Do you want to complain to Virgin?

[pixiepower04]

This post has been edited as I have clearly offended many people, which wasn't my intention.

If you want to complain to Virgin about their services here's how:

http://www.virgin.com/aboutus/complaints/

and this is what they say we can expect from your complaints:

"What you can expect from us:

Acknowledge all written complaints within 7 days
Respond in full to written complaints within 28 days
Respond to phone calls and email within 48 hours
Listen properly to your feedback and use your suggestions to improve our products and services".

I personally find it hard to swallow an extra £440 for fuel and weekend supplements and 22% extra on top of that for flights out of Scotland but it doesn't mean I won't pay them, my holiday with United Vacations cost £4000 without spending money and there were no benefits but I also didn't pay any supplements, at all, but I don't want to go back with them, hell no.

 

[jen_uk]

I have to say Im actually quite happy with Virgin! Yes its a bit annoying that they have decreased their luggage allowance but it is still higher than other airlines. I have flown lots of times with other airlines and been charged fuel supps and weekend supps. I always fly to Florida with Virgin as I think their service is great, the extras like DTD checkin are worth paying a bit extra for. Ive also never found them to be that more expensive! For my holiday this year I priced both Virgin and TCD and there was only about £100 in it!

Good luck tho with your complaint

 

[Red-Snapper]

I think that although some of your comments are valid (particularly with regard to VH) - your arguement might carry more weight with them if you were a regular customer or had indeed actually ever flown with them.

Whilst they have their problems I dont think TCD are in the same league and certainly not when it comes to say laying on seven 747's to fly back all their customers left stranded by hurricane Frances.

Fuel surcharges and weekend supplements are normal practice and not just by Virgin as has been mentioned above.

 

[UKDEB]

I haven't got a problem with Virgin. It's a company in business to make profits for its shareholders. It amazes me that I can actually do a 9000 mile round trip so cheaply given the cost of oil.

I might sometimes have minor niggles (such as the occasional sullen check-in clerk), but on the whole, I get the 'feel good' factor when dealing with Virgin. Maybe we've just been lucky, but we always get our pre-assigned seats, we've received upgrades several times (including from economy to PE a couple of weeks ago, which I didn't ever expect) and Virgin's Flying Club loyalty programme actually delivers real benefits (we managed to secure entirely free flights for two of us, PE, into Washington DC and out of Orlando this time last year, and we've got a free PE 'Companion' flight this October - we were looking at £750 each for economy, but we're now paying around £550 each for PE).

We also seem to have made a habit of getting free bottles of champagne for perceived misdemeanours (on Virgin's part). OK, maybe the employee who tripped me up in the Clubhouse Lounge and sent me sprawling was an actual misdemeanour.

 

[UKDEB]

BTW, Paula-Jane, your diatribe was justifiable until the part when you state, "I haven't even flown on Virgin". I just read it out loud to dh and we had a good laugh. Read it back to yourself and I'm sure you'll see the funny side!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We have always flown with Virgin and always will.
Mainly because with Joshua being Autistic they have always looked after us pretty well, and have always got our requested bulkhead seats, although we now fly PE.

There are up's and downs with all airlines, our only gripe is the inflated summer fly-drive prices as we have to go in the summer holidays.
And now they use more modern aircraft from Manchester we have no problems overall.

 

[Grumpy John]

I am also a big Virgin fan having flown with them for many years - often twice a year.

They have their faults but not at many as a lot of the airlines going to Florida.

They fly every day, twice a day. I can go on a day of my choosing. Twilight checkin and DTD is a big plus for me as well.

Many of the things you list are common place with all airlines not just Virgin.

Maybe you should choose to fly with someone else, maybe one that you have used in the past.

At the end of the day ''you pays your money you make your choice''

 

[pixiepower04]

I knew I shouldn't have put this post on!

Jen UK: If I price my holiday with anyone other than Virgin I can go for between £500 and £800 cheaper! That's alot for 2 adults & 2 children, i'd rather spend it on a good time in Florida than on getting to Florida!

Red-Snapper: My argument is valid whether I have flown with them before or not and even though I am not a holiday cutomer I am a regular customer in other forms. I have also not yet flown with a carrier that charged fuel and weekend supplements and I can't possibly imagine why they need to make those charges, isn't the flight cost enough and regardless of that Virgin charges more for the fuel than any other airline!

UKDEB: You are indeed very lucky and no I don't see the funny side because my diatribe was justified regardless of whether I have flown with them or not. You're also incredibly lucky enough to be able to fly with them and go on holiday so often, I, on the other hand am not.

JohnnySharp2: I know your wife's a teacher and you can only go in school holidays but in Scotland the prices for flying out of Scotland are 22% higher then flying out of England so we're being penalised for being north of the border but there's just as many Scots going on holiday as there are the English.

GrumpyJohn: I am a huge Richard Branson fan and have been for many years, I have loved eveyrthing about him but..... and yes they fly every day twice a day, from ENGLAND!

Now for my turn,

I want to fly with Virgin, always have done but COST always comes in to it for us as a family and in order to have a better holiday we would choose to fly with someone cheaper to enable us to go to that extra show or have that extra special meal etc.

It takes 3 years for us to scrimp and save to go on holiday to Florida, the last time we went it cost us £4000 without spending money and 10 years to save it and we went with the cheapest airline at the time and booked a year in advance!

You guys that go every year or twice a year are I assume financially secure and perhaps the odd £100 here or there is nothing but it's a huge amount to me and many other families that find saving tough enough.

I am a secretary and my husband works for the Ambulance Service and we get paid rubbish compared to our counterparts down South so everything is a struggle and every pound matters so an extra £280 for fuel and an extra £160 really does matter.

I put the post on because of other people's complaints and gripes about Virgin, not mine, yes I have never flown with them but it was because of these said gripes, complaints and extra charges that are seriously putting me off them.

Now, i'd really rather wish i'd never posted this and if someone can tell me how to delete the damn thing i'll be on my way.

I wasn't trying to start world war three, the post was for people who WANTED to complain, perhaps I should do another post titled "Do you want to compliment Virgin"

I'm really peeved that living in Scotland I have to travel to Glasgow the night before my flight to stay in a hotel, get up at stupid o'clock to get a flight down to London, wait for 2 hours to then fly another 8 hours to Florida. Last time we went we went with United Airlines via Washington DC and our travel time was 18 hours, with a 4 year old and a 6 year old that was a nightmare, that didn't include the 2 hours travel to get to Glasgow the night before to stay in a hotel so you can understand how my being peeved at paying an extra 22% for my flights to fly out of Glasgow direct in the summer holidays with Virgin is justified to me, also, he's only doing HALF the school holidays from Glasgow.

Now, can I please go and hide under the duvet and not face the wrath of you Virginites!

 

[jen_uk]

I'm a student so trust me I am not financially secure! I would just rather save a bit longer and pay an extra £100 or so, its worth it when you can prebook your seats for free, check in 24 hrs before, drop your bags off at DTD, have a tv in the seat backs and have a bigger luggage allowance! I understand it probably is different when you are booking for a whole family as I only ever go as a couple but as long as we all get to WDW I don't suppose it really matters who we go with!!

 

[HARRYC]

hi paula ,
i for one think your comments where spot on...
I question what are virgins motives for offering these flights from glasgow airport for next summer.

especially since they are not exactly offering a comprehensive or competative service.

do they really expect that with the limited number of flights on offer they will be competing with either tcd or mytravel or firstchoice who all fly from glasgow to orlando over the summer months and for a fraction of the cost.

this summer we are flying mytravel on a package booked through portland holidays booked a year in advance we are two weeks pop century flying out on july 6 a party of two adults 1 child for under £2000 .

ive just checked price on virgin for next year and same holiday 1 day later is 533 pounds more....

umm who do you think i would be booking with if i was going next year ....

cheers the noo

harry

 

[Boo Boo Too]

BTW, Paula-Jane, your diatribe was justifiable until the part when you state, "I haven't even flown on Virgin". I just read it out loud to dh and we had a good laugh. Read it back to yourself and I'm sure you'll see the funny side!

Yeah, I didn't laugh, but I was along the same wavelength...

Virgin Atlantic is a business, plain and simple. It does offer great value for money (would anoyone here actually choose TCD - or similar charter - in economy class over and above Virgin Atlantic in economy class?).

Costs within the air industry have reason in recent years: cost of fuel has gone up (just like for your car) and some new environmental taxes in recent years.

If a business is over-charging, then "vote with your feet" - which you have. Unfortunately the majority of customers still think Virgin Atlantic is worth it - think that there planes tend to carry very healthy loads of passengers and cargo.

Your original post sounds no different to someone saying "write and complain that Virgin's Upper Class is too expensive. They should reduce the price, so that I can pay for it" or "Why are BMWs so much more than Skodas?". It's all about market forces - different products, different prices...

Boo

 

[Boo Boo Too]

It takes 3 years for us to scrimp and save to go on holiday to Florida, the last time we went it cost us £4000 without spending money and 10 years to save it and we went with the cheapest airline at the time and booked a year in advance!

Is it me or is that a lot of money for a family of four (2 adults and 2 children, I assume?)?

Boo

 

[wilma-bride]

Paula-Jane, there was always the chance when you posted this that you would get people respond who were more than happy with their experience with Virgin. I agree that, whether or not you've flown with Virgin shouldn't make a difference but, believe me, when it comes to how they deal with your complaint it will. Virgin are not going to mind that they may have lost out on 1 customer because they are a bit more expensive.

This October we are going on our 3rd trip to Orlando (not because we are 'rich' or even well-off but because we choose to save every spare penny we have towards our holiday each year). For the first time, we haven't booked with Virgin. The reason - because we got a quote from Airtours which appeared to be significantly cheaper. As it turns out, by the time we've paid for the extras which come as standard with Virgin (transfers to hotel, increased baggage allowance, Premiair Gold seating for extra legroom and free drinks) there is not a lot of difference between the price we paid and the price with Virgin (and, as it would have been our 3rd trip with Virgin, we would have got a 10% discount plus I would have got FF miles). So, what originally appears to be a saving, in fact probably isn't.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go at you or even suggesting that you shouldn't go ahead and complain - as I said, you do have some valid points, like the prices of the flights from Scotland, just don't be too disappointed if Virgin don't take your complaint as seriously as their 'blurb' suggests they will.

PS If you want to delete your post, you can either click 'edit' and delete the text or you can PM a moderator and ask for it to be removed.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

JohnnySharp2: I know your wife's a teacher and you can only go in school holidays but in Scotland the prices for flying out of Scotland are 22% higher then flying out of England so we're being penalised for being north of the border but there's just as many Scots going on holiday as there are the English.

I agree, this should not happen - so from your perspective I think you have a point.
The price should be the same irrespective of where you fly from.

Overall I am (from my viewpoint) happy with Virgin but I only live an hour or so away from Manchester, I have no reason for complaints but I understand yours to a degree because as others have said you have never actually flown with them yet.

 

[mushumadness]

I dont think its fair about the prices being so high in scotland, but then again if I wanted to conenct from leeds to manchester then fly on to florida it would cost more

 

[Hilary]

I want to fly with Virgin, always have done but COST always comes in to it for us as a family and in order to have a better holiday we would choose to fly with someone cheaper to enable us to go to that extra show or have that extra special meal etc.

I don't think Virgin are any more perfect than any other airline (some things about them I like, some I don't), but I really don't understand why you are so upset about an airline you've never used

What you're saying seems to be along the lines of "I really, really want to buy an Omega watch but I can't afford it, so I have to have a Timex. I think everyone else who's unhappy about it should write to Omega to complain, because everyone should be able to afford their prices".

Okay, maybe a crass analogy (and I appreciate your reference to Richard Branson's 'vision' doesn't apply to every company), but if Virgin annoy you that much, I don't understand why you're so desperate to fly with them.

Vote with your feet and spend your holiday money with another airline - it's Virgin's loss more than yours

 

[UKDEB]

You asked if I wanted to complain about Virgin and I answered, "No", along with my reasons.

I don't consider myself a Virginite and I always research other options before booking, but, for us, Virgin invariably seems to offer the best all round package. We prefer not to fly at weekends - often I'll find a charter price I'm happy with and then discover that they only operate on Saturdays. I want the shortest flight time possible and some of the charters are 10 hours plus. I want to arrive in Orlando as early as possible. In January, we considered BA as the prices were almost identical, but Virgin's flight got us in around 45 minutes earlier. I would pay a premium for any airline which started offering early morning flights to Orlando. I would love to fly from a local airport - Gatwick is a real trek for us and we absolutely hate the journey home after a transatlantic flight. Now, I don't imagine that Virgin will ever operate flights to Orlando from Bristol or Birmingham, but I would seriously consider a 22% premium to do so. Virgin's operations out of Heathrow and Gatwick are huge - it stands to reason that, without similar economies of scale, it will cost more to operate out of Glasgow. It's really not a case of penalising those north of the border, but of passing on the costs to those using the service.

Your complaints really boil down to one thing - Virgin's product is too expensive. I would like to stay in the penthouse suite of the Ritz-Carlton, but I can't justify the cost. I haven't considered complaining on the grounds that a room at the Holiday Inn is more affordable, or that those who do stay there are more financially secure and therefore luckier than me, or that I really, really want to stay in the penthouse, but if I stay at the Holiday Inn I can use the extra money for spending and nice meals. I'm making this far-fetched analogy to make the point that you're not comparing like with like. Same basic product in both cases (hotel room/flight), but a big difference in the overall package.

Do I find fuel surcharges, weekend supplements, etc., unpalatable? Most definitely, but I do think they're justifiable business charges. I would apply the same reasoning to the airport taxes. Annoying, but necessary.

 

[gilld]

I don't think Virgin are any more perfect than any other airline (some things about them I like, some I don't), but I really don't understand why you are so upset about an airline you've never used

What you're saying seems to be along the lines of "I really, really want to buy an Omega watch but I can't afford it, so I have to have a Timex. I think everyone else who's unhappy about it should write to Omega to complain, because everyone should be able to afford their prices".

Okay, maybe a crass analogy (and I appreciate your reference to Richard Branson's 'vision' doesn't apply to every company), but if Virgin annoy you that much, I don't understand why you're so desperate to fly with them.

Vote with your feet and spend your holiday money with another airline - it's Virgin's loss more than yours

I agree. Years ago when we first started going to Florida, we couldn't afford to fly with Virgin and had to go with Britannia - ghastly by the way - now we are able to fly with whichever airline we want and we do choose go with VA.

They're by no means perfect, and over the years standards have declined somewhat, but they provide things we like eg PE seats, the inclusive meal/drinks service, DTD check in and flying into MCO all of which are very important to us - but it does cost us more to have these extras. Either you pay more and go with your choice or you pay less and compromise.

It's a sad fact that providing a service in Scotland would cost more, they would be serving a smaller customer base but would still have to provide the ground crew and services, so obviously it wouldn't be as cost effective for them - and someone has to pay.

 

[Hilary]

I would love to fly from a local airport - Gatwick is a real trek for us and we absolutely hate the journey home after a transatlantic flight. Now, I don't imagine that Virgin will ever operate flights to Orlando from Bristol or Birmingham, but I would seriously consider a 22% premium to do so. Virgin's operations out of Heathrow and Gatwick are huge - it stands to reason that, without similar economies of scale, it will cost more to operate out of Glasgow. It's really not a case of penalising those north of the border, but of passing on the costs to those using the service.

Ditto for us here in Wales.

I may be paying the same price for flights as those who live near Gatwick, but it still costs me more in total because we have the associated costs of getting to/from Gatwick, staying overnight, etc. To be able to fly from Cardiff for the same price as a Gatwick flight would be saving me money overall, so yes please, that would be brilliant - great on the pocket as well as more convenient! It's not likely to happen though ...

Do I want to complain to Virgin that:
they don't provide flights from Cardiff
if they did fly from Cardiff they'd probably cost more than Gatwick flights
their flights are all too expensive anyway?

I don't think so.

I remember a few years ago there was a similar thread here about the fact that Virgin packages to WDW resorts included park tickets - there were some unhappy posters who wanted to travel with Virgin but had annual passes, so didn't want the park passes. There was a move to complain to Virgin that the passes should be optional.

I'm afraid I couldn't understand the logic then either - if you don't like the product / price / colour / size / etc., don't buy it!

 

[pixiepower04]

Yeah, I didn't laugh, but I was along the same wavelength...

Virgin Atlantic is a business, plain and simple. It does offer great value for money (would anoyone here actually choose TCD - or similar charter - in economy class over and above Virgin Atlantic in economy class?).

Costs within the air industry have reason in recent years: cost of fuel has gone up (just like for your car) and some new environmental taxes in recent years.

If a business is over-charging, then "vote with your feet" - which you have. Unfortunately the majority of customers still think Virgin Atlantic is worth it - think that there planes tend to carry very healthy loads of passengers and cargo.

Your original post sounds no different to someone saying "write and complain that Virgin's Upper Class is too expensive. They should reduce the price, so that I can pay for it" or "Why are BMWs so much more than Skodas?". It's all about market forces - different products, different prices...

Boo

Boo Boo Too,

The flight prices are not really the issue, it's the supplements, my comment was based on the fact that it will cost us £440 in supplements alone, this cost alone would buy 3/4 of our Disney and Universal tickets!!