Me and my girlfriend traveled with Virgin Atlantic from Newark to Heathrow on Dec 23rd, for a connecting flight to Singapore. We thought that everything was going fine, there appeared to be no delays or anything.....but than it all went downhill. We were sitting on the plane for at least 2hours for them to fix a problem and than we got stuck behind many other planes mainly going domestic so i worked out that there was little chance of us making the connecting flight.
I have flown alot and believed that the service on Virgin would be very good as i have heard reports and travelled with them before and am part of their frequent flyer membership.
I asked the flight attendent if there was a way that we could get off the plane as soon as the doors opened but that was no help. The flight attendent brushed us off, so i politely asked another attendent if there was anything possible....expecting an answer that could clear up a few questions I got answers that in no way pertained to me or my girlfriend. The flight attendent said that she had a party to go to and that the delay ruined it and was just describing her life story. When we landed our plane was parked next to our connecting flight, Singapore Airlines A380, which was taking off within 30mins, but they said we couldnt make it.
So we went through flight transfers to the Virgin desk and they put us in a hotel that wasn't clean, the bathtub had black moldy rings around it, and we were given a $12 food coupon for the hotel but you had to purchase your own drinks....not having any english money i was unable to buy anything to drink.
Instead of going on the Singapore Airlines the next morning we flew on Qantas and they were much more professional and simpathetic about my situation, they were of great help, and were very understanding.
The return flight on Virgin was worse.....
After a 13 hour flight on Singapore Airlines which was a great experiance and the airline is easily the best out there as i travel with them as much as possible. I came to my Virgin Atlantic flight optomistic that my experiance will be much better than my last.....that was not the case.
The flight was delayed 2 hours due to engine troubles. The flight attendents didnt want one part of the customers. I would ask for a drink and nothing for the entire flight other than at the meal. The meal was frozen for both me and my girlfriend, it was inedible, and no one apologized or offered any help. The in-flight entertainment didnt work the entire flight, and it felt like no one was trying and that everything went downhill.
I wrote to Virgin and it took them over a month to reply, they were going to send me and my girlfriend each $50 vouchars for the entire trip, my girlfriend never recieved her vouchar, and Virgin kept apoplogizing and saying that it was not their responsibility in many cases....food is outsourced........state of the art entertainment thats checked before every flight......it just seemed to be excuses after excuses and they didnt want to take any responsibility!
Hopefully my flight with them in August will be much better, as it is a pain to transfer terminals at heathrow
|