejection from the flight if I didn't take my seat. I wrote to virgin on our return, but got no joy, just an apology for the embarrassment caused. Virgin Atlantic have no customer service, I prefer to call them Customer Avoidance[n]




Topic moved after consultation with OP........Nick

whilst a little bit embarrasing, you still got what you paid for.

From VS's point of view they may not have catered Upper Class for the extra passengers, and therefore had you remained in there then other UC pax might have missed out on some meal choices etc which they had paid for.

Remember the only way to guarantee upper class is to pay the ticket price for it....

The point is not that we were aggrieved at not getting what we hadn't paid for, but the embarrassment caused" A little embarrassing" is an understatement. BTW, there was 1 person in Upper that day, and to move us back into Premium, they had to move 2 people out of the seats that they had been given, sending them back to Economy. Told you I had cut it short

Embarrasing? Perhaps... but you paid for PE not UC... and VS gave you what you paid for. As has been previously stated, it's possible that keeping you in UC would have limited the service for people that had paid for it...

It just amazes me that you wrote a letter to them complaining that they didn't upgrade you. No airline has an obligation to upgrade you unless either you pay for an upgrade, or you have an elite status that entitles you to an upgrade.

Despite my feelings on this subject, webdes, he didn't complain about now getting an upgrade, he complained about being moved in what he calls an embarrassing manner.

I think my most embarrasing mistake was when I went to the the toilet a few years ago on the MCO-LGW run, in economy (as always) on VS016.
I came back from the toilets and sat in what i thaught wer emy seats. Being half confused and all with the jet lagg i gues sis the reason I didnt notice. The next thing I recall was being asked kindly to return to my seats, of course I did, and appologised for, but i could feel my face going redder than the virgin atlantic tail. [:I]

I never said that I complained about not getting upgraded, it is the FACT that it is they that decided to upgrade us, then to change their mind, after having us sit in the seats for over 30 minutes, and wait until push-back. It is the way it was done, they caused the embarrassment to occur, if it was going to effect the 1 person in UC, then they should have known about it before they sat us down

I have great problems with this story.

1) only one person in UC
2) two people downgraded from PE to econ to let you get what you paid for
3) if the flight was overbooked, but only one person in UC, this would have shown on the screens.
4)only told when you boarded the plane, so your ticket stubs would be for the seats in PE, which by your comments had been given to someone else
5) Airbus at Gatwick? any of the techies confirm this?

If I can chuck in my two penny worth to this, it is unfortunate that a scene was caused and people were embarrassed, BUT - and there is no way to dress this up - stoneman got what he paid for[:#]

No matter how much embarrassment was caused (to the crew as well as to you) VS honoured their part of their contract with you. You paid for PE and got PE.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

My appologies if my previous post was misunderstood. Let me explain a little more...

The boarding passes you were issued were in fact for PE.

It is possible that there were not two seats together in PE, which caused you to be seated in UC temperorarily while they sorted out the PE arrangement. On more than one occasion I have been asked to sit in UC or at the bar with a complimentary drink for a few minutes while the purser sorted out the seating arrangements.

Unless you were officially given UC boarding cards, or the crew said something to the extent of "these are your seats for the entire flight", then you should not have expected to remain there for the entire flight, and should have expected them to come back up and say they had gotten your seats sorted for you.

My previous statement was correct in that your complaint was basically that you hadn't been upgraded, because unless they gave you UC boarding passes, you were not upgraded, and really had no place sitting up there, for more than the amount of time it took the purser to sort things out for you.

VS tends to ask people to sit up front because it is better customer service than to have you cluttered in the aisle while people shuffle around.

I strongly disagree with your comment on Customer Avoidence.

By the way... VS appologized for the incident. What else were you expecting?

1) on Airbus there is 2 sections to UC, the one at the front where the bar is, and the section you board through, I think there was 2 people in the front section, but 1 where we were sitting, where i think there is about 16 seats
2,3 4, can't comment on Virgins system, we just know what happened
5) we were told that the jumbo was being fitted for the first class suite. Wednesday, 16th. February 2005 (have your "techies" check it out)
ask me if i care if you have problems with the "STORY", as you obviously think it is. Like i need to come on here and lie about a flight[:w]

It is quite possible that you could have been on an A343 as they have to operate the PHC flight from LGW.
Also, I susupect that you had been upgraded to UC, otherwise why would they have have moved the pax in Y to your PE seats.
If I were VS, I would have left you in UC and, if need be, serve you PE food.



Cheers,
VS045

Originally posted by stoneman
1) on Airbus there is 2 sections to UC, the one at the front where the bar is, and the section you board through

??

ask me if i care if you have problems with the "STORY", as you obviously think it is. Like i need to come on here and lie about a flight[:w]

Mmmmm.....[ii]

Originally posted by VS045
Also, I susupect that you had been upgraded to UC, otherwise why would they have have moved the pax in Y to your PE seats.

He didn't say that pax had been put in his PE seats, only that pax were moved from PE back to Econ to open PE seats.

I don't think we're ever going to know the whole story. It sounds to me like they were never officially upgraded, and simply sat in UC while the purser sorted everything else out.

"As the plane taxied back, the purser entered the cabin, and told us that 2 seats had been found for us in Premium"

Sounds a lot to me like when they boarded, there was either a surplus of people in PE, or not two seats together available.

This story is snowballing and its bigger than all of us. For all you know, the people they moved from PE to Y were company employees or airline partner employees flying non-revenue, who were moved back to give you your seats.

You/I/Nobody is ever going to know all of the details or know who was moved and for what reason. The very bottom line is that you paid for PE, which is the service you received. When you were asked to move, the very worst thing you could do is argue. If the purser seated you in UC while he/she worked out your seating problem, that is good customer service, I don't care how you look at it. Next time fly with BA or AA, so you can just stand in the aisle up against the bulkhead, instead of sitting in a confy seat for 30 minutes.

I work for an airline, and I know there's about a dozen reasons to move people around. You're never going to know all of the details, but the fact is that the "Customer Avoidance" department as you call it, appologized for the incident, which in itself means they accept responsibility for the embarrasment you incurred.

Never-the-less, you still got the service you paid for, and regardless of how many people were physically in the UC cabin(s), VS still has no obligation to upgrade you to a ticket that costs, hmmm, four times as much.

In typical VS style, had you not caused a fuss, the purser probably would have announced your upcoming wedding, and presented you with some bubbly after you took your seats in PE.

My research confirms that an A343 (G-VSUN) did indeed operate VS043 to LAS on 16th February 2005.

With fewer PE seats on the A343 than the B747, as webdes03 says, there could indeed have been some shuffling of seats whilst your actual PE seats were vacated - especially if this was a late aircraft change.

My thoughts remain in that you got what you paid for.....

It looks like it wa a 343 the OP flew on. And I can understand about walking through upper on boarding - it is the back section of UC you get on 343's. So there seems to be no reason to take stoneman at anything other than his word. Unless there is a good reason to assume someone is fibbing then I don't think we should accuse them of it.
I can understand you feeling let down and dissapointed stoneman. But this doesn't appear to be what is concerning you. It is the embarrasment of being moved - right? But what is embarrasing about that? It certainly seems there was a misunderstanding or a change of mind by the crew (I would guess at a misunderstanding, but I wasn't there). But neither of these are your fault, so why get embarrased? In you heart of hearts are you sure it was not the let down of being moved back unexpectedly that hacked you off? I think this is what people are getting at when they say you got what you paid for. Certainly having my hopes built up, then achieved, then dashed at the last minute would get right up my nose (espc on a honeymoon) - its a mismanagement of expectations.

They didn't pay to be embarassed by virgin cabin crew. If the cabin crew said someting like "could you please wait here in UC whilst we sort it out or something to that effect then they have no right to be embarassed. However, if the crew said "you can sit here" i would have implied that you had been upgraded. If i were the crew i would have let you stay with PE meals if necessary.

Tom

Thank you all for your comments on this subject. I think by keeping it short I invited alot of negative comments, and I think it best not to go into further details, as I seem to be getting flack, then having to put more bits in from the story. I think sailer99 probably has come nearest to the mark, being seated in UC, being told to have a look at our freedom menu(I had decided to have the scones and cream for afternoon tea) being given a glass of bubbly, playing with the seat controls, sitting there all smug looking at all the Premium class staring up at us, wishing it was them. Then being told sorry, this is not for you, we will just now take you back to your proper seat, then having to collect our belongings and trudge back through the cabin, probably having everyone thinking we were trying to pull a fast one. It all just seemed so much effort on the crews part to move us, it seemed to involve 3 of them, moving us, moving the people that were in our original seats, and all this while we were pushing back.

Disappointing, certainly. Misled, looks like it. But your honeymoon should be one of the happiest memories of your life. Don't spoil that memory with this little incident. I would look at it more as "hey, we were damn nearly so lucky in getting something for free" rather than "we were conned out of an upgrade"

I DO thnk it would be embarassing to be moved once the aircraft is moving - especially if I'd been sat in the UC seat AND offered a freedom menu to choose from...It seems poor that Stoneman and his wife weren't allowed to stay in what appears to be an empty cabin. As others have suggested, PE/Y food could have been offered with a few glasses of Bubbly instead??

"mismanagement of expectations" is right.

I'm sorry your honeymoon got off to a poor start. Hopefully the rest of the time was much better and the flight home really memorable (but for the right reasons!)?

Congratulations on the nuptuals btw

I'm with Daisy on this one. If Stoneman was told to choose from the freedom menu and offered champagne then it is not unreasonable to assume that he had been upgraded. It is a real shame that he was moved especially as this was his honeymoon. I too would find it embarrassing to be moved.

I remember reading someone's TR a while back (sorry can't remember who) and that they were upgrdaded to J and then the FSM came up to them and said "you were upgraded so would you mind coming back down to your original seats." (or words to that affect). They said it was very embarressing having to be taken back to PE in full view of all the other J pax.
This case is quite like that.
Maybe whoever wrote that TR could shed some light on the experience?


Cheers,
VS045