Subj:25th anniversary best forgotten
Date:15/09/02 22:33:14 GMT Daylight Time
From:ChalkiewhiteRAF
To:VIRGINLIES
I remember as if it was only yesterday, it was supposed to
have been a holiday of a life time. I had saved long
and hard for a surprise trip to Disney Land Florida to coincide
with our 25th wedding anniversary, Sept 2000.
Having heard how magical Disney World is and having never
been to the USA I obviously wanted the best to
for our anniversary. I scoured numerous travel agents and
even spent hours on end looking at Teletext and
Ceefax to find the best deal. As the majority kept pushing
me towards VIRGIN ATLANTIC I decided to save
enough money for a flydrive with them, since there was a
vast difference in price.
The average price was around the £950 mark compared
with the £1480 it cost me with VIRGIN ATLANTIC.
After I had paid the settlement fee, things started to go
wrong. My booking agents phoned me only 2 weeks
before I was to fly out from Manchester Airport, they said
due to technical difficulties beyond VIRGIN
Atlantic's control, they would not be able to fly us with
there own aircraft but would charter a similar aircraft
with VIRGIN cabin crew. This we had to accept due to the
lateness and the impracticalities involved. I
immediately rang to request if it was possible to fly from
Gatwick but was told they were fully booked, however
I would be receiving some compensation on arrival at Manchester
Airport.
On arrival at the departure gate we were handed a notice of
apologies and were offered a 20% discount on
certain items that we purchased whilst on board. This to
say the least I took as an insult. Whilst boarding,
every child
(and as you could imagine there were quite a few) were handed
there compensation, for not having personal
back seat TV's. This was a hand held gameboy. Although
being very generous it was not a sensible idea.
Can you imagine what it was like to have so many of these
toys bleeping away for 10 hours. I was
unfortunately given seats directly adjacent to the toilet
block, the queues were constant throughout the flight
which completely blocked our view from the one film that
was shown. The flight was one of utter chaos I had
two drinks offered to me the whole time. Was this because
it was free? I did eventually get to speak to an
honest member of the virgin cabin crew, when you could find
one, most were of Icelandic origin.
She was, however polite and very helpful. She told me that
because virgin airways hadn't received there
new aircraft on time, they had taken Manchester's and gave
them all to Gatwick.
The return flight didn't fare any better, infact it was worse.
I had to wait to board last because my seat was
unserviceable and had to be reallocated. Eventually I was
called forward and was politely told that I would
have to sit on the seat behind, I said what of my wife's,
the reply being hers is OK. Not the point I am making I
replied. Are we seated together? Yes, but behind. There is
no chance of that happening, I said. I had paid to
together and that's how we will fly back. Eventually we were
allocated two seats together, behind the broken
one, which meant when I wanted to eat my meal I was left
with the seat in front practically in my face, (picture
to prove it).
The very next day I started proceedings to gain compensation
from virgin Atlantic to the value of the
difference in price between them and say AIRTOURS. which
was £450. Letters were exchanged for some 18
months, but I kept getting the same old fob off replies from
customer services. Until finally I sent a personal
letter of complaint to Sir Richard Branson himself. This
also fell on deaf ears because my reply was from
customer services again telling me that Sir Richard couldn't
possibly answer all complaints and offered their
sincere apologies for him. SO WHERE IS MY MONEY. Tied up
in VIRGIN ONE, that's where.
And as you quite rightly said, customer service were quite
willing to carry on the charade until the punter gave
up. Which is what I did, because I don't have the resources
to take them to a small claims court?
Thank you for your time in giving me the opportunity to let off steam.
Yours sincerely
Peter White.