We lost our seats on VS076!

[Lisa x]

A bit of Christmas Cheer from Virgin....

We booked our trip at the beginning of January this year....3 nights Orlando, a week on Freedom of the Seas Cruise and then 4 nights in Orlando before returning home.

Virgin contacted us last week to say that they had 'well' overbooked the return flight and our seats (2 in PE and 2 in Econ) had been 'selected' to be cancelled from the flight back to MAN and moved to the flight back to LGW. Obviously, I was not happy with this and made my feelings clear to them but they said there was nothing they could do to change that.

Later that day, Virgin contacted me to say that they had another idea...they move us to the MAN flight the next day in the same class that we had booked, they would pay for an extra night in the hotel, the extra day car hire and give all 4 passengers $100 each to spend on the last day that we are there!!

Just thought I would share my good news story!!

 

[princessjodiebo]

wow merry christmas from virgin !!!

we are having problems with our booking at the moment hope they will be as nice to us !!

yay for you bet you cant wait now especially an extra day and free money - heaven !!!!

 

[2Tiggies]

Merry Christmas! I think your plane should be called Santa Claus on the way home

 

[dixonsontour]

Glad it worked out for you - you did the right thing to stand firm - it was their problem not yours.

Have heard alot of tales of overbooking from Virgin at the moment. One of the reasons we did DTD check in last week was to ensure we got on.

 

[wayneg]

Virgin doing the right thing for once, what is the world coming to?

 

[taylor91]

Great news

 

[almcg]

Wow that's impressive

 

[nemmie]

 

[Chilly]

 

[Disneymad]

Phew, so glad it worked out well for you!

 

[2Tiggies]

Virgin doing the right thing for once, what is the world coming to?

A better place?

 

[Lisa x]

Pretty suprised by their response to be honest!

When they said they had overbooked and we had been selected, I wanted to know how they 'select' passengers, why when we booked nearly a year ago when we go is it too late for us to have our seats and I also wanted to know what other options they had for us!

1. Travel back to LGW with a transfer to MAN with BA.
2. Travel back a day earlier with all 4 seats in Economy (my DH is 6'4'' with back issues and cannot travel Economy, PE is a push for him - tooo tall! )

I told them how unhappy I was, we live in Wakefield and we use MAN because it is so close for us, direct flights and more often than not, we have found that we could have travelled from London for slightly cheaper but the convenience of MAN is top priority. I explained that one of the passengers is a really nervous flyer and the thought of two flights one after the other is pretty daunting, hence the reason we will only ever fly direct! I refused to accept one of the above options and asked them to put it in writing to me!

Thats when I got the lovely phone call with the great idea!!

So sometimes it pays to express your dissatisfaction even when they are adamant there is nothing that they can do!

 

[2Tiggies]

So sometimes it pays to express your dissatisfaction even when they are adamant there is nothing that they can do!

I couldn't agree more! There is rarely 'nothing' that can be done - it takes a bit of extra admin on their part and if they can get a customer to eat it up, it makes their lives easier. Not VH, but VA were pretty good when I had an issue last year too, although my problem was not on the same scale as yours. Good for you, being persistent. You deserve every bit of the extra goodwill they have offered you. Now make sure they confirm it in writing!

 

[Lisa x]

You deserve every bit of the extra goodwill they have offered you. Now make sure they confirm it in writing!

Thank you!! The confirmation arrived in the post this morning!

 

[disney_princess_85]

I'm glad they managed to resolve this error in such a positive way! Nice to hear of great customer service for a change.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Yey!! That's great!!

I can't believe they were just going to bump you off like that!!! We had something similar happen to us last month - they called a couple of weeks before we left to ask if we would mind flying home - first class - from Miami instead of Orlando. I declined it though as we didn't want to lose our last day (they would have flown us to Miami airport early and then we would have had to sit there waiting half the day!). When I declined I'm glad they just moved onto the next person - I would have had a fit if they had tried it on with me like they did you! Well done on your result!!

 

[juliebro]

I'm glad it's been sorted out for you - but legally I think they ought to give you more than they offered you.

Denied Boarding Compensation
in the European Community
If you are bumped from a flight and your flight was either departing from an EU country, or if you were on an airline registered in the EU and your flight departed outside the EU for a destination within the EU, you would have the following rights:

Reimbursement of the cost of the ticket within seven days or a return flight to the first point of departure or re-routing to the final destination;.
Refreshments, meals, hotel accommodation, transport between the airport and place of accommodation, two free telephone calls, telex or fax messages, or emails;
Compensation totalling:
- 250 euros for all flights of 1,500 kilometers or less;
- 400 euros for all flights within the European Community of more than 1,500 kilometers, and for all other flights between 1,500 and 3,500 kilometers;
- 600 euros for all other flights.

 

[wayneg]

Virgins T&C's here about it http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/bookflightsandmore/conditionsofcarriage/carriage9.jsp

I am not reading thru it all tonight but the 600 euros is in there.
Does the denied boarding compensation only apply if you actually get to the airport? and not accepted an alterantive before hand?
Too complicated for me to go into tonight.

 

[2Tiggies]

Too complicated for me to go into tonight.

Need a glass of wine?

 

[wayneg]

Need a glass of wine?

I am on cider to start, odd bottle we had in fridge then going onto Blueberry vodka, maybe I should stop posting now.