Im joining the debate now. Some of you may have seen my previous comment on another thread about how Virgin Holidays and
Virgin Atlantic were woefully lacking in customer service on our recent ski vacation of a lifetime.
This was a very special - and extremely expensive (even more so than Florida!) - holiday with friends which we had planned, saved and looked forward to for months and months.
I wont go into all the details (the hotel fire, for example, which was outside Virgin Holidays responsibility!), but two reasons I am very disappointed with Virgin Holidays and Virgin Atlantic are as follows:
Virgin Holidays: we tried to book lift passes before our holiday as part of a special deal quoted in their brochure. Because of VHs gross incompetence this couldnt happen, but we were assured that we would get even better deals out there because it was late season. We didnt; in fact the lift passes for the 7 of us cost us £300 more than we should have paid if VH had supplied them before we travelled. When Imentioned this with their Rep, he completely distanced himself saying he knew of no brochure price (pointed out the page number to him) and he told us we would have to take it up with England when you get back. His knowledge of the Heavenly, the ski resort we were staying was poor to say the least - and this is someone who had allegedly served that area for 7 seasons!
Virgin Atlantic: On the outbound flight, my poor DH had no entertainment system after a quarter of the flight had elapsed. When the cabin crew couldnt fix it, the supervisor at least bought him a portable DVD player (if wed have known, we would have taken our own on the flight rather than packing it - well know better next time!). The movie selection that came with this player was appalling, however, and there was only one movie he fancied watching, so I ended up swapping seats with him every two hours so we could both get some entertainment. On an eleven hour flight, it wasnt fun, but we thought these things do happen.
The return flight home was a nightmare. The cabin crew were ambivalent at best, downright unhelpful and surly at worst. This included the senior supervisor - my memory of her as we left the plane was standing at the exit, loudly chewing gum bemoaning that her plans for the day had been ruined by the delay getting off the plane due to no walkway available for the plane to dock alongside). I realise this may sound picky, but believe me when I say this was our 16th flight with VA and the absolute worst we have ever experienced. Weve been lucky enough to have (paid for) to travel PE on a number of flights to both Florida and St Lucia and received a free upgrade to UC.
The inflight entertainment system was down throughout most of the flight and when you could get a movie to work, it was frequently stopping and wouldnt restart. There was not even any music available, more than half the games werent working and when I dared to ask the cabin crew (thinking it was just our little area of the plane), I was snapped at by a most rude cabin crew and told theres a problem we cant fix and Upper Class have all the DVD players since they paid more, so thats all there is to it.
I used the online comments address mentioned above to express my disappointment (on 17th April) and to date have not even had the courtesy of a reply. I have also written by snail mail to both VH and VA and would like to point out that the 7 days acknowledgement is also non-existent; I wrote to them both over three weeks ago and havent heard a jot.
I have also mentioned the reduction in luggage allowance. 23kg x 2 bags per person is more than sufficient when travelling to somewhere hot and sunny. A ski holiday means your luggage is much heavier and, giving an example, this year there were 7 of us - luckily with the old 32kg per pag allowance - which was ok. However, we each had a suitcase and could just about squeeze these 7 bags plus the seven of us into an 8 seater van. If we each had to take two suitcases, which we would on a ski holiday, there is no way we could fit FOURTEEN cases plus seven people into a car. I have asked Virgin their recommendations on what we are supposed to do!
Ive said it before and Im going to say it again. VH and VA have gone downhill over the last three years, they have gotten too big for themselves and have forgotten who has made them big - their loyal customers.
We are in the process of planning our 2008 trip to Florida with our friends and given this year was their first experience of both VH and VA (how embarrassing for us having recommended them both so highly); needless to say we shall be looking elsewhere. So we will definitely be voting with our feet. Sad its come to this, though, because we have always enjoyed Virgin.
...
