V-Flyer

Hello!

Nice site.

This is my first post here so I'm a little ashamed that it's a complaint. Sorry!

I am a big fan of Virgin Atlantic and usually if I'm flying anywhere I will select them over any other airline.

My girlfriend and I flew to New York from Gatwick last month and took the over night flight home from Newark Airport. On arrival at check-in we were offered the extra legroom upgrade for $100, which we accepted. After a 3 hour delay (technical problem with the aircraft) we boarded the aircraft only to find it was practically empty! The minute we took off, everyone vacated their seats and laid across a row. You can imagine my frustration with the $100 charge!

I tried contacting Virgin customer services who told me I chose to book the extra legroom and the charge is non-refundable. I tried to argue that if I had been told the aircraft was very empty I would definitely not have paid extra for the legroom seats. This stinks of a "misleading omission" to me. The check-in staff purposefully withheld information from me so that I would part with more money.

Virgin Customer Services refuse to refund my money, should I try escalating this or am I flogging a dead horse?

Cheers,

Mike.

mikeyc77 wrote:Hello!

Nice site.

This is my first post here so I'm a little ashamed that it's a complaint. Sorry!

I am a big fan of Virgin Atlantic and usually if I'm flying anywhere I will select them over any other airline.

My girlfriend and I flew to New York from Gatwick last month and took the over night flight home from Newark Airport. On arrival at check-in we were offered the extra legroom upgrade for $100, which we accepted. After a 3 hour delay (technical problem with the aircraft) we boarded the aircraft only to find it was practically empty! The minute we took off, everyone vacated their seats and laid across a row. You can imagine my frustration with the $100 charge!

I tried contacting Virgin customer services who told me I chose to book the extra legroom and the charge is non-refundable. I tried to argue that if I had been told the aircraft was very empty I would definitely not have paid extra for the legroom seats. This stinks of a "misleading omission" to me. The check-in staff purposefully withheld information from me so that I would part with more money.

Virgin Customer Services refuse to refund my money, should I try escalating this or am I flogging a dead horse?

Cheers,

Mike.

Hello and welcome!

Do you mean Heathrow by any chance?

In my opinion I don't think you will get very far with a refund, you paid for extra leg room seats, you got extra leg room seats. Yes it was quiet, but the people who moved about and laid down didn't get the extra leg room seats. Well I hope so, if they did then there is more of a case for a refund if they didn't charge others.

Someone with more experience of this might be able to say otherwise though.

Hi Mike and welcome to the site.

Firstly, I assume you flew NYC to LHR as VS don't fly in to LGW from any of the NYC airports?

Now regarding your main point. I can fully understand where you are coming from and you are obviously frustrated.

Did you ask how full the flight was before purchasing the extra legroom seats? If so what answer did they provide? I'm not sure it is the agents responsibility to naturally offer that sort of information up without a direct question from a pax. Of course if you did ask and were told a misleading answer then I believe you might have valid ground for complaint.

I guess there is no right or wrong answer to this and it just comes down to everyone's own personal point of view.

From Virgin's point of view I guess they feel they haven't done anything wrong, you asked to buy the extra legroom seats, they sold them to you, you sat in extra legroom seats, officially case closed.

Maybe you might hope they would offer some sort of compensation (FC miles etc) as a gesture of goodwill, but I guess they have no obligation to do so and could open themselves up to this all the time (I wouldn't have paid £3000 for an UC seat if I'd have know the flight would be empty and I could spread out over 4 Y seats).

I guess only you can decide if you think it is worth continuing with.

Neil

There was a similar comment to this on the VS FB page a few weeks ago and the response from VS was basically (and I paraphrase)

'tough - you paid for extra leg room seats and you got extra leg room seats and the fact that there was plenty of space on the plane is neither here nor there'

I've had a couple of complaints with VS over the past few years or so, nothing overly serious, but in my eyes, worth a gesture of goodwill. I've never received anything and find they can be quite dismissive - so would suggest its not worth persuing. Up to you though obviously - but take it from your question your asking whether its worth taking the time to write a good letter - No in my opinion

I don't think you will get anything if you complain.

I think it is caveat emptor, and it was down to you to ask if the flight had many spare seats, before you shelled out your money.

If you had done that, and had been given duff info, then that is a different ball game.

Nick

Welcome to v-flyer
Did you specifically ask if Y was busy? If you did not then I do not think you have cause for complaint. Some flights are busier than others- my recent flight from LHR-NRT had 80 passengers in total, and the passengers in Y had as much room to stretch out in as me (in UC) . I was however guaranteed what I'd paid for- the passengers in Y were not, but were able to use the unused seats like on your flight.
DL

Alas, them's the breaks! People have booked into PE at significantly more money than economy to discover that economy is so quiet that it has been possible for people to snag rows of 4 to stretch out in infinitely longer space than in PE. As others have said, unless you have been told that economy was full, there really is no come-back

I think it is the risk you take when opting for the extra legroom seats. The other week I flew from Hong Kong to LHR and when I asked for the extra legroom seats was advised by the check-in staff not to buy them as the flight had a light load and I'd likely be able to move to some empty seats. Even with this advice I opted to pay the extra, and in my case it was the right decision as in between being given the advice, and the time of the flight, a cathay pacific flight was cancelled and those passengers were re-booked onto my flight, so it went from being a light load to a full flight.

Other times I've flown Singapore airlines and opted to pay extra for the exit row to discover that the flight had a light load and other people moved to take up spare seats. As far as I'm concerned, being tall I'd rather pay to make sure my knees aren't squashed up against the seat in front, rather than take the chance the flight might not be full.

Thanks for all the replies!

Yes, it was Heathrow to NYC. Gatwick was the recent Vegas trip.

I didn't ask how full the flight was. In future though, I will make sure I ask the question before parting with my cash.