V-Flyer

All very odd, logged on to my FC account to check that the correct mileage had been applied following my Z fare flight LAS-LGW a week ago. 7,833 miles showed instead of the 11,749 I was expecting. Double checked on VS miles earning web page and saw that 7833 is the mileage had the flight been PE. Oddly though the correct Tier Points (5) had been awarded alongside the 7833 miles.

Phoned VS and got connected to Swansea. Put on hold for 20 minutes while they try to get through to 'support'. Guy says he has sent an email to his colleagues in support and all should be sorted in 1 - 2 weeks.

Phoned again and this time struck it lucky being connected to Crawley and 2 mins later problem sorted with an apology. I now have an entry stating "Virgin Atlantic, GB Customer Relations Bonus" for 3,916 miles which exactly makes up the shortfall.

No idea why Swansea couldn't sort the problem and at a loss as to what's happening with VS's IT systems for it to incorrectly allocate PE mileage against an UC flight? This was not an upgrade but a straight Z.

Anyway all sorted now y)

Someone initially pushed the wrong button I guess, and maybe only certain people in the FC team in Crawley have authorisation to manually override the system to correct errors.

To me it would make sense to restrict the number of staff with the power to award miles to FC accounts, to reduce the risk of bad apples abusing the system.

You'd assume it was all automated but I have a suspicion a lot more FC stuff is done manually than we think.

Glad it's all sorted though.

Would have been worth asking for an extra 5000 for your troubles?

Shows you that it pays to be proactive. How many "customers" miss out by not checking?

hazban wrote:Shows you that it pays to be proactive. How many "customers" miss out by not checking?

As you should with bank & credit card statements, utility bills etc etc. But millions don't and therefore don't spot the mistakes that inevitably do happen.

James

Yet another example of how the Call Centre at Swansea is taking its eye of the ball if you ask me v(

I had cause to call the Au Line last week and it took ages to be answered and I was told then that the call should have been prioritised - obviously you can no longer count on getting Crawley

buns

gumshoe wrote: maybe only certain people in the FC team in Crawley have authorisation to manually override the system to correct errors.

I think that's right. I had a problem with the wrong miles/TPs being awarded last year (I think) and it took several calls to sort it out -- I was fobbed off several times and in the end was told a supervisor had to authorise the transactions that sorted it all out.

I think I posted a thread about it... those endless holds...

Thanks very much for alerting us to this. I too flew on a Z from Man to Las on the 29th August - returning on the 5th Sept. I checked my account and have found the same thing has happened to me - 7611 miles instead of the 11,419 due! :0
I chase this up. Thanks again.

buns wrote:Yet another example of how the Call Centre at Swansea is taking its eye of the ball if you ask me

Or maybe simply a case of Swansea not having sufficient authorisation, because only certain people at the FC team in Crawley are allowed to rectify account errors.

It's very easy for us to question VS's operational procedures but presumably they're there for a reason, including to protect customers from fraud. In an ideal world mistakes wouldn't happen but of course they do in any walk of life, and it's right and proper that there should be established procedures in place to correct them.

I'm not sure I'd want the Saturday boy at the bank to have carte blanche to take all the money out of my account, for example.

Thanks for this....just checked my account and only have PE miles for a Z flight to Chicago at the beginning of August and no miles for the return journey. I'll be on the phone to VS in the morning

Virgin could learn a thing or two from Hilton and their Diamond line. I had the wrong number of points credited for stay, not only did they fix it instantly but as a matter of course added 2,500 points for me having to call them. Great stuff really.