Complain about a product or service

Virgin Atlantic

Dharminder of london, United Kingdom May 9, 2009

hi, was on a flight from hong kong to london only to be told 3 hours later and 30min on phone to virgin office in crawly nothing will be done. new flight at 7.30 thurs morn. while this fight was at wed 2pm hong kong. with the night flight at 23.25pm only club and prem eco were given the chance to get the flight. i had to stand and wait for 2 hours to get a chance for this flight as had to be back in london and a car transfer of £600 was non refundable.

not to mention very bad service from the captain who didn`t update anyone. just 2 updates, and one was no flight today.

we were hungry in the aiport for 8 hours not to mention the 3 hour on the plane and 3 hours before to check in. the food vouchers were silly as many places did not accept and no change given so what a waste of them. needed to phone home as my mobile battery had died. and they did not let us make the call even when we showed itis on your tickets were it said we can make 2 calls and an email if the flight is delayed by 4 hours. this was 10 hours on new flight or delayed by 17 hours!!!

this was very sad day in airline travel with virgin. i have been on ba 200 times if not more and never had this prob ever. i have been on virgin before and i paid more to fly with you then cathy and air new z to hong kong. i now fill so stupid as i have got another 5 tickets with family on the same filght to hong kong on the 21 may in 2 weeks approx which i dont want to travel and would like to know bout a refund so can change to another airline. and to make matters worse, we landed at lhr at 5.30am in which was at the baguage reclaim by 5.50am. i had to wait till 8:05am to get my bags as some prob with unloading. i have got a note from virgin to state the time of the bags. after a simple 13hour flight turned into a nightmare of approx 28hours!!! then had to go to work and do a 12 hour shift as was so late into london thanks to virgin. i have a new business in hong kong which i need to travel now every 2 weeks which how can i ever choose virgin again. not to mention delhi where

i jus booked jet air 5 tickets in aug 09 as so un happy with virgin. now i would like to know what is gonna be done about this, and can i cancel my 5 tickets on 21 may 5 with virgin to hong kong. and keeping us in hong kong for 12 hours in such bad conditions. and the transfer of £600 who will pay that.

Phil of Brooklyn, NY April 13, 2009

Sir/Madam: I'm writing to complain regarding possibly the worst, least-helpful service I have ever received in the airline industry. It may be rather long, but should provide useful feedback and/or entertainment. I had originally booked a flight from New York JFK to London Heathrow for the 10th of April (last week). A couple days before the flight, a close family friend passed away. I had to postpone my departure to attend the funeral. So, on Thursday the 9th, I spoke with one of your service representatives (who did not provide me his name, but sounded to be in a South Asian call center).

I asked for the next available date of comparable fare. This was apparently too confusing for him, so I had to give him a specific date. He did some typing and responded with I'm sorry sir, but there are no available flights that day. Would you like me to search another date? I took a deep breath to calmly prepare for what I realized was going to be a very painful phone call. Several minutes later, we had found that the next available flight would be about two weeks later (approaching my return date). I realized that, considering the 200 change fee, I might be better off just booking a one-way flight with another airline. The representative said, Sir, I can make this an 'open ticket' and you can call back once you've decided on the date. Great! I thought. Thanks, I'll do that.

Today, the 13th of April at 3:40 PM EST, I called back in an attempt to finalize arrangements. I spoke with a woman named Donna, but from the quality of the connection and her accent, I figured that I was again connected with a call center and her name probably wasn't Donna anyway. I gave her my booking reference and quickly brought her up to speed. She informed me that there was no note or anything to indicate that I had an open ticket and, in fact, I had been listed as a no-show for my flight. Understanding that the first representative had apparently taken no action during our call, and was instead probably organizing his post-its or photos of his family, I sighed and figured we'd press on and see what could be done.

She said that I could re-book the outbound flight as part of the same trip but that in addition to the change fee, I would likely have to pay an additional no-show fee. I gave her some dates to search and she kindly put me on hold... for about 10 minutes. When she returned, she let me know that in addition to the 200 change fee, there would be a 350 no-show fee (note: my original round-trip fare was about 460). Additionally, the difference in fare would be about 980. SO, to re-book this flight, I would have to pay over 1500. The sheer stupidity hurt my brain.

I quickly did a web search and found one-way flights for 500-600. I politely explained to her that 1500 made absolutely no sense whatsoever and I would really have no rational choice but to fly one-way with another airline. Though, as I'm writing this, I am thinking that I better call back to make sure no one has canceled my return ticket and pocketed my money. I have no confidence in the Virgin customer service, so I'm going to have to get on that call now and suffer a bit more.

I'd like to inject an important side-note to this experience, while I'm on hold. The Virgin Atlantic website is all but useless. You can't actually manage your booking. Manage Your Flights really only means online check-in. When I first logged in her, there were a list of account actions, including change your dates, but the actions didn't link anywhere. There was a note next to it, as a question mark image, that also did not click, but I was able to decipher that holding my cursor over it would reveal other useless information. I tried clicking a customer service link, which ultimately timed out and loaded no page. I did some additional searching for fares and promotional fares which gave me some results but also the note Are your dates flexible? We found a cheaper fare for xxx. When I clicked the related link, it just took me back to the original promotional fares / search page. Completely and utterly useless. Overall I'd say this website is so horribly behind all of the competition that there is no real use to even having attempting to use it.

So, I'm back on hold now after speaking to a competent representative named Pirshan (?). I have just learned that when a traveler is a no-show for their departure flight, the whole booking gets canceled. This means that I no longer have a return flight. So, had I booked another one-way flight, I would be in quite a bit of trouble! I explained the situation, and the primary problems are that the original agent did not make ANY note on the account, and I failed to get his name (which I really regret, but I had other things on my mind [ie:the upcoming funeral arrangements, schedules]) at the time. So, they could try to review calls from the date/time I provide them, but without a name, it's quite hard. I understand this.

Pirshan also understood that the fees and costs associated with making changes would be 3 times the cost of just booking a new trip through the Virgin-Atlantic website. Why didn't the last representative understand that basic reality of mathematics? So, the minutes are ticking by. We shall see the result. In the meantime, I'm searching flights with competitors. After all, if I have to re-book, I think Virgin has already gotten quite enough of my money, without having to render any service in return. So, I got off hold. There's nothing they can do for me. There are so many ways in which they could have been accommodating and made some more money off me, but alas, they're not equipped with the knowledge to actually generate revenue for their business. I've just booked a new flight with another airline. I don't think I'll be booking with Virgin again anytime soon. Now I'm exhausted and in need of a drink.

456 USD down the drain, never to be seen again, and having gotten nothing for it but aggravation.

John of Las Vegas, NV March 26, 2009

Virgin Atlantic flight departing Las Vegas to London 5th of March returning the 17th of March.

I had purchased tickets on this flight for myself and my wife. A couple of weeks before we flew we received an e-mail stating if we booked now the flight would be around 600 cheaper, so I complained. We got the standard run around about pricing, like we were idiots and it annoyed me because it simply was not right and you feel turned over. I think I must have been put on a short list as a difficult customer as the treatment I received from Karen,the stewardess from hell was unforgiving.

This stewardess from hell said that I was being too loud after being seated,when I was laughing and joking with my wife.(Damn, I was going back home after 14 months of being away and might of been a bit excited about it.) When I protested she said I was now being aggressive and would serve no more alcohol. Get this,I had had one beer (AS THAT WAS ALL THE BEER THEY HAD ON BOARD) and a gin and tonic. And here is a point. If I was behaving so loutish and out of control, why didn't I start drinking from the two bottles of duty free that I had purchased at the airport? A drunk person would have done that,wouldn't he?

The inflight entertainment was NOT WORKING so I seethed for the entire flight. This person ruined my flight, she was obnoxious and seemed to delight in the sound of her own voice as she reprimanded me, behaving in such a total condescending jobsworth manner it was infuriating. She did not whisper this in my ear, warning me of my supposed bad behaviour, like a proffesional should. She made sure the other travellers heard her, which embarrassed me and I am still angry about that.

In all honesty I will say the return flight was much nicer (even though there was the 2-3 HOUR DELAY, I forgot to mention a ONE HOUR DELAY GOING) the flight attendants were pleasant and the inflight entertainment worked. But I still got the feeling I was not really welcome on board.(Probably paranoia from the first experience, with her.)

I e-mailed Virgin about this but they wont get back to me. I had had the nerve to question their methods of selling tickets in the first place and how It leaves a customer feeling mugged by informing you that you over paid). In all my time,(I am 57 years old) I have never received treatment like this from not only any airline but from any employee in the service industry. And I would like to add these tickets(for two)cost 4,000.So in closing all I can say is, Don't dare question the policies of Virgin Atlantic,they used to be, but they ain't nice people any more.

Chandru of London, OTHER February 17, 2009

I am sending this complaint with regard to the flight from Lagos to London on the 2nd of February My father, an aged man of eighty years had requested a wheel chair to be available for him upon his arrival to London, Heathrow. Not only was one not provided for him at the plane where he was required to disembark using the stairs but once the bus reached the terminal, there wasn't a wheelchair available as assured by the cabin crew when leaving the plane. As a Virgin loyalist, I was furious at this gross negligence by the airline, one that believes its set apart from the rest by its quality of service.

There have been numerous occasions in the past my family and I have overlooked such lacking in service. For instance, the time it takes a wheelchair to arrive at the Heathrow Virgin check-in counters are laughable. On two occasion, my aged parents had to stand and wait for over half an hour for a wheel chair to arrive. If there was ample seating for passengers at the check-in area, this would be tolerable but for two aged individuals to have to stand there with cane and crutches and wait for over thirty minutes is downright ludicrous.

In addition, the Virgin flight between Mumbai to London has to be one of the worst my family and I have experienced. Flying in premium economy, we were subjected to a primitive in flight entertainment system combined with a terrible menu and food. Virgin pales in comparison to Kingfisher and Jet on that sector specifically and Virgin really could take a page or ten out of their book. Needless to say, our business will be taken elsewhere henceforth. Regards

Helen of Musselburgh, OTHER February 12, 2009

been going to las vegas on holidat for past 14yrs past 3yrs traveling with virgin my point being using points plus money we traveled from edi scotland to vegas via l gtw our cases went srait through edi to las now trying to book again they r saying we have to cllect baggage at gtw cant go through from edi as we r using points that we have been doing past 3yrs whats the point in gaining points if they have a clause with it & why now my husband is not fit to carry luggage in l gtw & did not have to do it before how bad is that & some of the staff on the phone r very rude

upset both of us as we love that trip

Dhumil of Dayton, OH February 10, 2009

Hi, I was travelling with my younger sister to India, Newark_london-Mumbai and we had the worst possible experience , all becoz of Virgin's mistakes & inefficiency. here's what happened: We were delayed in departing from Newark by one hour purely because of the inefficient staff of Virgin Atlantic and not because of weather or any other reason. As a result of which we reached London at 9:45 PM instead of 8:45 PM and we missed our connecting flight to Mumbai departing at 9:45 PM the same day.

The Virgin Atlantic staff again showed their ineptitude in helping passengers when they could not even apologise to us for their blunder. We were then put on British Airways flight 199 departing the next day, December 22 and informed by the Virgin Atlantic agent that all my 4 bags would be transferred to this new flight. We were given temp accomodation in one of nearby hotels, but to get there we had to use public transportation, at 1 AM in the night !! as all airport shuttles & cabs are gone by midnight. So pls avoid Heathrow too, if you can !!

Upon reaching Bombay, we did not get any of my bags back, and I filed a claim with British Airways claims dept and they put a tracker for these bags. We did receive the 4 bags on 26 December 2008, but 2 Cordless phones, 3 MP3 players, one watch, one bottle of perfume and a packet of razors was stolen. We were terribly upset as a result of this and asked Virgin Atlantic to compensate us for this loss. But all they told me was to make a claim with British Airways as they checked in my bags from London !! So finally I have claims being processed by BA, but I am not too hopeful if I'll get anything from them. On my resturn flight, it was ok, no hassles, thankfully ! But do try & avoid VA if you can, its not worth it ! also, they have a limit on carry on luggage of 6 kgs !!

In all, I suffered monetory loss of 300 and all the mental harassment of living ithout your clothes the first day and losing all the valuables you had brought for your loved ones. especially if you are seeing them after 3 years !

Michael of Houston, TX February 2, 2009

Hello, I am writing to complain of multiple incidents and bad experience with Virgin Atlantic. First case: I purchased my ticket through Continental Airlines via its ticket agents. I was travelling with my family (4 people) to Nigeria, Africa. We departed on December 10, 2008 from Houston (IAH) to Orlando Florida (MCO), and connecting to London Gatwick. On getting to London our flight was diverted to Manchester. We had to claim our luggage (10 + carry on) from Manchester into a Coach bus for a 7 hour road trip to Gatwick. On reaching Gatwick, our connecting flight to Nigeria had left. We were then taken on a taxi (provided by Virgin Atlantic) to Heathrow Airport to board Virgin Nigeria to Lagos. Again when we got to the counter, we were processed and later told that they were no available seats for us to board. We were made to sleep at the airport with no accommodation and food.

The next day, again we were denied chance to board. And again no food, no accommodation and no place to secure our luggage. Mindful I was travelling with my family (wife and 2 kids). Finally, on the third day after been abused and maltreated by Virgin Atlantic personnel, we were allowed to board to Lagos Nigeria on December 13, 2008. The experience with Virgin Atlantic ground personnel were despicable, inhuman and unprofessional.

First, I paid full rate and was supposed to be taken to my destination. Second, I did not pay for a standby passenger which was the situation we found ourselves. Third, no provisions were made to accommodate our problem instead we were treated like animals. I will never fly Virgin Atlantic again and would discourage anyone within my power to never patronize VA. Second Case: We arrived Lagos on the December 13, 2008 and two of our luggage were damaged. We obtained property damaged report for our claim. The claim number is 193811.

In summary, I would like your airline to pay me a monetary compensation for the damages caused my family in the amount of 4000.00 because of the delay, abandonment and negligent of contract. I would request payment for the two damaged luggage valued at 150.00 The total amount due us is 40150.00 I would reserve my legal rights until this matter is resolved amicably. Thanks for your attention to this matter.

Maxwell Masego Mosinyi of Gaborone, OTHER January 9, 2009

13 July 2008. i flew from Botswana to South Afrca, O.R. Tambo airport, i checked in my luggage all the way to Los Angeles (LAX) which was my final destination. i was scheduled to fly Virgin Atlantic flight VS 602 on the 13 July 2008 in the evening from Johannesburg to Heathrow (LHR) , and my flight was subsequently changed by Hildah (Virgin staff) in South Africa (OR Tambo) as they said their flight was delayed so they booked me on British Airways flight. While at OR Tambo i double checked with VA staff Hildah to make sure my luggage would taken care of as there had been flight changes.

On arriving at LAX on the 14th July 08, my luggage had not arrived, and when i went to VA desk they alredy had my name on their Property Irregularity Report no 168762. they told me the bag wouldbe delivered to me. the number which i was given to check my bag was for a customer care center in India, i spoke to Avine, shSneha, Conrad,and many others, when i called. The attendants did not seem to know much about the where abouts of my luggage. i stayed ten days in Los Angeles to no avail of my luggage.

i can back to Botswana and started calling the 1 800 number and as i was no longer in USA, it was no longer toll free, and i have been incurring telephone costs since then. i got in touch with VA baggage claim and processed and forward my claim of US1356 to VA on the 15 September 2008, and it arrived at their offices in London on the 18th September 2008 and was singed for by a certain DAVIDSON. After this claim was made i made several email follow up which were only replied from an electronic standard reply,and telephone follow ups with the Indian based customer care center which had no idea what was going on.

On December 18th i received a letter dated 18th November 2008 acknowledging that VA will reimburse me for my Luggabe, but this will only be half (US713) the cost of my items and the other half the letter exclaimed i could claim from the insurance. Today its 09th January 2009, and no payment has been made since. up to today the customer service agents in India refuse to give me a number which i can call in London to speak directly with the Claims department. Its interesting that entities such as VA thrive on the back of its customers buy robbing them after making promises they can not keep. they get richer and richer by robbing and stealing from their clients.

I stayed in Los angeles without clothes and had to use my money on things i had not planned to use it on, buying new clothes and accessories all over again. they promised that they would avail to me atleast between US70-200 for luggage not forwarded in two days. Being lied to only adds sat to injury, they should be straight with us if the luggage is lost and stop making empty promises. Honest is all i ask for. The length of time in processing lost baggage claims has been so long that i think they are buying time that soon i will tire and give up. I have incurred telephone cost i had not budgeted for. as i had travelled on a business trip to Los Angeles, this affected my whole business mission to LA.

Sangeeta of Bridgewater, NJ January 6, 2009

I flew from Calcutta to Mumbai to London in JetAirwyas and from London to Newark, NJ in Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic claims that the luggage was not handed over to them by Jet Airways. Its been over 48 hours and I have not yet received any information about the luggage. The luggage had brand new expensive items that I had shopped for in India. Every time I call Virgin Atlantic, all they tell me is that they could not locate my luggage and cannot give me a time frame as to when they will have information. Then they say that they are not getting any information from Kolkata, Mumbai or London airport officials.

I fail to understand how no information can be rececived for 2 entire days. Apart from brand new items that I had bought, I had my daughter's down quilt with me, as she is allergic to certain fabrics....right now she is without a blanket in the cold weather. Additionally I had to go shop for my son's sweat shirts and trousers as I had carried most of them with me, and they were in the lost baggage. I have written two separate emails to Jet Airways one and one at customer relations, with no response. I desperately need to locate my bags. Its a shame that the airlines charge us thousands of dollars and get away with such callous behavior.

Mental distress Loss of expensive garments (brand new) bought for special religious occassion and now don't have proper attire Extra money to buy winter clothes for son Daughter without her winter blanket

S of Birmingham, OTHER December 26, 2008

My wife black South Africa,was stop from boarding a flight to London from South Africa,on xmas day!!she book the flight on the 24 dec,with Virgin Atlantic in Pietermaritzburg at a travel agent,i spoke to the travel agent on the day she book her ticket,if sent a invitation letter which i did by emailing my wife,unfortunately she was stop from boarding!Nomfundo had evidence married certificate,and invitation letter,but still she was refuse to board.she was coming to see me for xmas,and because of medical problems,

this has cause stress for me and my wife,and family

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