Poor Service from Gatwick

I know this is all a knock on from the snow but what a way to run an airline

The wife, kids and grandparents are due on VS15 today (Sunday)

Went to Twilight check in yesterday at midday, as we are flying with 3 kids one of which is an infant and 3 adults in PE it was chaos, only about 4 normal check in desks were open dealing with a huge back log -Twilight check in finally opened around 1.30pm then we find they had put two adults upstairs and 1 adult with kids 6, 3 and 1 downstairs figure that one out.

Eventually that was sorted but they are all seated downstairs

Woke up this morning to check the flight 3 hours 50 min delay finally got through to someone in India get to the airport on time I was advised, I replied I can see all the incoming flights are delayed, that cannot be the best advice, a second call again to India said get to the airport two hours before the new departure time

Its going to be a long day looking at all the delays see below

I fly out on the 24th lets hope its sorted by then

I am sorry to hear that Mark but according to Sky there is all sort of air chaos today due to the weather etc.

Hope it works out for you and you have a lvoely flight and vacation.

[mitchja]

It's far easier and makes much more sense to get the pax to the airport on time even when delays are expected. That way, the airline knows where everyone is and can get them boarded as soon as the incoming A/C is ready for departure.

How would you feel if you where sat on an A/C waiting for pax to turn up that hadn't even arrived at the airport yet because they had been told to stay at home?

All airlines are in the same boat and there's nothing much you can do about it I'm afraid.

It's not just LGW either as according to Sky News, Manchester airport is temporarily closed due to the weather whilst they clear the one operational runway.

LHR is also suffering both arrivals and departure delays today.

Airlines don't yet have the ability to control the weather.

Regards

[Neil]

Agree with James, it is really the only sensible advice VS can give. Things might change, they might decide to swap a/c around and get flights our quicker than expected, but they can only do this if all the pax are at the airport.

Sorry this may sound picky but are you complaining about VS or the Airport?

Looks like your problem is with VS rather than (the under new management) Gatwick.

There is a difference between the two organisations. I really do get fed up when people complain about the wrong organisation.

OK so its frustrating but there really is nothing you can do. I agree that the advice to get to the airport as normal is sensible. You never know what might happen and an earlier departure may be possible in which case its better to have people on hand.

THere are all sorts of delays to flights to / from the US due to the weather over there at the moment so ots not just over here thats affected.

VS staff can only give the information they are told and that can change constantantly.

Mind it dosent help that the latest info on the VS website relates to Friday !

quote:Originally posted by mitchja

Airlines don't yet have the ability to control the weather.


And thank god for it -- imagine, cutting clouds and sunlight to save on expenses...

GJ

[honey lamb]

I have to agree with the others and think your comment 'What a way to run an airline' is misinformed and uncalled for. I think that whichever airline you had chosen to fly with would have given the same advice to get to the airport. In this weather conditions change by the minute and what might have looked like a three hour delay can suddenly change when a slot becomes available or the weather unexpectedly lifts.

The flight finally took off at 5.30pm 4 hours 30 minutes late there was NEVER any chance of it being brought forward as all the incoming flights were severely delayed, as is the case today.

For comparisons -According to Flight Stats
The BA flight to Orlando was only 45 min late
The BA flight to Tampa landed on time
VS 27 was 217 minutes late
VS 15 was 263 minutes late

The web site today Monday is still stating Currently there are no flight disruptions due to the heavy snow in the South and South East, so what are the delays down to ?

My frustrations are this

Lack of accurate information on the Virgin Website
The ability to talk to a human not a voice recording, and the amount of telephone numbers that are no longer in use but being given out on the automated system.
Initially trying to split the family upstairs / downstairs, and even the Virgin Supervisor stating that pre arranging your seat was just a gimmick.
Why they didnt they open more check in desks on Saturday (as opposed to the 6 open) to clear the back log thus allowing Twilight Check in to open.

[n]Guys dont defend the indefensible Virgin should learn from these issues time and time again, delays to the Gatwick routes take an age to clear I suppose next your being saying I was lucky not to be travelling on Eurostar.

[Scrooge]

I'm not going to defend VS here, but I do need to point out a couple of things.

As you well know the weather has pretty much wrecked every airline schedule for the past couple of days, nothing VS, BA or any airline can do about it. BA I have a feeling have moved an aircraft in from LHR to run the Tampa route allowing a bit more flexibility to recover.

As the majority here said when it happened, VGOA should of been kept around if only to help with these types of situations, but it wasn't and now VS and their pax are paying the price.

The VS website is pretty much a joke, there is no reason why it shouldn't be stating the facts, if there is a delay it should be accurate, but rarely is.

After sitting on hold for 52 minutes the other day I am not impressed with the VS phone service either.

I have no idea why you were split up, there is no reason for it, I will leave it for others more knowledgeable in this area to reply.

The reason for not opening more desks, chances are it was because there were no more staff there to open them, just my guess.

BA have a more flexible schedule as their flights leave throughout the day so easier to move aircraft around and get things back on track. I know several BA crew and many of them had very long delays similar to Virgins, and indeed many of their flights were cancelled. All our LGW flights leave close together in the morning. As we know from experience if bad weather causes diversions and delays, it takes up to a week for the schedule to catch up as the outstations try to turn the a/c round as quickly as possibe to claw back a few minutes.
As for check in desks, we have also been using desks in Zone C for checking in certain flights, so there are more desks open in another part of the airport.
I have friends who are groundstaff and really feel for them this week as they are having a nightmare trying to deal with all the chaos, which as others have pointed out in unavoidable when the runway is shut for six hours, and planes get sent elsewhere.
I know its frustrating bearing the brunt of a delay but a little bit of snow does tend to make the UK grind to a halt.

quote:Originally posted by markyl
Guys dont defend the indefensible Virgin should learn from these issues time and time again, delays to the Gatwick routes take an age to clear I suppose next your being saying I was lucky not to be travelling on Eurostar.[/font=Tahoma][/size=3]


You're right, VS could do better in these circumstances. Poor communication, inadequately managed seat requests, continually poor service from the phone lines, these things are under VS's control and it's sometimes not up to the mark.

Snow, delays, ground handling, etc. - these are not under VS's direct control, so you're seeing the effect of this. I think what people take umbrage is the comment 'no way to run an airline' for these things that no airline can control. And, as others have said, some airlines simply are better able to manage because of their size.

Despite all, I hope you and your family enjoy your break in the sun!

quote:Originally posted by markyl
Why they didnt they open more check in desks on Saturday (as opposed to the 6 open) to clear the back log thus allowing Twilight Check in to open.




I am not an apologist for VS but have worked in a customer service environment so can appreciate the pressure they are under.

Perhaps there were no more staff available to open the twilight desks up? I would imagine that some check-in staff were having problems getting to work just the same as pax getting to the airport and someone took the decision to keep up the normal desks open.

And if faced with long queues (you yourself said there was a backlog) for people flying that day then to be honest VS's priority would be in getting those pax out rather than dealing with pax flying the next day. Taking staff off those desks would have simply made the backlog worse and with a possible consequence of delaying flights even more.

Yes they could have explained things better but sometimes the nicities get thrown out of the window.

On the subject of being split up I have some sympathy as we, a family of 5 (including 1 infant) are travelling in PE to IAD in March and it seems unlikely we are going to be allocated seats together.

It is frustrating that families are having to resort to the goodwill of other passengers to allow them to be seated even reasonably close together - a situation that was also evident on recent BA flight where an adult with three children (a little older) had to ask if anyone would be prepared to move so they could be seated together.

FM

In PE to IAD, try and check in around 4 hours before the flight, you should get Row 18, which has the basinet seats in the paired seats and the middle section of Row 18.
It always amazes me when children are not situated with their parents, as in th event of an emergency most parents would want to help their child with a mask, or out of the plane.
I would not take off without my children seated near me.

Mark

It has been known for airlines to hold planes on the ground while the destination airport is closed, to see what happens in the space of a few hours.

When weather impacts services, being delayed by a few hours is much much better than having no plane at all.

Having been left in Denver due to the airport closing for 5 days due to record amounts of snow, I don't complain about weather related delays, I had to drive 600 miles to escape and find an open airport.

I hope your flight goes smoothly and you have a great time.

Mark

I too suffered the 'split the family up' problem. Apparently the 'computer' doesnt understand a 5 year old and 8 year old shouldnt be seated on their own at the opposite ends of the plane from their parents. (unless the parents specifically requested this )

Fair enough I thought, the computer doesnt know any better, but the actual issues arose when I made VS aware of the problem the night before we were due to fly. They supposedly made a note on the booking for ground crew to correct in the morning.

When checking in we were told by the check in desk that 'those who answer the customer service phones are useless' and no notes were attached to our booking. They now couldnt do anything and suggested we ask fellow passengers to move!

I then had to speak to a number of other VS staff, until I found one with at least a bit of common sense and they managed to get the ticket desk to issue seats that allowed our 5 and 8 year olds to sit with us.

quote:Originally posted by ukcobra
Having been left in Denver due to the airport closing for 5 days due to record amounts of snow, I don't complain about weather related delays, I had to drive 600 miles to escape and find an open airport.


I think you and I must have been stuck there at the same time, Christmas two years ago? Or was it three? I was astounded at the speed with which they re-opened the airport and cleared the backlog with the road to the airport closed for the best part of 2 days and over 6 feet of snow on the runway. I got home, very grateful, in the early hours of Christmas morning...

But, I have to admit, I do still complain when 2 inches of snow halts large parts of our train network and closes major international airports for hours...

Chris

quote:Originally posted by ukcobra

It always amazes me when children are not situated with their parents, as in th event of an emergency most parents would want to help their child with a mask, or out of the plane.
I would not take off without my children seated near me.


I thought it was CAA rules that a child MUST have at least one adult sat with them.

quote:

I thought it was CAA rules that a child MUST have at least one adult sat with them.


CAA says

quote:children and infants should be seated where they can be adequately supervised by an accompanying adult in the event of turbulence or a decompression in the cabin.

Airlines procedures should take into account the following factors:

Children, accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. In wide-bodied aircraft, children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults

Oh dear, well at least you were not travelling on Eurostar,

[:p]well someone had to oblige.[:w]

There is a legal requirement for children to be seated near a parent or guardian so even if you got to the aircraft in seperate seats the aircraft cannot deapart until the kids are seated near a parent.

As was mentioned before row 18 is blocked so get to the airpot early and request this row or call Special Assistance and ask them to put a note in your booking so you can maybe get them allocated prior to arriving at the airport.

ALthough they wont gurantee it they will just add notes to your booking.