Virgin on the Ridiculous

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Dear Mr Branson
I appreciate with your billionaire lifestyle, and an accrued wealth that allows you to buy entire islands, it will be difficult for you to imagine how life is for those of us who have to save for months to go on holiday. However as a portion of your wealth was accrued through the custom of the “one foreign holiday a year” customer, I would greatly appreciate it if you would indulge me and attempt to understand how Virgin’s poor customer service, lack of incident recovery process and clear policy of only doing the bare minimum is affecting your passengers.

I was one of many passengers held on Virgin flights at Heathrow on Saturday 18 December for an entire day , then told the flight was cancelled and eventually instructed to leave Heathrow without luggage – which I am still without, and which Virgin cannot get to me until after 5 January because I have ‘chosen’ not to pick it up myself tomorrow. I was on a flight which didn’t leave the hard-standing, it was connected to the terminal. That was on Saturday 18 January, yet 2 full days later Virgin cannot let anyone get their luggage. I am rebooked tomorrow morning out of Gatwick not Heathrow, luggage is only available for collection from tomorrow at a trading estate in Heathrow or otherwise Virgin will send it to me ‘after 5 January’. I am now going to San Francisco via Las Vegas (part of the way at my own expense), and apparently it is ‘my choice’ to go without my luggage. I could go tonight and pick it up – but Virgin are only helping people 9-5. Withholding people’s luggage on Saturday has caused logistical problems for Virgin and their passengers. Virgin’s response is to make me wait 3 weeks to get it back. I tried calling the number Virgin give for the company to which they outsource misplaced luggage, but Virgin’s website has an incorrect number. At least the incompetence is consistent!

During the ‘delay’ on Saturday we were on the aircraft - not in the departure lounge, but actually in our seats – for 7.5 hours, a practice which I understand is outlawed in the USA. At about 4 p.m. the pilot admitted that there was no way we could take off ‘anytime soon’ as BAA had not cleared the taxiways. This had been the case all day, it seemed somewhat disingenuous for him to have previously lead passengers to believe take-off was likely – so likely that at 1.30 p.m. the aircrew went through the emergency drill. Please be assured that I absolutely understand that the weather conditions were beyond Virgin’s control, I just don’t think that Virgin’s aircrew were honest with the passengers. It seems we were being contained and controlled, rather than that there was a genuine chance of take-off.

Just after 6 p.m. on Saturday – 7.5 hours after we first boarded the flight, we were told the flight was cancelled, but still had to wait another 40 minutes to get off and down to the baggage hall. On exiting the aircraft, the chief stewardess advised us to ‘call reservations’, having previously lead us to believe someone would help us in the terminal. Most passengers had difficulty with this – mobile batteries used up by keeping family and friends updated on the constantly changing storyline.

Down in the baggage hall, the scene around the Virgin baggage desk was chaotic. Hundreds of passengers from five Virgin flights were trying to find out what was going on, where their baggage was or just rebook their cancelled flight. We had all been advised that ‘someone on the ground will help you’. The baggage staff’s remit was to hand out pieces of paper with a contact number on – and which set out what Virgin were obliged to provide in terms of compensation. I would be interested to know if handing out such pieces of paper is a skill which your aircrew could possibly master. This would have saved hundreds of passengers queuing up in the mistaken belief that assistance was going to be provided, or rebookings would be made.
All passengers were under the misapprehension that we were waiting for baggage. The aircraft had not left the hard-standing, but baggage was not unloaded. The baggage staff were asking passengers if they would be applying for a refund or rebooking. Passengers wanting a refund were advised to complete a ‘lost baggage’ form and call a “customer service” number for a refund, passengers still wishing to rebook were told they needed to do nothing, Virgin would do it all for them. What Virgin have actually done is to hold onto the luggage for a further 48 hours, send it to a disused warehouse and abandon assistance for all passengers who can’t pick it up until after you, your directors and your staff have enjoyed their Christmas and New Year holidays.

I called the number we were given – and after an interminable wait listening to Virgin music, my battery went dead. All around me this was happening to fellow passengers. Adrian, a member of Virgin groundstaff, advised that the best option was for us to go home, we had much more chance of getting through to reservations than Virgin’s ticket sales staff at the airport. Ground and air staff milling around the hall were being as helpful as they could and giving advice – but clearly with no coherence or consistency because Virgin could not or would not coordinate resolution. The baggage hall staff told us Virgin would send our baggage with us or just after us if we rebooked. I went home. It is 15 miles away, and I was advised by one of your staff that I wouldn’t be entitled to accommodation in a hotel. It took me 5 hours to get home.

I have repeatedly called the customer service number we were given, spending hours on hold. I finally got through after one call lasting 4 hours. I was told the only availability to San Francisco would be 24 December. I requested a flight via Las Vegas on Tuesday – and am booked on that flight with Virgin but only as far as Las Vegas. The reservations clerk was very polite and very helpful but said Virgin were not liable to help me with an onward flight. He did say he could book the onward flight for me, but I would have to pay and it would cost £300. I booked it myself on Expedia and it cost me £74. My point here is that it would have taken very little effort to help your passengers, but Virgin will only do the bare minimum – increasing capacity in call centres, assisting with alternative options, getting luggage 10 metres from the aircraft to the baggage hall, that is all beyond Virgin.

Now two day later I have not got my luggage back, Virgin promised for two days to track it down and call me back. Finally tonight I called again to be told I could pick it up after 9 a.m. on Tuesday 21 December tomorrow from Heathrow – but my flight is from London Gatwick. I fly out to the US tomorrow for a month’s holiday in California, Ohio and Las Vegas. The holiday includes a number of celebrations and in which I will be in temperatures as low as -7. The majority of my winter wardrobe, particularly my cold weather gear is in my luggage, along with all the gifts I have bought. Virgin will not get my bags to Gatwick, if I complete a lost luggage form when I get to San Francisco, they will ‘see what they can do’. In the meantime I have no winter clothes other than what I was wearing for Saturday’s flight.

Virgin staff didn’t give us advice, they fobbed us off. I have spent hundreds of pounds on my holiday and will lose 4 days of my holiday, have to fly part of the way at my own expense even though I have paid Virgin to go all the way to San Francisco – and will be going without any luggage. Virgin treated us like mugs, telling us whatever they thought would get us away from them and from the airport. Baggage control told me time and time again they would call me. Nobody has called. Fobbing people off until they give up in despair is a technique used to great effect by Ryan Air. People get disillusioned, tired of waiting, their holiday is cut too short to make it worth their while, refunds is the easier option. A straight refund is much easier for Virgin than finding alternative flights, volunteering information, having an incident recovery process in place. Putting additional flights on later in the week would help hundreds of passengers. Providing genuine information and making an earlier call on cancelling the flight whilst simultaneously being seen to assist with later arrangements, these are all things Virgin could and should have done.

Happy Christmas Richard – you’ve gone a long way to spoiling Christmas for hundreds of your passengers, possibly because it costs less to treat us like gullible fools than by making any genuine attempt to fulfil your obligations to your passengers. I expect this when I spend £10 with Ryan Air, but I dislike it so much I refuse to use them. I had thought Virgin were better in every way – however only the price is greater, everything else seems on a par. Virgin make sure they constantly remind passengers that ‘conditions of carriage’ were accepted by the passengers, however Virgin fail to abide by their side of the agreement because of ‘exceptional circumstances’. How convenient.

Vivienne Hudson

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Comments

[Vivstrek]

If I 'choose' not to collect my luggage tomorrow, Virgin can't get it to me until after 5 January.