Complain about a product or service

Virgin America

Rafael of Lynnwood, WA February 24, 2010

I accidentally cancelled a flight from SEA to SFO but when I called virgin America customer service, the person told me that they only issue a vA credit files that you can use within a year. Also on top of that,they have already charged us the 75 cancel fee. I understand the cancel fee but they said 24 hours before the flight. I accidentally cancel!! besides that, IF it was an intention to cancel, it is still outside the 24 hour timeframe but the reservations person refused to accept the fact that it was an accident. I asked then if that is the case are they going to refund the remaining balance in cash? The answer was a resounding NO.

I asked on how to get it re-instated and she started calculating the present fare and fees. With the remaining funds, vA wanted an additional 311+. I think that this is ridiculous and no wonder vA owner is sitting pretty good on where he is at - being a billionaire. I mean if they charge this much when someone ACCIDENTALLY cancel, imagine the money that they collect and passed on to the boss who is already a billionaire. My taste for virgin America just went from sour to rotten. This is not the only time that I have a bad experience with this airline.

A couple of years or so, I was accompanying my aging parents to fly down to SFO. Service seems to be good but on the way back from SFO, these guys never even asked or offered a couple of wheelchairs for my aging parents. I had to go back and asked them for it. Why do we need to ask for it if they are already looking at two senior folks that could hardly walk. Other air carriers will automatically tell you to hang around for wheelchair service. We had to wait for half an hour to get the wheelchair. Upon arriving here in SEA, there was no wheelchair at the gate. I watched my parents struggle walking up the bridge. The flight attendants just watched instead of them picking up the phone at the end of the bridge and asked for wheelchairs. My take on this is that virgin America hired the left over of the other air carriers who did not qualify and better yet took the ones who don't have common sense. This airline is not service or senior oriented establishment, they'll take your money and you're on your own.

Mon of San Francisco, CA January 19, 2010

My first (and last) time on Virgin America was through a sale fare special they advertised for 39 o/w from SF to SD. Southwest was offering the same deal, but we "randomly" went with Virgin for an hour difference in flight time...

On the way there, no services was offered, not even a glass of water. Everyone had to push the call button individually for the flight attendant to come over (apparently they had an ordering service through each seat's monitor but it wasn't working). But with the crappiness of today's airline services, I wouldn't hold this against them. It's pretty much the norm...

However, on the day of our return flight (originally scheduled for 5:30pm) we received a call at 11am that morning that the flight has been cancelled due to weather. However the flight before and after ours we're still scheduled, so how is it due to weather that ours was cancelled??? We had to rush to the airport (losing the rest of our day for siteseeing) to try to get on standby planes, which later the agent at the gate informed us we have no chance of getting on due to the massive waiting list since 140 people from our plane is waiting to leave SD...

Ok, so how about rebooking us on another flight to go home? The response was basically: we're all sold out for the next 2 days, but we can book you on the first available flight 2 days later. Take it or leave it.

Ok, so if we have to stay in SD for 2 more days, are you going to pay for our hotel/meals/anything? Response: No. Take it or leave it.

Ok, so if you're all sold out, can you book us on another airline that has a flight? Response: No, we don't work with other airlines. What if we book a ticket ourselves on another airline - will you reimburse us? Response: No.

We ended up booking a flight (at our own expense) on Southwest and flew out at 8pm that evening (2.5 hrs later than our originally scheduled flight on Virgin). So obviously, planes were flying and for cost reasons (or other) Virgin decided to cancel our flight. Ironically, we had originally thought about taking Southwest (at the same 39 sale fare) and now ended up paying much more for a last minute flight home. Lesson learned...

I've never had a worse experience with such restrictive "company policy", with rebooking a reasonable alternative flight, with customer service & attitudes, with lack of accommodations and flexibility, you name it!

I honestly believe that they are taking advantage of the weather to cancel a flight that they didn't want to fly. Otherwise, why would the flights before and after hours (which were completely booked) not be cancelled but rather delayed?

We were able to purchase a flight home on Southwest that although delayed, got us home (and not 2 days later)!

Like many other complaints against Virgin America, the customer reps and managers we spoke to offer no help and are unsympathetic to the situation. And basically told us to take it or leave and go to Southwest. Well, we did exactly that!

In this economy though, it was quite an expense for us to pay for extra tickets on Southwest to get home. Our "cheap" getaway for 39 o/w ended up costing us an extra 345!! It'll be awhile before that comes off the credit card... I may be 1 meager little customer that they don't care to keep, but they've lost me forever as a customer!

Chris of Los Angeles, CA January 5, 2010

In anticipation of going to a meeting in San Francisco, I went on line on Saturday 1/2/10, at Virgin's site and booked a roundtrip ticket, departing and returning on 1/6/10. There were 2 fare options - one was 78 total, and was non-refundable. The one next to it was 271 round trip and was marked "fully refundable". Because my plans were not firm and seats were selling out, I selected that fare. My receipt did not indicate any non-refundability, and I checked all of the policies and terms and conditions to make sure it was refundable.

On Monday, 1/4, I found the meeting wasn't taking place, and I went on line to cancel the trip. The first thing I saw was a 75 cancellation fee. I called Virgin about this, only to find that I had booked the non-refundable ticket, the little box for which is right next to the box to check for the fully refundable ticket, and I would thus be entitled only to a credit for the fare toward a future flight, LESS 75.00

I spoke with two supervisors. Michael, the first, acknowledged that this had likely been a mistake, and a not uncommon one, related to the website. I spoke then with his manager, Ahmad, who confirmed this, also acknowledging that this confusion does happen not infrequently. Regardless, they were either unable or unwilling to do anything for me, and couldn't give me the name of anyone higher up to whom I could direct my appeal (although Ahmad did, upon request, give the name of Virgin's President, to whom I will be writing).

Ahmed also acknowledged that he did have the power to refund non-refundable fares in certain circumstances, but said that I had deliberately purchased this fare. He did not have an answer to my question: If I had intended to purchase a non-refundable fare, would I not have bought the 78 round trip fare over the 300 round trip? I am essentially out 313.40 - the cost of the fare (plus the facilities fees, taxes, etc.).

JoAnn of Los Angeles, CA December 14, 2009

On October 8, 2009 I purchased two tickets through Virgin America's website under my Elevate account, one for me and the other for my husband. My ticket was for a departure on Dec. 17th returning on the 26th, and my husband's departure was for the 20th and returning the same date. Our seats, of course, are different on the departure, but coming back we were to be seated next to each other in 14C and 14B. I'm mentioning the seating because it will become quite significant later on in this letter. I have been an Virgin Elevate customer for a year. I went into their website and booked both tickets, paid for them, and got a confirmation email for both.

I get a call in November from one of their representatives telling me that I have two reservations and that maybe one of them was a mistake because the departures were different, but the return was the same. They said to call them back if there was a problem. I didn't need to call them back because my reservations were fine. They didn't mention that the reservations were both under my name, so I get a call from a rep today, Dec 13 telling me that I have two reservations under my name, and that I should have one cancelled. That immediately prompted me to call them. That's when the nightmare began.

After speaking to numerous agents, they told us that they could not change the name on the reservation, and that we would have to cancel it and re-book another ticket for a higher price. This was completely unacceptable, because we intentionally booked our tickets in advance to take advantage of the lower fares. We were so upset because it wasn't our fault that their website kicked my husband's name out as a traveler. No where in the website through my Elevate account did it say that we couldn't book tickets for other people, and that if we did, it would put me in as the traveler under their reservation. That is what happened! I spoke to two supervisors and they all proceeded to call me a liar when I told them what happened. I specifically put my husband's name in and seated next to me on the return flight. According to one of the reservation reps, she said the WEBSITE AUTOMATICALLY CHANGES THE TRAVELERS NAME TO THE ELEVATE CUSTOMERS NAME. How was I supposed to know that?? Why when making the reservations for my husband and I at the same time, would I seat myself next to me on the return flight the 26th. Ridiculous!!

I'm put on with the last supervisor that I was able to talk to, according to him, and he again continues to say that it was my fault that I made two reservations under my name. He told me again that he could not make any name changes. He told me that I could pay an additional 192 to change the departure, but their wouldn't be a return for my husband. I told him this was unbelieveable and unacceptable. I wanted to talk to someone else, he said he was at the top and there was noone else. They were not going to get away with this. He relented and got me in touch with "Jen" at the SF headquarters. She was rude, would talk over me, proceeded to tell me that I made the mistake and wanted me to admit it (for the record), and I did not. She then threatened me to pull the records of the phone calls made to me, and I said fine, I have nothing to hide. She said there were emails sent to me regarding this, as well, and I told her I never received them. The first I knew about this was when a rep called me in November! After hours on the phone, and hours of stress and strain, SHE PROCEEDED TO TELL ME THAT SHE COULD MAKE A NAME CHANGE FOR 50!!!! As of today, I am not an Elevate customer, nor will Virgin America ever see another dollar from me, and I will make sure everyone hears about their practices.

anita of massapequa, NY November 14, 2009

On 9/26/09 I was a passenger on the 2:20pm flight from Las Vegas to New york(JFK), in seat 1C. This was the third time I have flown first class on your airline and was a very different experience then my prior flights. After serving lunch the flight attendant never came around to see if we wanted anything else, she never served any other drinks,or snacks. She allowed a coach passenger to use the reserved lav which he stayed in for over 10 minutes and the stench following his use was so bad nobody else could use it (thank god it was near the end of the flight) The flight crew tried to dissipate the odor by fanning the door to no avail.

kim of ravensdale, WA August 12, 2009

i was traveling on virgin america airlines from LAX-SEATAC,i went to check in my luggage at the front desk, and there was a cindy there checkin in my luggage,cindy was very unprofessional, very rude, she wrongfully charged me 50. for my luggage that was within the guidelines,and i want a refund,and something said to her about it and i wont stop until something gets done about this. i really didnt need to have a rep for this airlines treat anyone like she did.

John of Los Angeles, CA August 10, 2009

VIRGINA AMERICA LOST MY REFUND CREDIT While I love all the services and amentities, I'm extremely troubled by my recent experience with their online system.

I was scheduled to fly back from NY to LA on July 29, unfortunatley, I had to cancel that flight. I did the cancellation online (at least 48 hours in advance) around July 26/27th, received online confirmation stating I have 1XX.00 credit for future flights AND I called in to double confirm the cancellation. Well, when I booked my flight today, my credit is NO WHERE to be found. I called customer service and the operator asked me if I had screen shots of such cancellation I said no because i didn't anticipate such problem. So if you ever decide to cancel VA flights online, make sure you get a screen shot of the cancellation to avoid losing any unused credits. Also if you have experienced this before please contact me as I will try to get this resolved - legally if necessary.

John of S. San Gabriel, CA August 3, 2009

I purchased 3 tickets that cost around 1,500, and my partner had a serious medical emergency that prevented us from taking the trip. I canceled two weeks in advance, and requested a refund. The refund was denied. I was unable to use the credit due to this ongoing health condition, and because I rarely fly. They were unwilling to refund even after I faxed in a note from my partner's doctor. (I have since faxed in other verification of several other hospital stays.)

During one communication with Guest Services customer service rep, I was told that the credit expired in August, when, in fact, most of it expired one month earlier. This led to most of my credit expiring. I have asked for an extension on the credit, so I could try to sell the credit to a third party at a discount. (I wish I could use the credit for flights, but, I'm just not in a situation where we could do that.) So far, the request has been denied and I'm losing hope.

I think Virgin America is being unfair -- I canceled on time, and did not preclude their re-selling the seats. I acted in good faith on the information I was told. I think the policies are unreasonable and the staff and management are being inflexible and inhumane in this situation. Virgin America is profiting 1,500, getting my money without rendering any service.

Curt of Cambridge, MA January 18, 2009

Curt of Cambridge MA (01/18/09)
When I learned that Virgin America would begin direct service between SFO and BOS, I was elated. My fiance and I fly this route routinely, and we regarded the prospect of being serviced by a low-cost, high-quality airline like Virgin America with considerable excitement. Just 40 hours ago I made my first reservation on Virgin America, with confirmation code SWJ2BL. I am writing to tell you that I even though I have not yet boarded a plane or even gone to an airport, I am already deeply dissatisfied with Virgin Americas servicing of my reservation.

My problem was that the virginamerica.com web site did not properly accept my request to change the dates I had originally entered for my flight. I wanted to change my trip from a Feb 19 departure and Feb 23 return to a Feb 26 departure and a Mar 2 return. For some reason, the virginamerica.com web site only changed the date of my return flight. Unfortunately, I did not notice until I had confirmed my reservation. Only 36 later, hours I called Virgin Americas customer service line. The operator there told me that I must pay a 75 penalty? because I did not call within 24 hours of making my reservation.

Although she was sympathetic to my situation, all she could tell me was that the penalty stands?. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and in a few minutes was put in touch with Donna. She also refused to waive the 75 change fee, in spite of the facts that (i) I called in as soon as possible after confirming my reservation, within 12 hours of the end of the official grace period; (ii) the departure date for my flight was a full 7 weeks hence; and (iii) the problem stemmed in part from technical flaws with the virginamerica.com web site.

Frustrated, I asked her what was Virgin Americas rationale for charging the fee. Her amazing response: every airline, except Southwest, charges these fees?. I am very troubled by this for two reasons. First, I have been badly mistreated in the first of what I had assumed would be many transactions with Virgin America. When my problem arises in part because of flaws in the virginamerica.com web site, and I miss the grace period for fee-free ticket changing by only 12 hours, I believe any reasonable airline would allow me to revise my itinerary.

As Donna noted, Southwest sure does so, and I can tell you from personal experience that US Airways does as well. Secondly, I cannot believe that Virgin Americas rationale for charging the change fee is that everyone is doing it?. Apparently, Virgin Americas customer service policy seeks not to best serve the needs of its customers, but instead seeks to copy the weaknesses of Virgin Americas competitors.

A 75 change fee was charged to me *because*, in the airline's rationale, other airlines, except for Southwest, do the same thing. Is this some form of collusion or price-fixing?

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