Lady Freedom

Had the opportunity to fly on Lady Freedom (less than a week old Dreamliner) yesterday and my gosh what a state - a handful of the upper class seats would not recline or flip over into a bed - the crew tried to use the manual method using a large tool which then snapped in the mechanism totally disabling one of the broken seats - obviously many frustrated passengers on a long flight - the crew however - despite adversity did an absolutely incredible job of smiling throughout. Thankfully my seat was working but was covered in paint marks, the WiFi was totally non functional and interesting the crew on this return flight mentioned they had flown the same plane a couple of days earlier and reported the same issues which means it had at least one return through Heathrow and non of the issues were fixed - despite this plane having only done 4 revenue flights. I’m aware teething problems can happen but seems strange that it wasn’t addressed at Heathrow. My partner was left with a broken seat and was asked to sit at the bar for 4 hours whilst more elderly passengers could take his seat and rest - which he was happy to do but what kind of compensation can we / should we expect - I do have an economy flight coming up - to have the chance to experience upper class properly this time would Virgin consider an upgrade or are they likely to just provide miles ?

Crew on this flight were genuinely outstanding - led by an incredibly proactive FSM.

I think it will be a case of miles in terms of compensation. However I'd be surprised if that was as much as an Economy to Upper reward.

It is shocking that the aircraft could arrive in such a state. I find it hard to believe all of that could have made it through handover, but definitely contact customer service nonetheless.

I agree - I think the crew were equally shocked and embarrassed - especially as they had reported all the issues the previous day!

Actually I would press for either an upgrade on your next flight or enough miles for an upgrade. The OPs partner lost the significant benefit of being in UC - the comfy seat and the lay flat bed. They also lost the use of the IFE for the period they were at the bar. Those seats are OK for a quick drink but not for sitting on for 4 hours.

If VS aren't feeling generous then there is the arbitration service you can appeal to and if that dosen't work then MCOL for a Consumer Rights Act Claim. You could also call your credit card company and seek their advice on what they can offer - a charge back for example usually gets companies to play ball

Always a tricky one legally as VS fulfilled its obligation of getting you from A to B on time and in the cabin you paid for.

Having said that I’d be very surprised if VS doesn’t make a goodwill gesture under the circumstances. Twitter’s often a good way of getting a response initially.

When I had an in-operable UC seat (would not flip to bed mode due to a faulty microswitch telling it the table was deployed, when it was not) the FSM took my FC details and awarded me 20k miles there and then as it was an overnight flight (well she did the flight paperwork - took Customer Service about 2 weeks to process it!)

As I had been nice about the seat being faulty & not kicked-off (it's not the crews fault after all) she also gave me 2 bottles of Prosecco from the PE service cart before landing as a thank-you.

Agreed it’s always nice to be nice - it certainly wasn’t the crews fault and they were absolutely incredible in the face of quite a lot of frustrated passengers causing minor chaos in the aisles delaying the food/drink service. They did give us a few little treats to take off the plane - I think they were grateful we hadn’t kicked off - which of course I never would.

Happy to update back when I hear from Customer Service team ....

In fact, thinking about it, the 20k FC miles for an in-op UC seat at the time (was back in 2016) was enough for a one-way upgrade from PE to Upper. ISTR that before the miles amounts needed changed to the new system, it was 30k or 35k miles one-way for a PE ticket & 50k one-way for Upper (both to/from US East coast). These figures are for pure mileage redemption though - no idea what you needed for a cash + miles upgrade fare but I'm guessing the 20k miles was close.

Of course, the argument is that as the OP should not have had to put up with this on a new aircraft that only had a handful of revenue flights on it's clock. I had to re-read the OP's post to notice that this was a new Dreamliner - I had wrongly assumed when skim-reading that it was one of the old Air Berlin A332's.

I remember that "Up in the Air" programme about BA & they showed the BA staff going over the interior of a new A380 (particularly in Club World & First Class) before it entered service with a near magnifying glass looking for the tiniest defect. Does make you wonder how hard Virgin looked for defects if Upper Class seats are failing after only a few flights.

I remember that "Up in the Air" programme about BA & they showed the BA staff going over the interior of a new A380 (particularly in Club World & First Class) before it entered service with a near magnifying glass looking for the tiniest defect. Does make you wonder how hard Virgin looked for defects if Upper Class seats are failing after only a few flights.

Exactly!

I think its possible some of the damage has happened post delivery. But things like paint etc surely couldn't have passed handover beyond a quick walkthrough. But based on the shortage of 789's its possible someone got overruled and it was accepted anyway. Who knows!

Actually I would press for either an upgrade on your next flight or enough miles for an upgrade. The OPs partner lost the significant benefit of being in UC - the comfy seat and the lay flat bed. They also lost the use of the IFE for the period they were at the bar. Those seats are OK for a quick drink but not for sitting on for 4 hours.

If VS aren't feeling generous then there is the arbitration service you can appeal to and if that dosen't work then MCOL for a Consumer Rights Act Claim. You could also call your credit card company and seek their advice on what they can offer - a charge back for example usually gets companies to play ball

I'm with tontybear on this; you might have been transported from A to B, but you didn't get what you had paid a considerable premium for.

4 hours sitting at a cramped little bar does not equate to four hours asleep under a duvet, on a lay-flat bed.

What was the plan for turbulence; hold on to the edge of the bar?

Seems like she has just been doing New Delhi and back since she was delivered. I shall be boarding her shortly for the 301 in to London, fingers crossed the issues have been resolved now!

Hi

I had a similar broken seat experience on the HKG run in Upper

I was offered miles or £400 in Virgin vouchers. Use of vouchers is subject to restrictions, but they were useful for me.

Quick update on Lady Freedom; I flew to London on the 301 on Wednesday and she certainly did look shiny and new! Certainly didn’t see any paint marks on seats, did not notice anybody having seat operation problems (but being a day flight might be less likely to cause a problem) - the only issue was that the WiFi did not work throughout the flight.

Is the WiFi problem a regular occurrence by the way?

No. In the last 18 months I’ve had an issue twice only.

[mitchja]

I’ve never had any issues with WiFi on any VS aircraft (used it on the 789’s, A333’s and the A346’s). It’s worked well every time for me.