Appalling service from Virgin Atlantic

What's strange in this case is the fact that "Free of Charge" letters or select vouchers are almost always handed to the passengers at the airport, so why this supposedly took 5 months I'm unsure...

As with all "free" tickets, and all tickets in general they are subject to availability and unfortunately trying to book a flight in June is almost never going to happen as it is one of the busiest times of the year no matter how many months in advance you book.

Was the OP flexible with the dates of travel I wonder?

[Scrooge]

Just a gentle reminder, the internet is a wonderful place,however, it is very easy to misunderstand what people type, what can be meant as an innocent statement can come across in the totally opposite way, so please, until you get to know a members writing style, please try and take statements they make at face value.

[Scrooge]

What's strange in this case is the fact that "Free of Charge" letters or select vouchers are almost always handed to the passengers at the airport, so why this supposedly took 5 months I'm unsure...

As with all "free" tickets, and all tickets in general they are subject to availability and unfortunately trying to book a flight in June is almost never going to happen as it is one of the busiest times of the year no matter how many months in advance you book.

Was the OP flexible with the dates of travel I wonder?

Here is an interesting thought, US airlines do not offer free flights as compensation for down grades, being bumped etc, they offer future flight credits, which are good on any flights, any dates,why is this ?

Is it because most states have a verbal contract law, which literally means if say a gate agent or station manager said as compensation for whatever you get a free flight then the passenger is unable to redeem them because of T&C's the airline would find itself dragged into court by the passenger seeking a breach of contract judgment against the airline, which they would win by the way, just wondering

Just a gentle reminder, the internet is a wonderful place,however, it is very easy to misunderstand what people type, what can be meant as an innocent statement can come across in the totally opposite way, so please, until you get to know a members writing style, please try and take statements they make at face value.

oo) oo) Well said Sir ! y)

Here is an interesting thought, US airlines do not offer free flights as compensation for down grades, being bumped etc, they offer future flight credits, which are good on any flights, any dates,why is this ?

Is it because most states have a verbal contract law, which literally means if say a gate agent or station manager said as compensation for whatever you get a free flight then the passenger is unable to redeem them because of T&C's the airline would find itself dragged into court by the passenger seeking a breach of contract judgment against the airline, which they would win by the way, just wondering

This may go to the heart of the issue.

I have often seen a full flight at MCO where staff are offering a 'free' flight to passengers to be bumped. I have often asked about this myself as I always want to extend my holiday.

However, if the passengers who accepted it realised that the small print, when they finally get it stipulated that you have to be 6 foot tall, 3 stone, and have 7 arms to qualify, then there may not be so many people willing to do it.

I know I exaggerate, but the point is, if someone tells me I can have a free flight I expect a free flight - I don't expect it if the flight is full as that would be absurd, but most passengers are not aviation geeks like us and have no concept of different fare classes. To me, a free flight is a free flight - as long as there is a seat available. It should not matter whether it is a Y,B, L or X, or even J,D, R, or Z, as long as it is in the appropriate cabin (J / D maybe different as you get the CDC, butthat would be splitting hairs).

Here is an interesting thought, US airlines do not offer free flights as compensation for down grades, being bumped etc, they offer future flight credits, which are good on any flights, any dates,why is this ?

Is it because most states have a verbal contract law, which literally means if say a gate agent or station manager said as compensation for whatever you get a free flight then the passenger is unable to redeem them because of T&C's the airline would find itself dragged into court by the passenger seeking a breach of contract judgment against the airline, which they would win by the way, just wondering

This may go to the heart of the issue.

I have often seen a full flight at MCO where staff are offering a 'free' flight to passengers to be bumped. I have often asked about this myself as I always want to extend my holiday.

However, if the passengers who accepted it realised that the small print, when they finally get it stipulated that you have to be 6 foot tall, 3 stone, and have 7 arms to qualify, then there may not be so many people willing to do it.

I know I exaggerate, but the point is, if someone tells me I can have a free flight I expect a free flight - I don't expect it if the flight is full as that would be absurd, but most passengers are not aviation geeks like us and have no concept of different fare classes. To me, a free flight is a free flight - as long as there is a seat available. It should not matter whether it is a Y,B, L or X, or even J,D, R, or Z, as long as it is in the appropriate cabin (J / D maybe different as you get the CDC, butthat would be splitting hairs).

Sorry but I disagree - the same could be said about Reward Seats.

Free seats have to be regulated on each flight otherwise an airline would find itself in a position where they couldn't actually afford to make the plane fly.

This may go to the heart of the issue.

I have often seen a full flight at MCO where staff are offering a 'free' flight to passengers to be bumped. I have often asked about this myself as I always want to extend my holiday.

However, if the passengers who accepted it realised that the small print, when they finally get it stipulated that you have to be 6 foot tall, 3 stone, and have 7 arms to qualify, then there may not be so many people willing to do it.

I know I exaggerate, but the point is, if someone tells me I can have a free flight I expect a free flight - I don't expect it if the flight is full as that would be absurd, but most passengers are not aviation geeks like us and have no concept of different fare classes. To me, a free flight is a free flight - as long as there is a seat available. It should not matter whether it is a Y,B, L or X, or even J,D, R, or Z, as long as it is in the appropriate cabin (J / D maybe different as you get the CDC, butthat would be splitting hairs).

Well said spiceke i guess thats the way most would look at it too having been handed one of these, so long as a seat exists one would assume it meant free flight no more no less y)

cheers

alex

I agree with spiceke and alex here. I've also been on the end of an offer and the offer was as near as dammit "we'll give you a voucher that will let you travel anywhere in the world execpt Sydney free of charge". Now, travel savvy people will question it further, non-savvy people will simply accept. Just because the T&Cs say something it doesn't make that statement reasonable.
These vouchers are usually given out in circumstances where you are doing VS a favour, therefore my mindset would default that VS are doing me a favour too.
The easist way out of this is to have a leaflet "read this and sign it before you accept the voucher", then there would be no doubt and no-one would be left hard done by.
If such a process does exist then the OP has no come back (over the availability) in my opinion. I simply refused the voucher so I don't know what would've happened.

StillRedHot,

I must admit, I have seen Reward Seats as slightly different.

Reward Seats are based on the passenger collecting miles through flights / cc's etc and therefore getting something for loyalty and making a conscious decision to do so.

A 'free' flight would normally be as some form of comp. If they were the same then would VS not just give out the appropriate number of miles as comp?

Again, I think people who know about the different fare classes will have views on this (ours slightly differ), but joe public on their annual holiday will see their backside on an Y/W/J seat and as far as they are concerned they are all the same.

If, at the out-set it was made clear to the recipients there are restrictions that is a different story. But I know, as I have seen it, that these are offered as 'free flights' and no mention of any restrictions.

BA had the best deal a few years ago - they were full at MCO, so we were offered Club seats the following day, accommodation in the MCO hotel with food, PLUS $400 per person (this was about 12 years ago). I didn't realise that this inclued the kids as well. I walked out of LGW with $1,600 which was more than the initial flights cost and I came back Club - Happy Days. No mucking about as to can / can't we take this flight. All done and dusted by the time I came out of the airport when I got home.

[Neil]

I disagree on this.

I cannot think of any occasion when you are given something 'free' that doesn't come with any terms and conditions attached to it. I also don't think the T&C's attached to the VS voucher are that restrictive, with most flights having O class availability on them providing you book in advance.

Of course we don't know the full ins and outs of the OP's situation, but it is a good level of compensation and something that is common practice in the aviation industry when airlines have to bump pax. I would put a lot of money on all airlines having similar T&C's to their offers.

Neil

Neil,

I think we are on the same wavelength, but approaching it slightly differently.

I am sure that most have the same restrictions etc.

I think I am asking for these to be overt and fully explained up front.

The Financial Services industry was demonised a few years back by having small print in loan agreements etc that people signed and didn't realise.

How many people get caught with Insurance Policies that don't pay out for the smallest excuse? They have T&C, but can still be deemed an unfair contract if it was not overt or against the spirit of teh agreement.

Hope that clarifies.

[Neil]

I understand what you are saying, but in the examples you mention, people were buying/paying for something without being told about the T&C's, that is wrong.

I can only talk from my one experience of a cancelled flight with VS, and the letter we were given was quite specific to our compensation, without going in to every T&C, which I think is fair.

For me, the biggest issue the OP has, is that they didn't receive the voucher early enough, which was the fault of VS and maybe they have slightly unrealistic expectations and should have more options.

Hi Everyone,

this was very interesting and once again thank you all for your comments. I don’t work in the travel industry so I might appear naive on my approach but this is basically the way I see it –

Virgin / the canceled flight, caused a major inconvenience to the passengers so they have offered a free flight to each of us to “compensate” us for this inconvenience.

The above information was stated on a simple letter attached to a simple information board at the hotel. At the time, in all passengers’ minds, it was a free flight to any destinations except for Australia and I can confirm that we all understood the same thing – a free flight, no more, no less. There were no questions of restrictions / T&C’s etc…

On this same letter attached to the information board, it was stated that all passengers would be handed out a copy of this same letter on disembarking the plane in London and this letter would allow them to claim for their free flight. As this did not happen, a few passengers asked the hostesses about it and they got told that we would need to write in to get this letter.


Which is what I did. As you now know, it took me 5 months to get this letter (still with no full T&C’s attached). Only when I called and got hold of this charming Customer Service agent, I have been told about these restrictions – to take advantage of my complementary seat in June 2011, I should have called a lot before. Furthermore, these complementary flights are not available on all routings etc etc…

As I only happen to go on holiday once a year (the next time being June 2011 and I am going to Melbourne in 2012), I will not be able to use this voucher and if I had to summarise, I would say that I wish that –
• Virgin had not taken 5 months to get back to me (once again, things would maybe be different?)
• Virgin had told me / provided me with these T&C’s from the outset. Maybe I would not even have bothered wasting 5 months chasing them for nothing.
• The “Customer Service” agent had treated me with more respect.

On a side note, I have prepared a letter (which should be sent tomorrow) and I will see how it goes!

Thank you all for your support

Cheers

Hi Maryline, Welcome to V-flyer!

Perhaps you might inquire if you could use the free flight on the LHR-HKG routing for your trip next year and then just purchase the HKG-SYD leg?

In 1999,we were bumped off an MCO flight, flown Continental Business First via Newark and given a voucher(well four vouchers since there were four of us!) for anywhere in the world (this was before Sydney flights started)valid 18 months. There were no restrictions.

We booked a VH holiday to St Lucia the following year and just handed them the vouchers for the flight component. Obviously times have changed.