Trip Report: Where We Went -- NOT!
Mar 11th, 2005, 09:56 AM
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Trip Report: Where We Went -- NOT!
Anyone who reads the Boston Globe travel pages may have seen the weekly "Where We Went" travel feature. I thought I'd adapt their format to report on our recent non-trip, which unfortunately started during a blizzard in Boston.
<b>Where We Went -- NOT!</b>
<b>Planned destination:</b> London, UK, via Virgin Vacations
<b>Actual destination:</b> Logan Airport, Boston
<b>Planned duration of trip:</b> 6 days
<b>Actual duration:</b> 2 1/2 days
<b>Best accommodations:</b> Embassy Suites, East Boston (second night)
<b>Worst accommodations:</b> Terminal E, Logan Airport (first night, during a blizzard)
<b>Best food:</b> Lunch at Embassy Suites Trapeze restaurant
<b>Worst food:</b> Dinner at Dunkin Donuts -- the only restaurant open on Tuesday night, which ran out of food (no fault of Dunkins, since the airline gave vouchers that were only good there, but left hungry people and overworked Dunkins staff fo fend for themselves).
<b>Most frustrating experience:</b> Trying to get accurate information on when there would be a rescheduled flight.
<b>Best (or worst) trick of the day:</b> Disappearing acts by Virgin Atlantic, whose airport desks were completely unstaffed (and whose 800 number was impossible to reach) for long hours after passengers were told to return for flight rescheduling information.
<b>Most underhanded tactic:</b> Changing passenger reservations from a flight that would have required bumping (i.e., passenger compensation) to a flight with engine malfunction (delays for mechanical failure do not require the same compensation). Virgin knew of the malfunction at the time the reservations were changed, but told passengers the change was made so that they could leave earlier than previously scheduled.
<b>Sporting events highlights:</b> Playing hide and seek with Virgin Atlantic staff, who were nowhere to be found in the vicinity of a boarding gate until 2 hours after the above passengers were scheduled to board.
<b>Best planning decision we made:</b> Purchasing trip insurance, which allowed us to bail out on the 3rd day of frustration, although without ever getting our "Virgin Vacation".
<b>Unresolved questions: </b>
Why did passengers have to call the Virgin office in London to find out why the boarding gate in Boston was unstaffed? (London said that all the Virgin employees at Logan were in a meeting. Obviously staff meetings take precedence over service to customers.)
Why is the Boston regional manager for Virgin Atlantic located in Los Angeles, California?
Why did Virgin refuse to give passengers access to their checked luggage for more than 24 hours, when the luggage was on a plane that couldn't fly because of engine malfunction?
<b>No-brainer question: </b>
Is this any way to run an airline?
<b>Where We Went -- NOT!</b>
<b>Planned destination:</b> London, UK, via Virgin Vacations
<b>Actual destination:</b> Logan Airport, Boston
<b>Planned duration of trip:</b> 6 days
<b>Actual duration:</b> 2 1/2 days
<b>Best accommodations:</b> Embassy Suites, East Boston (second night)
<b>Worst accommodations:</b> Terminal E, Logan Airport (first night, during a blizzard)
<b>Best food:</b> Lunch at Embassy Suites Trapeze restaurant
<b>Worst food:</b> Dinner at Dunkin Donuts -- the only restaurant open on Tuesday night, which ran out of food (no fault of Dunkins, since the airline gave vouchers that were only good there, but left hungry people and overworked Dunkins staff fo fend for themselves).
<b>Most frustrating experience:</b> Trying to get accurate information on when there would be a rescheduled flight.
<b>Best (or worst) trick of the day:</b> Disappearing acts by Virgin Atlantic, whose airport desks were completely unstaffed (and whose 800 number was impossible to reach) for long hours after passengers were told to return for flight rescheduling information.
<b>Most underhanded tactic:</b> Changing passenger reservations from a flight that would have required bumping (i.e., passenger compensation) to a flight with engine malfunction (delays for mechanical failure do not require the same compensation). Virgin knew of the malfunction at the time the reservations were changed, but told passengers the change was made so that they could leave earlier than previously scheduled.
<b>Sporting events highlights:</b> Playing hide and seek with Virgin Atlantic staff, who were nowhere to be found in the vicinity of a boarding gate until 2 hours after the above passengers were scheduled to board.
<b>Best planning decision we made:</b> Purchasing trip insurance, which allowed us to bail out on the 3rd day of frustration, although without ever getting our "Virgin Vacation".
<b>Unresolved questions: </b>
Why did passengers have to call the Virgin office in London to find out why the boarding gate in Boston was unstaffed? (London said that all the Virgin employees at Logan were in a meeting. Obviously staff meetings take precedence over service to customers.)
Why is the Boston regional manager for Virgin Atlantic located in Los Angeles, California?
Why did Virgin refuse to give passengers access to their checked luggage for more than 24 hours, when the luggage was on a plane that couldn't fly because of engine malfunction?
<b>No-brainer question: </b>
Is this any way to run an airline?
Mar 11th, 2005, 10:29 AM
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Scary. And sorry to hear about the disaster.
Did you connect to Boston from somewhere? Or are you from Boston? I'd imagine you don't live in Boston -- why didn't you go home if you live in Boston?
Did you connect to Boston from somewhere? Or are you from Boston? I'd imagine you don't live in Boston -- why didn't you go home if you live in Boston?
Mar 11th, 2005, 11:19 AM
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Oh nonnafelice, you have a better sense of humor then I would have had with your terrible experience.
I admire you for writing this "nontrip report". Somehow, in spite of all the anger and frustration you surely have your report is funny! But I guess in these days we better not even think about traveling unless we plan on taking our sense of humor along with us.
I too am so sorry that your vacation was ruined. Thank goodness you had purchased travel insurance. I have had bad service from time to time from airlines but Virgin gets the top award IMO.
Wishing you another trip real soon. Take good care.
I admire you for writing this "nontrip report". Somehow, in spite of all the anger and frustration you surely have your report is funny! But I guess in these days we better not even think about traveling unless we plan on taking our sense of humor along with us.
I too am so sorry that your vacation was ruined. Thank goodness you had purchased travel insurance. I have had bad service from time to time from airlines but Virgin gets the top award IMO.
Wishing you another trip real soon. Take good care.
Mar 11th, 2005, 11:37 AM
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This is where you can tell them all you think of their non-existing "work ethics"
https://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/u...edbackconf.jsp
https://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/u...edbackconf.jsp
Mar 11th, 2005, 01:19 PM
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Thank you all for your kind words. It helps ease the pain of missing the vacation to get such warm sympathy from nice people.
I did write more about the details of what Virgin did and didn't do in another thread that was specifically about airlines:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34579773
And here is a photo essay on the non-trip:
http://www.rozault.com/london-not/index.html
We were pretty angry and frustrated, but life is too short not to keep your sense of humor. We are sad to miss the vacation we'd planned for so long, but in the larger scheme of things, it's a pretty minor tragedy for us. The people I felt the worst for were all the Brits on the plane. We had the option of going home, which we finally did after we got our bags. But since that wasn't till almost midnight on Wednesday, we opted to get at least something out of Virgin and take the night in the hotel plus a couple of meals first.
But there were many British families, and some small children, all the way down to an 11-week-old baby (whose father was trying to get home in time for his christening) who were just at the mercy of an unresponsive airline. Other people missed the funeral of a dear loved one, and a conference that the passenger had planned and organized. I'm sure there were many more such stories ... these are just a few from people we spoke with.
One thing that kept us going through all of this was the cameraderie of the passengers. We were all united in our frustrations with Virgin, but the Brits were really troopers. As one said, "We learned how to hang together in the Blitz."
I don't mean to stereotype, but we couldn't help wondering how different the crowd reaction would have been if it had been a plane full of Italians instead. I can't help thinking there would have been a lot more overt emotional display!
I did write more about the details of what Virgin did and didn't do in another thread that was specifically about airlines:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34579773
And here is a photo essay on the non-trip:
http://www.rozault.com/london-not/index.html
We were pretty angry and frustrated, but life is too short not to keep your sense of humor. We are sad to miss the vacation we'd planned for so long, but in the larger scheme of things, it's a pretty minor tragedy for us. The people I felt the worst for were all the Brits on the plane. We had the option of going home, which we finally did after we got our bags. But since that wasn't till almost midnight on Wednesday, we opted to get at least something out of Virgin and take the night in the hotel plus a couple of meals first.
But there were many British families, and some small children, all the way down to an 11-week-old baby (whose father was trying to get home in time for his christening) who were just at the mercy of an unresponsive airline. Other people missed the funeral of a dear loved one, and a conference that the passenger had planned and organized. I'm sure there were many more such stories ... these are just a few from people we spoke with.
One thing that kept us going through all of this was the cameraderie of the passengers. We were all united in our frustrations with Virgin, but the Brits were really troopers. As one said, "We learned how to hang together in the Blitz."
I don't mean to stereotype, but we couldn't help wondering how different the crowd reaction would have been if it had been a plane full of Italians instead. I can't help thinking there would have been a lot more overt emotional display!
Mar 11th, 2005, 01:32 PM
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Wow, nonnafelice, what a shame. Your experience is a walking advertisement for trip insurance. Please keep us informed as to how Virgin resolves this problem.
Have you thought about emailing your trip report and this thread to all the British newspapers and BBC.
Have you thought about emailing your trip report and this thread to all the British newspapers and BBC.
Mar 11th, 2005, 01:46 PM
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It happened to me once, but not quite as bad or as long. We ended up driving about 1,200 miles to get where we needed to be with two wonderful strangers in a jointly rented car. They used the same "weather" to "mechanical failure" transfer baloney on us, as well. But because of the eventual cancels all the way down the line for all airlines in NYC LaGuardia that day, we ended up getting a free round trip anywhere in the USA from Chicago, out of it, eventually. It was ATA.
I also can remember a Mid-eastern family all sobbing because they were missing their son's wedding in Chicago. The poor guy kept telling me how much the dresses cost that were in the airplane's belly. What a nightmare you had! Kudos to you for the great format of your trip report also. You seem to have survived with a good sense of humor. And it isn't easy.
I also can remember a Mid-eastern family all sobbing because they were missing their son's wedding in Chicago. The poor guy kept telling me how much the dresses cost that were in the airplane's belly. What a nightmare you had! Kudos to you for the great format of your trip report also. You seem to have survived with a good sense of humor. And it isn't easy.
Mar 11th, 2005, 01:50 PM
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Oh rats, meant to hit the little down arrow thingie and hit post instead. As I was saying, ooh what a good idea BTilke. Nonna, you're a great writer. I'd just bet someone in the media would love to get his/her hands on your report!
Mar 11th, 2005, 01:56 PM
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Oh jeez! I should have known better than to fire off some foreign language phrase today when I've been reading Spanish, speaking French, and trying to decipher whether what someone faxed me is in Serbo-Croatian or something else!
peccato! Not peccada.
peccato! Not peccada.
Mar 11th, 2005, 05:26 PM
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We had the same problem with Virgin two years ago when they were the only airline at Dulles not to know that there was a severe snow storm coming in and refusing to clear the area around their planes. The planes got stuck and couldn't fly so after 4 hours of sitting on the plane, waiting to leave, they cancelled the flight. We were lucky, we live in the area. Others had to scramble to find places to stay with no help from Virgin. They did bring in an extra flight the next day. Fortunately, our trip (ABC TOURS) extended us one day on the other end so we didn't miss a night in London.
Mar 11th, 2005, 05:46 PM
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Wow, this is worse that when our friends didn't arrive at the Rome airport on their Swiss Air/American Airlines flight where we were waiting for them. We spent half the day trying to track them down, mainly to be told that they had been on the flight from Miami to Zurich and had arrived there, but for some reason they never got on their flight from Zurich to Rome. Finally we heard from them -- still in Boston where their flight had been diverted the night before. Don't you think someone at American or Swiss Air could have known that the flight they were on DID NOT get to Zurich as they told us it had?
And many of the things you say sound just like what Swiss Air was doing to them. Meanwhile American kept telling everyone it was a Swiss Air plane so it was their responsibility, but those who booked via American were told by Swiss Air that they needed to talk to American.
Love your trip report style, nonnafelice. Glad you can still keep a sense of humor.
And many of the things you say sound just like what Swiss Air was doing to them. Meanwhile American kept telling everyone it was a Swiss Air plane so it was their responsibility, but those who booked via American were told by Swiss Air that they needed to talk to American.
Love your trip report style, nonnafelice. Glad you can still keep a sense of humor.
Mar 12th, 2005, 06:58 AM
#19
Nonnafelice, I posted a link to this thread on the Virgin forum on flyertalk.com and someone there suggests you send a note to Sir Richard - here's the link to your link...
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409781
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409781
Mar 12th, 2005, 10:53 AM
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Thanks, Gardyloo, I was going to put something on flyertalk, too, but was not registered there, so hadn't yet gotten around to it. So I appreciate your doing that.
I posted a letter today to VA Customer Relations relating our story in excruciating detail (much more than what I posted here, since it would probably bore people silly to read the whole long saga). A copy is now on my web site with the photos if anyone really wants to read it.
At Logan one of the Virgin counter reps was actually handing out "Any concerns?" forms to the passengers and urging us to send them in. The rep I spoke with told me that Sir Richard actually reads them all. That I find very hard to believe, but we'll see what kind of response I do get.
Of course, if anyone has Sir Richard's direct address, and he's not off in his balloon (which passengers on our flight were discussing shooting down), maybe I'll write him directly.
I posted a letter today to VA Customer Relations relating our story in excruciating detail (much more than what I posted here, since it would probably bore people silly to read the whole long saga). A copy is now on my web site with the photos if anyone really wants to read it.
At Logan one of the Virgin counter reps was actually handing out "Any concerns?" forms to the passengers and urging us to send them in. The rep I spoke with told me that Sir Richard actually reads them all. That I find very hard to believe, but we'll see what kind of response I do get.
Of course, if anyone has Sir Richard's direct address, and he's not off in his balloon (which passengers on our flight were discussing shooting down), maybe I'll write him directly.
