I am so busy at the moment, been travelling a lot (Europe, South Africa & Canada), I simply dont hav...
I am so busy at the moment, been travelling a lot (Europe, South Africa & Canada), I simply dont have time to write any reviews just now ....... Andy
Member since:15.08.2000
Reviews:166
Members who trust:67
I realise that this Op is in Virgin express section and don't mind it being rated down becasue of this, I already have an Op on Virgin Atlantic in the right place but in I felt it import to associate these additional remarks with Virgin Atlantic here and not Virgin Express which although associated with the Mother Comapny ( Virgin) is actually a separate company operating out of Brussels....
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Having just got off a Virgin flight from Orlando to Manchester (Sept 2001) , I have to say that because of all the many hundreds of complaints from passengers about Virgin sub-chartering an AIR Atlanta Boeing 747-300 (in Charter configuration) they suddenly found available in September the oldest Aircraft they had in the fleet
and sent it up to Manchester to finish off the season..
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Of course being a member of the Aviation society at Manchester Airport I knew a few months before travelling that we were on this aircraft, and I was not happy with this situation, I wrote to Virgin several times about this point but they appeared not to be concerned about my letters, Virgin did in fact officially notify passenger some 4 weeks before departure (their Ops department having known for months about the situation)about the Air Atlanta aircraft replacing Virgins own aircraft, and offered us 20% discount on their duty free ( assuming that you intended to buy duty free from them !!) but for those who didn't intend buying duty free there was no other compensation offered for all the distress caused.. !!
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So having been dreading the flight on Air Atlanta we were delighted to find that Virgin had backed down amidst hundreds of complaints from its regular passengers about Manchester being used yet again as a dumping ground for their not so Virgin Operations by bringing in Chartered aircraft almost at a whim..We also suffered from this in 1996 when Virgin took the A340 Airbus out of Manchster to operate its Johannesburg Service and dropped another charter aircraft on its Manchester passengers a Martin Air 767 aircraft with Virgin painted on its tail....and again they only offered 20% discount on duty free, sadly on the return trip Martinair staff had no duty free available so no one could buy anything..we comlained but no one was very helpful... Nice one (not very helpful) Virgin
When we boarded the flight I noticed that the 747 we had been given was one with the least modern entertainment system on it..you needed a microscop to see the monitors, pity I really enjoy the global positioning program and all the other choices..and on the return flight we'd got a different aircraft..I thought could this be it but no...yet again..predictably it was an older aircraft ..at least it wasn't Air Atlanta and the Captain was great..
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Its a shame that so any people turn up at the airport hoping to be upgraded into Virgin Premium Economy, but not many seem that lucky, the Stewardesses at the front of the aircraft on the outward journey seemed to be using the free seats as their own office and front room.not much chance for us regulars being upgraded here then.......
I admit I am moaning but then as a regular seemingly second class Virgin passenger who feels that his home Airport has been used as a dumping ground for old or sub charter Virgin flights you can't blame me..particularly as it would appear that Virgin Passengers in London do not seem to be subjected to this seemingly prejudiced attitude..
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So in future I will book my flights out of London and stop using Manchester Airport..as a trans Atlantic springboard the Gatwickhotels have some great deals including parking which are slightly cheaper than long term parking at Manchester so..it looks like hello Gatwick and good bye Manchester...at least as far as any future Virgin Flight I may make..
Until Virgin gets its Northern based operations in order and stops dumping on its regular travellers up North..I will use the new British Airways Gatwick to Tampa route with the new Beoing 777s they have on it.....and as a member of the Virgin frequent flyer and the Virgin Holiday club I say to them .....Come on Virgin GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER !!!!! get your customer relations working.because until you do people will chose to fly with other operators, it is quite simply this..should I everchose to fly charter I will book with a charter company, I resent paying scheduled airfares with Virgin to be offloaded onto a subchartered foriegn aircraft ....
So for the moment its goodbye Virgin ( get it sorted) ...and Hello to BA.....
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Enjoyable read and interesting to hear about Virgin using MAN as a dumping ground, is this still in practise?
Regards Phil
From_The_Continent 14.07.2001 12:22
Only 'helpful' this time, because this op about Virgin Atlantic is posted under Virgin Express. As for the latter, I've had one of my worst flights ever with them, and will avoid them by all means. Cheers, Hans
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Sep 30th, 2000
(Jul 30th, 2001)
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