V-Flyer

I PROMISE this'll be shorter that the essay of the o/b

After a great holiday in Florida it was time for us to complete OLCI - or not.

I knew that having failed to secure SEQ1 on the outbound, (even though I was determined to beat Suzanneme to it) due to 2 booking refs & a change of seats for 'Miss Understandin' & 'Miss Behavin', (see outbound TR for story), I didn't stand a chance on the inbound so didn't even try.

About half an hour after OLCI opened, & having reserved 79H & K in the bubble last June, & after a glass of wine, I used the hotel's computer to do the deed. The computer sez 'no'. Bum

The screen came up with 'we are unable to check you in online at this time so please check in at the aiport as usual'.

I left it a while & then tried again. Same message so had a glass of wine.

Tried a while later & the same message came up, so had another glash of whine

I decided it was me by this time from all the wine so left it 'til the morning.

After brekkie, I tried again, same message. Now by this time I got to thinking , (after some alka seltzers), that things really weren't looking too good. We didn't want to be bumped & we knew the flight would be full as it was the end of the UK half term school hols.

I made an executive decision to 'phone the USA Virgin helpline number on my cell to check that the flight was going, & we that were on it. I spoke to a really pleasant chap who said perhaps there'd been a gremlin as it was all ok his end, & to try again. Ok, I admit, I fell for it.

I traipsed down the corridor to the lifts, down 19 floors, across the huge reception area, down a long corridor to the computers & tried again. 'The computer sez no'. Oh, tit bum fart willy.

I retraced my steps, collasped exhausted onto the chaise lounge (impressed eh?) & rang Virgin again. I spoke to a different guy who was helpful to the point of actual usefulness. He said that our seats had been changed

Now, in a millisecond I thought that perhaps we'd been upgraded . Silly sausage, no. The Virgin chappie said that we'd been moved to 75A & C, the exit row, & that staff at check in needed to actually see us to be sure that, in an emergency , we'd be able to open the exit row door. Phew!! I breathed again.

Reassured, we relaxed & a smirk crossed my face Hmmm, exit row at no extra cost

We dropped the car off & headed for check in. We'd left PLENTY of time as we were on the later flight, & thought that check in would be heaving with latecomers for the early & loads of pax for this flight. How wrong was I? Only one couple in front of us. The check in agent confirmed we'd be in 75A & C & wished us a safe flight

With our cases gone, we headed for the V-Flyer CH (albeit unofficial ) which we'd learnt about a few years ago from Buns Excellent meal & drinkies & then retired for a while to the comfy chairs in the lounge area to watch the world go by (or in 'love-him-as-I-do-but's'... case, the tv. A trip to the incredibly clean & nice loos & then off to the scrum of security.

It took us about 20mins to clear that & take the train before we were spat out the other end.

We sauntered down to the gate area & found a couple of seats & I read my book & shut the world out. When boarding was called, the various priority categories were called & we headed to the short queue.

As usual, there were lots of pax trying to board who hadn't been called. What is the rush? Everyone all gets on board eventually.

Now, those of you who laboured thru my outbound TR will instantly recall that it was a great flight, apart from the gobby family in 6A & K, & 7A & K. They obviously lived together, why did they have to shout to each other for 9 hours?

Anyway, I had erased then from my memory completely until............, yes, you're one step ahead of me, 'love-him-as-I-do-but....' & I heard them

We looked at each other as the son was saying in a loud voice about dad being Gold blah blah blah. As we went down the corridor, I said that at least they'd be in UC so away from us. Time to relax again.

We sorted ourselves out once on board & I'd wiped the absolutely disgusting table. I took photos before I cleaned it (note, antiseptic wipes in hand luggage for those of you wondering what I had in mine). I've emailed Virgin regarding this matter & will report back when an apology & explanation has been received, that'll be about christmas time then.

We settled ourselves & then...... heard the voices. The family were travelling back in PE!!! The CCM gave us our sparkling wine & I downed mine in one gulp.

Relaaax.

Flight took off, I ate, can't remenber what but it was fine to pick at as I wasn't hungry having eaten in the unofficial V-Flyer lounge. I had a couple of drinks. I had 2 pairs of socks on but my feet were still cold, so I asked for another pair of socks &/or another blanket, as it was draughty by the exit row. The CCM said there wasn't any to spare as it was a full flight. Fair enough. Later, I got up to get an item from my case that had been stored in the wardrobe area that's at the rear of the bubble, & I saw a stack of spare complimentary amenity kits

Would it have bankrupted Virgin to give me another pair of socks since I had specifically asked & very politely too? Was it a big deal? No? I just felt that my comfort didn't matter to this particular CCM.

The family fell asleep for hours.

I dozed for a short while but then got jumpy/twitchy leg syndrome (female V-Flyers will know what I'm talking about), so watched a film or 2. The flight was smooth, unlike Sunsational's a day or 2 earlier & Suzanneme's a day later

Breakfast was served but, no thanks, I just had some water & a banana.

The flight had taken off late but landed a few minutes early & went straight to stand & the doors were quickly opened to spew us all out.

Legged it thru to IRIS,(it's a brilliant scheme & so few pax use it that it's a dream ) Whipped thru to get the bags which came off very quickly & headed to the courtesy bus for long stay plus, another brilliant idea only 2 mins from the terminal.

Home an hour & a half after exiting the aircraft.


I hope none of you have fallen asleep trawling thru this & now have your head resting on the keyboard & are dribbling into it.

R-P

Brilliant xx and now I am off to change the clocks.

Hmmm, exit row at no extra cost

Do you have to pay for exit row seats in PE?

Another great TR, thanks for posting!

Luke

HWVlover wrote:

PS Do you have to pay for exit row seats in PE?

No (although there have been a few reports of late about people being charged).
Thanks for the TR R-Popsy .
DL

Great TR, personally I think expecting a response from Customer Service by Christmas is a bit optimistic!

Roxy-Popsy wrote:
We looked at each other as the son was saying in a loud voice about dad being Gold blah blah blah. As we went down the corridor, I said that at least they'd be in UC so away from us.

A DYKWIA in training?

Poor show from the CSM

tontybear wrote:

Roxy-Popsy wrote:
We looked at each other as the son was saying in a loud voice about dad being Gold blah blah blah. As we went down the corridor, I said that at least they'd be in UC so away from us.

A DYKWIA in training?

Probably tutored by dad...after all, it's so Non U to mention it yourself...

Thanks for the TR. The appearance of "The Family" in PE would be a "nooooooo...." moment for me.

I wrote a very strong letter of complaint after our miserable experience to MBJ in Feb. It ended " I will never fly Virgin again".

Guess what...10 000 miles each....DOH!!!!

Virgin is a very shabby loco: what is worse is that they promise the world but deliver a small town in the Scottish Highlands abandoned after the Jacobean uprising.

Great T-R, R-P! Nice to hear of your homebound saga too, though I am deeply jealous of the smoothness of your flight (if not the filth of your table!). Funnily enough we had one truly obnoxious family in PE with us going out, and then we were with them again on the flight back....there was something in the water!

'We sorted ourselves out once on board & I'd wiped the absolutely disgusting table. I took photos before I cleaned it (note, antiseptic wipes in hand luggage for those of you wondering what I had in mine). I've emailed Virgin regarding this matter & will report back when an apology & explanation has been received, that'll be about christmas time then'

Well, blow me down!

I tried to attach 3 photos to my email of complaint but it was returned.

So, , I rang Virgin & asked for Customer Services. The VERY pleasant lady I spoke to, to enquire as to how to send the attachments, asked me to explain why I wanted to send photos.

When I explained, she was most sympathetic & said that as a token gesture of goodwill, she would deposit 4,000 miles each in our a/cs, & hoped that we would fly Virgin again in the near future & that our experiences would all be postive.

I checked 3 hours later & there were the said miles

The agent had given me her email address to email the photos to her so that she could pass them on to cleaning services. This I did when I put the 'phone down.

I received a reply from her the next day acknowledging the photos & saying that she was pleased her lunch had had time to go down.

The result of all this is:

We would rather have had the small table between us clean in the first place.

The friendly, yet professional customer services agent was a pleasure to chat to, even though I was making a complaint.

The token gesture of miles was appreciated.

The fact they were in our a/c so quickly was excellent.

To receive a personal yet professional & at the same time humourous email from the agent the next day, was a postive end to this matter.

R-P