To think this isn’t appropriate compensation? Upper class virgin

[Essex8888]

Hiya
appreciate this is first world problems, but recently was lucky enough to fly upper class with Virgin but it was so disappointing I have complained. It was disappointing in general as really old plane and for complete transparency I paid for premium economy and used a flying voucher to upgrade to upper.

The button for seat and headrest recline were broken.
The screen had deep scratches all over it so I couldn’t see the screen if window blind was up

The power outlets didn’t work the whole flight.
The area was filthy and the remote didn’t work for the tv- was completely broken.

I have complained to Virgin and they offered me £50!! AIBU to think this isn’t enough?
I took photos of everything and they agreed it wasn’t up to their normal standard.
I paid £1800 for premium seats and if I had known this would be the experience I would have booked economy and upgraded to premium and saved myself some money.
But also not sure if my expectations are too high and I should suck it up.

We flew Virgin to Barbados earlier in the year and NEVER again! The floor was so filthy my toddlers clothes were black, the loos didn’t work down one half of the plane. Numerous TVs didn’t work. The seats and TVs were old and didn’t provide much room and we had extra leg room seats. Most of their flying stock is old and shabby. No investment.

Id flown to NYC with them back in 2019 and that plane was new but I guess that is an important route for them.

I agree the staff are amazing, they said it’s the old planes!

I got £50 compo for a crappy economy transatlantic Virgin flight 30 years ago so they are definitely stuck in the 90s with that.

I had a similar experience with BA. I paid for two economy seats, used Avios to upgrade to business class and paid extra to choose the seats I wanted. At check in we were told that we had been downgraded to economy, so no food. My companion was 80 and I was being treated for cancer, so we wanted the extra comfort. At every stage: check in, waiting area and at the gate I asked for the reason why we had been downgraded and explained our circumstances. This was referred to “management” but no one responded. On boarding I saw that some business class seats had been roped off but the seats I had booked and paid extra for were being used by two young men. So I pointed this out and asked to take those seats. This was refused and we were shunted into economy. I supposed that the two young men were possibly pilots but this was never disclosed. By this time we were delaying take off so we went to sit in economy and ‘as a gesture’ were given some food. Other passengers round us wanted to know why but when I explained we were unanimously supported. When I complained formally to BA all they offered was the extra payment to choose our seats and they wouldn’t restore the Avios. I persisted only to find that they then withdrew the offer of the extra payment.
So they’ve just lost two passengers. We aren’t flying BA ever again! 😠

😂
In all honesty I did wonder what this thread was about! The benefits of using capital letters 😂!

😂😂

That is awful! I’m so sorry!

Surely a seat that you can't move into/out of an upright position is unsafe? What if they had to do an emergency landing? You couldn't expect a crew member to come and restore your seat to an upright position.

I think you're probably a victim of having used points to upgrade, OP.

In the same way that you often don't get things like lounge access with such an upgrade, they also don't treat any complaints in the way they might if you paid for a full price ticket.

Virgin is generally shit IMO anyway, though. I fly with them often on business to East Coast USA (mix of premium and upper class) as my options are limited from where I am in northern England. The planes are invariably shabby and lots of the seats I've had haven't been great. I had one a couple of months ago in premium which had an arm rest held on with strips of silver tape.

I was on an older virgin flight and we all had to stand up for the bed to be made. Is really bad the recline didn’t work at all

Omg that is absolutely appalling. I would have been livid and gone to the tabloids with that !

You can get bumped off a flight completely if someone with higher 'priority/status' wants a seat on that flight.

For example, with Star Alliance airlines the highest status guarantees you a seat on your chosen flight in your chosen class as long as you give 24hrs notice. So if the flight's sold out and they want a seat on it, they'll still get one.

If a few people with a high status decided they wanted a seat in business it's not unlikely that someone using points to get the business seat would be bumped down, or even off the flight.

It's not hugely common as it's a scenario where a) every single seat is sold and b) there are people with high status wanting a seat.

Have you asked on the virgin boards on flyer talk? Those passengers are very regular travellers who will have experienced this and will be able to advise the going rate.

I would imagine the roped off seats were faulty and the men in your seats had been originally allocated those, but were gold card holders who would be prioritised over you.

most airlines work that way. Sucks for you but as a business they’re going to look after the people who spend 000’s per year with them.

Write to Dickie Branson!!! x

I was tempted but BA were quite threatening and I was going through a grueling cancer treatment, so I gave it up. In retrospect I wish I taken it further but at the time I didn’t have the strength.

Yea sounds shit.
That said, if you're going upper class you're mostly paying for the lounge and a bed. We were on an older plane coming back from NYC and even though shit didn't work and you had to manually put the bed flat, I spent most of the flight asleep, so it didn't matter that much.
The lounge was outstanding.

There is a very good Virgin Atlantic complaints group on Facebook. Maybe ask there for advice? The Virgin planes that haven’t yet been refurbished internally are very old. The Head For Points site ran a feature earlier this week suggesting that upper class passengers should be given the option of a refund if they are switched onto a plane with the old seats. Apparently some people have stopped flying with Virgin due to the risk of getting one of these older planes. Virgin are notorious for initially showing the flight on a new plane and then switching aircraft nearer the time.

The compensation Virgin offered you was insulting. YADNBU.

Who cares how many followers he has on twitter!?!,!

Some years ago, I booked with Virgin to fly to visit my son in the US. I paid for a business class seat as my anxiety when flying plus a physical disability makes it very difficult to fly in economy. Unfortunately my son made an error with the dates and there was an overlap with my abusive ex husband so I could not go without changing flights. I had bought fixed tickets, not open ones so Virgin would not rebook a week later. I was devastated and had to face paying again for new flights.

My daughter, who works in marketing and social media wrote a comment on Virgins FB page explaining my problems in an honest but amusing way - blaming her Father and called him a few choice words! To my amazement, it worked, Virgin offered to rebook my flights, same price, exactly one week later. Apparently, they don’t like negative comments on social media as it can get picked up by journalists and affect their ratings. My daughter knew what to say and what tone to use to gat attention, I think my fear of flying and disability helped her plead my case. The travel agent I had used were shocked, they had never heard of any airline changing dates like that.

To add to my experience, I found a card and a basket of goodies waiting for me on my seat, full of lovely biscuits, jams and chocolates, not just the ones available on the flight! The bottle of champagne though got taken off me in Atlanta when I changed planes due to the no liquids rule!

So my advice would be to write something on their Facebook page, along with photos. Keep your tone very polite, emphasise how upset you are, that you chose Virgin because of their modern planes and excellent service etc etc. Praise the staff and stress your disappointment with the facilities, try to be lighthearted maybe about some of the issues, making a joke about the lack of seat recline or scratched screen ( having to use your imagination and the sound tracks to imagine something in a film)

I really think that what you have been offered is pathetic.

Many many years ago when BA lost my luggage on a very important corporate trip, I wrote to the CEO to complain, the financial compensation was derisory as everything in my case was new and expensive. His office did reply and offered to repay the full cost of my new items, I had receipts, and sent me flowers.

My memory of Virgin Upper Class is that they DID make the bed for you as part of it? However you are also saying the seat wasn't reclining at all?
I'm good at complaining and getting results so I would do another e mail and elaborate on any of the points. To be honest I would also mention the lax and jokey attitude of the crew and say that you felt you weren't being taken seriously. Ramp it up. The very least you should get is your voucher/points back.

I think you’ll get a better answer at FlyerTalk. You may be able to gauge what others have gotten in similar circumstances

I would sadly say it’s the way things are going with quite a few airlines atm but obviously it’s not right.
My DH has now banned us from using BA due to their way of operating, with actual customers being way down their priority list. He was travelling to a business meeting (business class) but was stranded overnight in London. After queuing where he was asked to queue by BA for 1 1/2 hours he was told he had missed getting onto the next flight this was despite previously being told not to book himself on to the flight as they would definitely do it for him. They then added there were no approved hotel rooms left so he should ‘sort himself out’. It was an incredibly busy time in London so it took him a further hour of ringing around to secure a room in a part of London he was familiar with but not widely well known. During this time he met a lady in her 80s who had also been stranded by BA & who had no knowledge of London so he ended up helping her book a room at the same hotel and then share his taxi.
For the longest time (months) BA refused to refund even his hotel room and taxi cost, despite him having taken a relatively cheap room in a not so salubrious area of London.
He had missed his meeting so had to return home next day. After six months of being mostly totally ignored but sometimes rebuffed he has given up.
Well done BA so you managed to keep your money for a useless, time wasting flight to nowhere and avoided any compensation 👏🏼 but my husband has now banned BA being used by any of the many employees at his place of work.
Hope the 80 year old was OK - my husband cared more than BA.

That response is almost word for word what I got from royal
mail when they delivered a registered post item (passport with special visa) through a door two streets away and forged the signature. Thank god for good neighbours.

Seems to
me like a bog standard response from a company that gets 100s of complaints and doesn’t have an escalation process.

I've only ever flown long haul once and that was with Virgin to Orlando. Having only ever flown Ryan Air I was quite excited, even though we were just in economy. I thought the leg room was worse than Ryan Air and my TV broke twenty minutes into the flight so I didn't have one. It was a night flight and I was freezing cold. I asked for another blanket and they didn't have any. It all felt a bit disappointing.