[leebo323]

I have travelled many times over the years on Virgin Atlantic and have not had many issues but this last trip from USA to Manchester left me so frustrated. I had booked 6 tickets to fly to England for a big family get together for Christmas. I unfortunately had to cancel my son's girlfriend's ticket as she was pregnant and advised not to fly. I was promised my money back as it was a medical issue so no problem. The 5 of us then fly to Manchester but when we get there one of our suitcases was missing. The Virgin rep who checked us in was obviously not paying attention and placed our baggage label on someone elses suitcase. There began what I can only describe as a nightmare. Dealing with Virgin lost baggage people should be used as a form of punishment. I spent almost every day of my trip on the phone with India. I was put on hold for lengthy periods of time, I was cut off, I was told no one would help me until I travelled back to Manchester airport with the wrongly labeled suitcase. I understand they want it back of course, but do not threaten me. I spent one and a half hours on the phone one day (45 mins then cut off so called back for another 45 mins) and sadly while I am dealing with this, my son's girlfriend is trying to call my son to let him know she had lost their baby. Needless to say to say I was upset was an understatement. I never did get the suitcase filled with Christmas presents while in England. It eventually arrived on Jan. 8 (this all happened on Dec 22) Now not only have I had to deal with that but we are still waiting for the refund of the cancelled ticket. I again call customer service in India and of course was cut off once again but then was given the direct number to refunds in UK but they are only open 3 hours a day, 4 days a week and the times are 4am-7am eastern time. Contacting Virgin and dealing with these issues should NEVER be this hard. The stress and anguish could easily be avoided with decent customer service.

[Maryline Belle]

Appalling service from Virgin.

I used Virgin Atlantic to Fly to Cuba from London in August 2010. I was struck in La Havana for nearly 3 days because of a mechanical problem with the plane. I will not go though the major inconveniences this has caused to me both personally and professionally. Virgin promised all passengers a complementary flight anywhere in the world (except on their Australia route) valid for 18 month. It took me 5 months to receive a confirmation letter for this complementary flight. When I finally got it (after continually sending them emails and calling them), I called reservations in February 2011 to try and book a flight for June 2011 to be told "you called too late, no complementary seats are available, you should have called earlier". When I explained that I ONLY just received the confirmation letter, the lady didn't want to hear about it. She was the least helpful person that I have come across. For an airline advertising high standards of customer service, they have a pretty odd way to show it.

Basically, Virgin delivered false promises at the time of the incident in order to keep angry passengers quiet and avoid a considerable amount of complaints but they are now refusing to honor their offer, hiding behind lame excuses.

I will make sure all my friends and colleagues know about this experience with the.

[jimworcs]

You have an agreement in writing of a complimentary flight, if you got the offer in Dec, I think you should go to small claims. If you are UK based, you can file online at www.money claim.gov.UK