Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum - I'll be back when its finished!
Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum - I'll be back when its finished!
Member since:24.08.2003
Reviews:93
Members who trust:73
Before I commence this review I would like to say - I like Virgin Atlantic Airways and I have every intention of using them again and I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt over this one incident that I will relate to you now.
In June 2000 we decided to take our 2 girls who were 3 and 18 months at the time to Orlando to do the Disney thing. I know they were still very young for this but it was an excellent age for doing the Character breakfasts and all the younger rides which we can now avoid when we take them back when they are older. So having used Virgin before on a trip to California we booked with them again. We chose a 2 centre holiday spending the first week in one of the Disney hotels in Orlando and the Second in a cheaper hotel in St Petersburg, details of these and current prices are available on the website.
On the California trip we flew into LA and out of San Fransisco and everything was fantastic, we had a great modern plane (don't ask me what sort it was red and white and it flew!) that had game boy games in every seat position the food and the staff were great. I was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time and the staff went out of their way to make it a really great holiday. Unfortunately the Florida trip did not follow the same sentiment.
We always
stay in one of the hotels close to Gatwick airport as they look after your car for 2 weeks for about the same price as the airport car park and staying there the night before you don't have to get up at some ridiculously early time in the morning. So being so close we arrived in perfect time, on Check in we were advised that there was a small problem with the plane and they anticipated being delayed by an hour. Well when you are on holiday you can forgive the odd hour or two and we had our executive lounge passes so we did the usual browse around the duty free then settled into the lounge. The flight was then announced to be subject to a further two hour delay. Resigning ourself to a further wait and happy that the other slightly later Orlando flight was suffering similar delays (wouldn't want to arrive behind a flight due to leave after us) we ordered another orange juice.
Finally they called the flight and off we went down to the departure lounge. A further hour delay was then announced. Now the problem here is at Gatwick once you are in the departure lounge you can only get out again by going through customs and they will only let you do this if they tell you to. So with two young girls we are now waiting squashed up with all the other people on the flight. Everyone was starting to get edgy by now so a huge cheer went up when after what I believe to be in the region of 5 hours we boarded. Our cheer was premature!
We all sat on the plane - disappointed at the lack of game boy facilities (not that I am a gamer but it helps to pass the time) commenting on how hot it was when the captain announced that we all had to get off again. The staff at this point were taking some serious, not undeserved flack and as they were getting as edgy as the rest of us some of the replies were none too polite. They then announced a further delay and the staff made us aware that if we were delayed for much longer the flight would have to be cancelled as there was no stand by crew available and they are only allowed a certain length of time on duty for health and safety reasons (not unjustly as I wouldn't want the pilot to fall asleep at the controls) My concern now was that I had only packed sufficient nappies for a 12 hour period and all the rest were in our suitcases. The staff were excellent and provided me with more.
At about 7 that evening we were advised that the flight did indeed have to be cancelled and that hotel accomodation had been arranged for us. The lady at the desk also told us to bypass the queue and request a close hotel in view of our young children. This is where the main problems started. Everyone had to go through customs (we had been in contact with incoming passengers and could have picked up drugs apparently) and then 750 people had to go to the virgin staff to be allocated hotel rooms. This was a nightmare, I am not a queue jumper but did ask a member of staff where to go and explained what the previous lady had said but we were directed to the back of the queue. by the time we reached the front the only rooms left available were in Eastbourne over an hours drive away.
Of course we took them and reached Eastbourne at 12.30. We found out the following morning that other people with small children the same age and younger than ours had not been as lucky and had spent the night in the waiting lounge in the airport - Virgin did consent and let them use the shower in their lounge but they weren't allowed to stay the night as children under 12 are not allowed in that particular lounge. In Eastbourne we were allocated the presidential suite in the Grand Hotel - absolutely fantastic, had we not had to leave by 5.30 am, the room was lovely and I am sure I will never be able to afford to stay in it again.
The next morning everything went smoothly and the only delay was 15 minutes waiting for a take off slot as it was an unscheduled flight. The staff gave us a letter offering 50% discount on our next virgin flight which we have not as yet used. I did phone them the other week and they have assured me that it is valid. This was the only form of compensation they would offer,other than an exchange for £200 off a virgin holiday, in our case this was likely to be the last big holiday for some considerable time so I am not sure whether I will ever get to use it, but I hope to. The meals were the other issue with this flight and this I do consider to be unacceptable as I do not like curry and I know I am not alone in this and that was all that was left by the time they got to me, I was by no means last on the flight to be served.
My next concern was the hotels we had booked, naturally in Florida we wanted the longer part of our holiday to be spent in Orlando and this caused many problems. Noone would take responsibility for us. Eventually a virgin rep realised the only way I would go away would be if he did something about it so we were able to extend our existing hotel, albeit a different room for a day and the rest of the holiday passed without further incident.
In conclusion, I do not feel that under pressure they handled the situation in the airport very well. It was not their fault that the plane did not fly, but parents with young children should not be expected to spend the night on hard seats in an airport lounge, neither should some of the older or disabled passengers on board, none of whom got preference. I may anger some young single people at this point and I assure you that is not my intention and I would quite happily spend an uncomfortable night to allow parents with kids a bed, if I were on my own, as everyone knows tired, grumpy kids make for really awful flight colleagues and not just for the parents. The communication from the crew left alot to be desired as it was not until late that the possibility of not flying at all was mentioned, and noone would take responsibility for the knock on effects when we reached our destination.
However the service we received on our first flight with virgin was exemplary and based on that I would not hesitate to use them again (if only to use my 50% discount)
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Advantages: None. Just a standard airline service. Disadvantages: Lose your valuables. Unfriendly, unhelpful staff. Arrogant and dismissive customer service.
Sep 29th, 2003
very helpful by (79%):
helpful by (19%):
somewhat helpful by (2%):
