Virgin Nigeria Ground Staff Scam

[Armen Firman]

My wife recently flew from Lagos to Douala with our 6 month old baby, to visit friends. Before booking her ticket I checked to see if they make any charge for an infant or not. I was told that they don't and booked and paid N48,376 (US$ 410) for her flight. She booked in and after the usual hassle with customs went to wait. When her flight was called and she went to the gate she was told to wait to one side by the gate staff. Once all the other passengers had boarded she was told that she would not be allowed to enter the aircraft unless she paid an additional N17,000 (US$144) for our son!! :eek::eek::mad::mad:. I had given her some extra money ready for transport and hotels when she returned to Nigeria and she had to pay all of that before she was allowed to board :(. She demanded to see what their charges are and asked why she'd been passed through check-in with our son if she now had to pay money to these criminals. They just became very aggressive and said that if she didn't pay up straight away they'd stop her boarding. They also refused to give any receipt for the money she paid.

This is an absolute disgrace. What are these people doing and how do they get away with it? Does Virgin Nigeria actually charge for an infant to fly and if so, what is the real charge? If these people are anything but criminals why did they refuse to issue a receipt stating the amount and what it was for? She's now wondering if the crooks employed by this airline are going to try the same on her return journey.

I've tried telephoning their office in Lagos, but as usual, it's impossible to get a reply. I'm sure that if Richard Branson knew about the frauds perpetrated by staff of one of his associate companies he'd be horrified at how the Virgin name is being brought into disrepute. Quite rightly too - it's a complete disgrace, even for Nigeria :mad:

[alghaita ganga]

I am not surprise by this at all. When I threaten to expose the airline to the NCAA for malpractice last year I eventually got a reply. Unlike most of Sir Richard's enterprises, this is a total second rate one with too much of it being exactly the same poor standard as too many other business in Nigeria. I wonder if these scam artists would have dared try such a thing if you had been with her? For sure no. They always pick on those they know are defencless against their bullying criminal tactics. But wait, they are not criminals, they are vetted workers in a secure area of Nigeria's largest international airport :ugh:

[Revnetwork]

Hi Armen,

If you can give me the date of either your wife's outbound journey, or the date of her return and a booking reference, I'll make sure this is investigated and a response will be on it's way to you. PM me with the details please.
Generally, in line with most IATA airlines (which Aero is not) Virgin Nigeria charges 10% of the applicable adult fare for infants under 2 years of age not occupying a seat. This should have been made known to your wife when she turned up at check-in with an infant and no ticket.

Alphaita ganga doesnt need a reply and I wont go into detail here of my own bad experiences on many other airlines around the world including Aero. At least he got an email last year while Aero have not yet replied to mine after 10 months. Alpha, you got a very quick reply from the FOD and an immediate change to procedures, so don't say "eventually" as if it was delayed.

Armen, there is a link on the VK website to the Customer Relations team who would investigate this and they would be happy to hear from you. Unfortunately, the phones are geared mainly to sales (call centre, groups, agents etc). Not saying that's right, just explaining why you havent been able to speak to someone over the phone.

[Flying Touareg]

AF, i m sorry about what you and your Mrs. went through, and i am sure you will get a response here soon.

My question though is,why didnt your wife insist on collecting a receipt when she parted with the money?

And unless she was able to get hold of the names of the VK ground staff from their tags, this act could have been committed by other airport staff/nahco/sahcol/FAN sec/etc.Just my 2 cents.

[AircraftCarrier]

Did she demand to see any identity cards? Is it her first time of flying? Can somebody please ask the right questions? Was the full status of her travelling condition declared to the staff? How did she go through immigration with an extra passenger (the child) without a boarding pass? Anyone can pose as the employee of Virgin Nigeria, but we are all educated enough to know that the only place you pay money is at the counter. Was the boarding pass adjusted to reflect any change after the money was paid? Could this payment have come from some other thing that arose at the boarding gate, which still does not justify it?
I have travelled on Virgin Nigeria twice. On my last occasion on the 15th of December last year, our flight was rescheduled due to lack of fuel at Port Harcourt as the plane could only carry very limited pay load, in order to return to Lagos without fuelling at Port Harcourt. Other Airlines were affected as well, but guess what! Virgin Nigeria gave every passenger affected, a free flight ticket on their next planned trip, valid for 12 months! Now how about that for a STAR Airline! I still have a copy of that letter.
Please go down to the core before spoiling everything good that takes off in Nigeria. At another time, I was on my way out of Lagos to the United States and we were subjected to the normal customs and immigration outbound clearance. A Nigerian Lady in front with a US passport was being questioned as to her status in holding such a passport. I don't see anything abnormal with this procedure as you are subjected to similar question when you arrive in the United States. She took out her cell phone and dialled someone possibly in the United States and started spending time reporting the authorities doing their jobs as now treating her like a criminal, blowing the whole situation out of proportion, when she could have spent a lesser time explaining her status and dealings in the US! Other travellers in the queue even started cautioning her to chill out!

Please it is best you visit Virgin Nigeria's booking office with facts and names. If the passenger was not intelligent enough to ask for names or at least a receipt and change in the boarding pass, please treat the story with care. The perpetrators could just have been people posing as Virgin Nigeria staff, which at the end boils down to lack of security at the airport for which Virgin Nigeria should not be held responsible for. Don't spoil a good thing just because you can!
Virgin Nigeria will become Africa and indeed the world’s best Airline. And they need your sincerity, positive input and loyalty to achieve that.

[Armen Firman]

Revnetwork,

Thanks for your reply; I've sent you a PM.

Flying Touareg,

She did demand a receipt but the man refused to give her one. As stated she was told to wait at one side and this happened after all other passengers had boarded, so there was nobody else she could ask for help.

Aircraft Carrier,

You're presumably something to do with aviation as you made a post on 5 March saying you'd just been successful with an application to Virgin Nigeria (no vested interested in your post then!), but the majority of passengers don't know that the only place you pay money is at the check-in desk. No, there was no adjustment made to her boarding pass, as she had already been issued with boarding passes for both herself and the infant at the check-in desk (which is why immigration was not a problem), she couldn't get a receipt issued and the man refused to divulge his identity. She was alone, a young, slender woman with a small babe in her arms and nobody else there to help. Just how do you suppose you, in your superior, cold-hearted way expect she was going to deal with that? She recognised the man as she has travelled this route many times previously and is probably a good more intelligent than you if your response is anything to go by. Boarding staff at a boarding gate, who have just boarded every other passenger on the flight are normally employees of either Virgin Nigeria or their accredited agents. If you're actually employed in Australia in SAR monitoring, why were you in Port Harcourt on 15 December (sounds rather fishy to me). I hope that if you do get to work for Virgin I don't have to fly as your passenger as your CRM skills are likely to be poorly developed if your post is anything to go by.

Revnetwork has given me a positive and encouraging reply. It seems he may have some connection either with Virgin or the airport. If he manages to find out anything and good comes of it, you may be sure I'll be the first to post a positive reply. Meanwhile, I'm still doing my best to follow up on this as I'd like to make sure the perpetrator is brought to book for his disgraceful behaviour. I've always used Virgin Nigeria myself as until now I've always had a reasonable service from them, so I don't make accusations like this lightly.

[Malagant]

Some other thread had a few Nigerians whining bout how they got robbed at OR Tambo..tit 4 tat..?:=

[TomBola]

Malagant,

What on earth has this got to do with Nigerians getting robbed in South Africa? The thread is about someone travelling from Nigeria to Cameroon and I haven't seen any mention of anybody's nationality anywhere. You seem rather confused :\

[NDB17]

AF,

The problem at the boarding gate for regional flights is that you have 1 or 2 VK staff members and about 6 ALML staff members there. The VK staff members have on Vk uniforms with the name tags and ID cards very visible on them. They do not handle cash, and most likely will have sent your wife back to the check in counter.
If you wife was ripped off, then we might have to look in the direction of ALML or other airport staff, who should never have made any contact with her regarding ticketing and all sort issues.
My advice is do what has been recommended here and also contact the duty manager who was on duty on that day. They can tell you which staff members were assigned to that particular flight.
Let me add, VK does not treat acts bothering on corruption kindly.
Cheers

[AircraftCarrier]

Armen Firman,

I can understand your level of frustration after what had happened to your wife. You are entitled to the quantity of anger you hold. But please, there has been no investigation as yet. Wouldn’t it be better and wiser to take the approach of setting a guilty person free, for lack of evidence, than killing an innocent one for all the wrong reasons? At least the guilty is still alive to be investigated and brought to justice. For the falsely convicted and executed, there will be no opportunity even to say "I’m sorry I wronged you"! I hope you understand my views and background, and see where I’m coming from. If I have offended you, I sincerely apologize, as though you may not need me, but I really and truly need you. And I can only pray that we find ourselves on common grounds where we will need each other for all the good reasons.

Thank you

[atedo]

All Airlines charge fees for Infant ticket on Passport flights...only on domestic can airlines waive this. If you did check their web site you during your booking their is column with the question if you are travelling with an infant. If you answer yes, you will get all the details and fare for the routine.

Please do demand for your receipt as that is wrong, may be they were in a hurry at the point. Please there is no excuse not to give the receipt as that is evidence of exchange of money.

Why not contact them on [email protected] or 012776619 to complain about this.

The best guy.

[Armen Firman]

atedo,

I did try calling their office as you will see if you read my post (in fact I did it twice just to be sure I'd been given the right information. I was told that there would be no charge for an infant.

If you had visited their website (as I did) you will see that it gives no details of an infant fare, but merely tells you to contact them, which I did, and was told that there would be no charge.

They were not in a hurry at the gate. My wife was deliberately taken to one side and told to wait until all other passengers had embarked. That's the whole point. It meant they gave no receipt, threatened her that the flight would depart without her, and stole the N18,000 for themselves. If what Revnetwork says is correct, she should only have been charged N4,800, so she has really been scammed by these crooks :mad:

[Armen Firman]

I'm pleased to tell everyone that I've had a PM from revnetwork explaining all, and most encouragingly a copy of the booking, showing that the money was taken at Lagos and the infant is shown as having been paid for, so all should be okay for the return :ok:

The problems seem to be that there is no clear fare structure for infants on the Virgin Nigeria website and there are many add-ons, such as fuel surcharges, Cameroon development tax etc., etc, which make it add up to such a large additional sum.

Revnetwork, my thanks for a job well done sir :ok:. I'm glad to say that you've restored the reputation of Virgin.

[Flying Touareg]

I'm pleased to tell everyone that I've had a PM from revnetwork explaining all, and most encouragingly a copy of the booking, showing that the money was taken at Lagos and the infant is shown as having been paid for, so all should be okay for the return :ok:

Congrats AF. However, i dont think it is a good business practice to collect cash from a pax without issuing a receipt.:(