Am I just unlucky ?

Hi,

I'm new to the forum but have been lurking & reading for a while now. So much useful info here & I leaarn something new everytime I log on !

I have flown on four flights with Virgin so far this year to
Tokyo, Hong Kong & Shanghai on business.
My flight to Tokyo in Jan had to turn back an hour into the flight due to a power failure in the cabin no lights, entertainment or food - after dumping the fuel we landed back at Heathrow and after a quick fix and refuel we were on away again. Next flight to HK no issues thank goodness.
My flight to Shanghai in April it was like deja vu only I the problem was a bit more serious this time - again we were about an hour into the flight and they announced we had to turn back due to a technical fault. Again 45 minutes to dump the fuel then around a 3 hour wait whilst they got a new plane.

So my question is does this happen a lot ? more than the airlines care to admit or am I just very unlucky ?

I've tried mentioning the issues when checking in on my latest flight in the hope of maybe a free upgrade or extra legroom seat but no such luck.

But on a happier note my next trip to HKG takes me to gold status ! so planning on using all the accumulated miles to upgrade to UC to Cancun next May if I can find the reward seats available.

My goodness - I'd say you've had a run of bad luck there, such events are not overly common.

I don't have any stats to back this up, just my own experience of some 300 lifetime flights, of which there have never been a turnback as you describe.

I've bhad a cabin depressurisation, two tech faults prior to landing, 2 tech faults prior takeoff (with less 1 hour delays) and a go around - that's it!

All things being equal, you'll probably never have another such event - but don't tempt fate by thinking that way!

[honey lamb]

As ConcordeRIP said, you've just been unlucky.

welcome to vflyer btw
sounds like you have been unlucky.
@concorde RIP a cabin decompressurising must have bern scary?!

I would say you've been extremely unlucky - just let us know which flight you're going to be on so we can avoid it!
In all seriousness though this kind of thing is very rare, it's just unfortunate that you've experienced it twice.
Up until a few years ago I had never been on a flight which had to perform a go-around - then I had four of them within a year! (only one with VS). Since then - nothing. It's all just pot luck.

Matt

Keep your itineraries page up to date so we all know which flights to avoid.

Dick D

Wow!!!
Go find yourself a four leaf clover, step in do-do or similar.
I agree with the rest, your luck with aircraft is not good.
Just to put that is perspective. I have been flying with VS for about 10 years now, the last 4 years I have been flying about once every 8-10 weeks and I have (fingers crossed here) never had a turn back.

@concorde RIP a cabin decompressurising must have bern scary?!

Honestly, not really - but mainly because I guessed what was happening very quickly.

On route Chicago/Denver with United, at cruising altitude for around 20 minutes when sudden sharp pain in the ears, huge whistling from front left door and drop in cabin temperature plus "rubber jungle" deployed (oxygen masks)..

It was a surprise, certainly, and there was a moment of "will this oxygen mask thing actually work?", but after that, I kind of knew what was happening.

Many of my fellow passengers thought we "were going down" as the plane went into maximum descent rate, speed brakes extended etc which makes the plane vibrate, but I knew that was standard operating procedure and that it had been executed smoothly and quickly which told me the flight deck crew were on top of things.

Took my ears a number of days to get over it mind you.

Landed at pioria for checks, then ferried some place else and rebooked on to AA - and that was an awful flight at the back of a F100 - noisy and uncomfortable.

Scary? No, startled, yes - but fortunately knew what was going on and that its not a real problem as long as no aircraft damage due to bits flying offf and hitting other parts of the plane.

Turned out that it was the door seal that had gone, the door stayed in place (thank goodness, that would have been a different story).

Ive been flying with VS since 2001. Just a once a year flight to MCO, I have never had a problem in flight. The only "experience" was a lighting strike on take off from LGW back in March this year. Captain said that engineering had looked at the data and everything was fine - continued to MCO without any problem.
My parents fly with VS twice a year and they have only had really bad turbulence and the new months films not loaded, so no problems in technical terms....

Must have done over 500 flights in my life, only had 3 issues ever - one an Air Canada doing a VERY last minute go around on ILS approach when it got to visual and found another aircraft still on the runway at Toronto (interesting....)

Other 2 were on ground delays - 17 hrs with Monarch (!)

And the record, well done VS - 55 hr delay. Got on BOS - LHR, with incoming blizzard, all loaded, ready to push back, and 2 folk demand to get off (apparently the aircraft was "rocking too much for them" On the ground.

So they for some reason get let off, bags unloaded, then airport shuts. Off we all troop (I was lead pax on a group of 29 inc our 11 week old son) to find VS staff had disappeared and we had a night in the terminal to look forward to (no luggage either).

Fortunately, BEGGED the airport Hilton for a room, got one, got the wee man tucked up, down to lobby to see if could get any food, and the entire Virgin crew are sitting in the bar, checkin staff inc., laughing it up. Went away before I did something that might have got me arrested!

Back to the airport next day. Check in, no probs, then asked to come to gate - aircraft had gone tech. Part not available until NEXT day.

This time, bus provided for transfer to different hotel, and we even got our luggage back. (Our "Bill for Branson" was running up by now!)

Third time lucky - back to airport, and despite having been told on both previous days that transferring off was not an option, of the original 330 odd pax, only 60 remained (inc our group of 29).

Cue double upgrades from Ec to UC (inc a seat all of his won for my son). Although one of our party decided having the rear Ec cabin all to himself was preferable! (Side note, one of the Boston gate staff was so taken with our son on the second night, that she came in on the third night with a small gift for him, even though she was not on duty that day!)

Massive letter on return home yielded SUBSTANTIAL mileage compensation and out of pocket expenses met (this was just after EU ruling first came in).

Looking back, was not too bad, all got home safe. At the time...grrr....

You sound unlucky and I don't want to share a flight with you!

100+ flights I've never had a go-around, never had bad turbulence, never had a delay for more than 5 hours, never lost a bag. Probably the worst thing that's happened is they once ran out of beer.

I am really asking for trouble on my next trip...

Worst I've experienced was a bird strike on take off from LGW on a Thomson 767 bound for Florida. The whole cabin filled with a horrible electrical burning smell, like melting wires, just like you get when an electrical appliance goes pop at home. It felt like something in the aircraft was burning and passengers were paniking loudly. Thankfully, the smell cleared after a couple of minutes and normality returned. We had to dump fuel (which was quite spectacular in itself) and return to LGW for what was a very heavy landing indeed. Took what seemed like an age to stop, with fire trucks chasing us up the runway and alongside. Thankfully, no major damage was found an we were on our way again after a couple of hours.

Thanks for your inputs I was hoping it was the case of just bad luck. Funny how everyone I work with on the project checks what flight I'm on to avoid it now......
I must admit I think the cabin decompression and the bird strike would have been a lot more worrying . At least the delays meant I didn't have to go straight from airport to the office as I normally have to do which is not good after 12 hours in economy. Two more flights to HKG and then its strictly holiday travel only for me where we will at least fly premium.
Flying on the dreamliner with Thomson for the first time in October so looking forward to that.