V-Flyer

Just got 4000 miles because my son didn't get his pre-booked childs meal. Seems quite a result to me?

We were in PE from MCO to LGW and they run out of child's meals! Upon complaining the best they could rustle up was something from Economy which didn't go down too well at all! He missed out on the kiddie's bits such as yoghurt and biccies etc. My 8 yo didn't appreciate rhubarb crumble!!! Surely, they should have sourced something from UC?

A result on the miles, but why would an UC meal be any more suited to an 8 year old

4000 miles sounds like a result to me.

Having young kids myself, we have missed out a few time on pre-ordered meals with no offer of compensation. I don't think there is anything special about a child's UC meal so I don't think the CC could offer anything (the few time we have ordered a child's meal in UC it has appeared to be a re-plated economy meal anyway). On our last UC flight we didn't bother ordering a child's meal, preferring to take a chance on my lad liking something off the main menu.

Slipperman wrote:4000 miles sounds like a result to me.

Having young kids myself, we have missed out a few time on pre-ordered meals with no offer of compensation. I don't think there is anything special about a child's UC meal so I don't think the CC could offer anything (the few time we have ordered a child's meal in UC it has appeared to be a re-plated economy meal anyway). On our last UC flight we didn't bother ordering a child's meal, preferring to take a chance on my lad liking something off the main menu.

Tend to agree, the kids meals in all classes are gloopy grimness especially ex states as they usually have that fake cheese sauce stuff... Mini never eats the main, usually nicks of us and eats the fruit and sweets..
But you've not missed out on a special UC kids offering, don't think there even is one...

I'm happy - that's the main thing... They could have just made excuses and said they tried... Not sure how much investigation they do - do they actually speak to the crew for example?

I was under the impression that UC meals worked differently... (and they could 'whip' something up) I guess a bit limited at 38,000ft!

On my first VS flight to JNB I was told (wrongly) by my travel agent that they would pick up that I had booked a child fare. As we found out subsequently, they didn't - and understandable as some children could easily cope with adult meals. As it happened there was a huge amount of Unaccompanied Minors on the flight (all returning from boarding school/to a divorced parent for the summer/to grandparents/to any other scenario) and it was obvious that there was no meal for my son. In fairness to the cabin crew they managed to cobble together a meal for him which seemed to be fairly basic but he was going through a "nothing but bread" phase so a few rolls hit the spot. We booked a child's meal on the way back and he took one look at it, refused to eat it and promptly fell asleep for the rest of the flight.

I should have learned from a previous SAA flight where the same thing had happened. The crew panicked when they saw a child boarding and asked what would he eat from the adult menu. It turned out to be redundant as the time of the flight coincided with his normal bed time and so he simply curled up and fell asleep and then enjoyed brekkie and even though they had organised a child's meal on the return, again he fell asleep before it was served!

After the VS flight I wrote to VS about the flight. There were several other things that had gone wrong some of which had not been the fault of VS but of BD with whom we had flown from DUB. My attitude had been that sh*t happens but the crew on the flight had done their best to redress it. As a result we received a goody bag (I wasn't an FC member then, nor even flying on a regular basis) which consisted of several vouchers, all of which were useable and other things which I cannot remember and also a watch for Aer John from the Retail Therapy mag! Of course that wedded me to VS for years to come. y)

In stark contrast to honeylamb's experience, the modern way of dealing with complaints seems to be to bung people some FC miles and a fairly standard 'oh sorry' and hope they go away.

Indeed. This was the night-flight home so my son wasn't too upset (at least the outward journey was correct!) - but my 2 daughters got their meals so he was a bit put out by that more than anything else! They don't tend to eat the meals themselves - just pick at the 'goodies' round the edges! (Although, I'll have to admit to hoovering up the kiddies meals as a nice side-dish!)

clarkeysntfc wrote:In stark contrast to honeylamb's experience, the modern way of dealing with complaints seems to be to bung people some FC miles and a fairly standard 'oh sorry' and hope they go away.

That's been my experience too. Wifi at the Heathrow Clubhouse hasn't worked well for months - each time I complain I get 5000 miles credited. Maybe I shoudl ask for a Tier point or two instead

We wrote a letter of praise for some crew once, account soon after showed extra miles for them to be removed the day after.... Assuming they then realised it wasn't a complaint!!

can't understand why or how they manage to run out of meals or do they assume because the food is so bad that there is not going to be a 100% take up,I remember one of the 1st time we flew PE up in the bubble and we were about 5 rows back and they had wasted out of my choice!

Yes, same happened to us in the bubble... I'll eat anything but the Wife wasn't impressed!

I clearly don't complain enough. On the one occasion I did, I got 15k miles. I could be a millionaire by now if I put a bit more effort into it. 5k per CH visit for dodgy WiFi sounds like a great start - I remember how flaky Facetime was for me last time I was there...

There must be a compensation tariff somewhere... No IFE... that will be 4k miles sir. No on stand A/C - another 4k... and so on. Maybe with some variation based on cabin class, flyer status, and overall quality/length of rant.

Perhaps we need a section in the toolbox so that people know the minimum levels they should be settling for

On a serious note, you have to wonder to what extent this culture of lobbing miles at people devalues their overall value and leads to increases in redemption cost over time (although the rampant fuel surcharge aspect probably covers that). It's a bit like quantitative easing really...

Miles value are on a downward spiral anyway as VS and others to be fair, through the loophole that is surcharge, just look at recent quotes for the MAN-LHR fares £0 plus "surcharges".
Seeing more and more being dished out as compo is an easy option. Hard cash is much less likely to appear..

There was something on the main news a couple of days ago about companies (not just airlines, but they were especially mentioned) should be much more transparent with regards to the total costs and not "hide" surcharges until the end of a transaction.