just to balance all the optimistic stories of delight in UC / upgrades / AU membership - thought I'd post the other side of the coin!
flew LHR to JFK on VS9 the other day. had been traveling abroad so it took 2 connections to get to LHR alone, no time/internet for OLCI, and though I was 2 hrs ahead, and am AU, got a lousy Economy seat at back middle, which was moved to a bulkhead middle seat on my gentle pleading, and obvious exhaustion after already flying 6hours by that point.
Sadly this meant sitting next to a crying baby mid row, with a broken television, on a flight with hardly a spare seat on there. It looked like that they had upgraded some people to PE, but alas AU holders didn't seem to be prioritized in that. (Virgin UK can be bad in this regard, whereas Virgin USA are much better, and get the importance of it) I tried to buy my way up with miles into one of the two remaining UC seats, but sadly booking class on this leg did not permit, (a muddle in the booking meant I had upgradeable on the wrong leg of this routing) and it sometimes seems they'd rather have a seat empty than have that rule flexible and miles redeemed. That bit is beyond me, when there are spare UC seats empty, but thats the way it is. TV never got fixed or any offer made, person other side of me had no sound on theirs, where I had no picture. ackkk.
a painful journey and real character test all in all, including the final insult of an inexplicable 45+ minute wait for our bags at an empty JFK (no other flights at all, so I guess the one baggage handler was on coffee break?) UC pax, including a few celebs, were also waiting patiently for their bags, while getting their picture taken by the increasing # of pax who recognised them.
you got to take the ups with the downs, but VS certainly didn't endear me to their AU customer program in this instance. Singapore would have done much better, and I suspect BA too.
but: c'est la vie. if you don't have the downs you don't appreciate the ups!
flew LHR to JFK on VS9 the other day. had been traveling abroad so it took 2 connections to get to LHR alone, no time/internet for OLCI, and though I was 2 hrs ahead, and am AU, got a lousy Economy seat at back middle, which was moved to a bulkhead middle seat on my gentle pleading, and obvious exhaustion after already flying 6hours by that point.
Sadly this meant sitting next to a crying baby mid row, with a broken television, on a flight with hardly a spare seat on there. It looked like that they had upgraded some people to PE, but alas AU holders didn't seem to be prioritized in that. (Virgin UK can be bad in this regard, whereas Virgin USA are much better, and get the importance of it) I tried to buy my way up with miles into one of the two remaining UC seats, but sadly booking class on this leg did not permit, (a muddle in the booking meant I had upgradeable on the wrong leg of this routing) and it sometimes seems they'd rather have a seat empty than have that rule flexible and miles redeemed. That bit is beyond me, when there are spare UC seats empty, but thats the way it is. TV never got fixed or any offer made, person other side of me had no sound on theirs, where I had no picture. ackkk.
a painful journey and real character test all in all, including the final insult of an inexplicable 45+ minute wait for our bags at an empty JFK (no other flights at all, so I guess the one baggage handler was on coffee break?) UC pax, including a few celebs, were also waiting patiently for their bags, while getting their picture taken by the increasing # of pax who recognised them.
you got to take the ups with the downs, but VS certainly didn't endear me to their AU customer program in this instance. Singapore would have done much better, and I suspect BA too.
but: c'est la vie. if you don't have the downs you don't appreciate the ups!
Last edited by narikin on 22 May 2010, 17:14, edited 1 time in total.
