Best way to complain?

Flew VS077 18th June MAN to BGI, return VS078 2nd July BGI to MAN (outbound was Barbarella, return Hot Lips for those interested!) Booked childs meal for both flights, assured it would be ok- no childs meal available, none loaded. Unhappy toddler (kind of pacified by adults sausage meal but unhappy at not being able to feed self!).

While away, complained on customer service page, twitter and FB page- was assured by Howard it wouldn't happen again and meal would be available for return. Guess what. No meal- and an email from Lisa hoping that all was okay as we were now home.

Barbarella was amazing, Hot Lips was amazingly bad.

Where next folks?

Flew VS077 Barbarella MAN- BGI 18th June, return VS078 Hot Lips. Booked childs meal, none available on outbound, complained via various media, assured would be there on way home- none available again.
Any advice?

Hot Lips is in desperate need of a refit and clean!

[honey lamb]

Hi and welcome to V-Flyer. I have merged these two topics as they are essentially about the same thing to keep the discussion in one place.

[preiffer]

Hey! It's FB Kathryn! Welcome y)


(And yes, what happened SUCKED. n( )

Thanks for merging the two posts honey lamb- my computer froze right at the point where the screen comes up to say the post is waiting for admin approval so I had to redo it as I wasnt sure the first one came through.
Hi Paul thanks for the support

No matter what airline I fly wether low cost or full fare I always have the back up stash of sandwiches and crisps salads and drinks - can never guarantee even when special meal is loaded that I will enjoy or it - understand your frustration but too many times I now really on my own stash only so much vegan curry and rice you eat lol

[Darren Wheeler]

Personally, I'd write a letter to Steve Ridgway at Crawley, marked 'private and confidential' as that generally means it will be seen by himself or at least his PA. Set out your complaint and balance it with anything positive from the flights so it doesn't just get put down as a 'rant'. Don't be surprised it gets delegated to one of the senior management members (A reply I had came from head of product and services).

Emails are a quick and easy way but often don't get to the right eyes for effective action as they get diverted too early. Plus, in this day and age of electronic mail, a well crafted letter is a rarity and shows thought has gone into it.

Thanks Darren, just what I needed- was thinking along the lines of a written letter but unsure who to write to! We took a lot of snacks with us but even at 15 months, wee man knows the difference between snacks and a proper meal!

[Darren Wheeler]

We took a lot of snacks with us but even at 15 months, wee man knows the difference between snacks and a proper meal!

And it never leaves you

As unpopular as it might be, I feel for Howard on this issue. I have no doubt he did all he could to make sure the meal was arranged, only to be let down locally. It really sucks when you put a lot of effort into something, only for it to fall apart because someone didn't do what they should have. Make you look and feel totally incompetent.

Of course, the booking process shouldn't rely on chasing around to make things happen.

Whilst I have sympathy with Howard, as I do believe he did follow it up, I have no sympathy with the reply Greg has put on there. Just when the situation called for a "non-boiler plate, refer to customer services" type reply, he delivered exactly that.

I guess I'm more of a newb on forums than I thought... whats with the boiler plate reference?

I guess I'm more of a newb on forums than I thought... whats with the boiler plate reference?

It means a bog standard reply. y)

Personally, I'd write a letter to Steve Ridgway ... thought has gone into it.

"Like"

[honey lamb]

Thanks for merging the two posts honey lamb- my computer froze right at the point where the screen comes up to say the post is waiting for admin approval so I had to redo it as I wasnt sure the first one came through.
Hi Paul thanks for the support

You're welcome. The delay in getting approval depends which one of the mods is on- line at any one time and sometimes no-one is there to approve a new post for a bit. I was able to do it in the wee small hours of the morning as I'm currently on the west coast of America.

The advice to write to Steve Ridgway is sound. I did this years ago over this and other problems with my flight and was more than happy with the result