Originally Posted by
slats11
Virgin is succeeding where the greenies have failed - they are discouraging people from flying.
Ironic for an industry which has requested and received so much taxpayer support the last few years.
Monday 30/5/22, my relatives were returning from SYD to MEL having flown up the Sunday for a Monday morning funeral.
They were booked on VOZ898 departing SYD at 2200, so we had some time together after the funeral.
At 1830, we get an email advising that 898 has been cancelled, and have been moved to VOZ888 departing at 2000. From our location, we could not make that flight which was to start boarding only 1 hour after the email was sent!
We called Virgin, and endured a (predictably) long hold. It was "explained" that the weather in MEL meant flight arrivals late yesterday evening had been cancelled. A quick check of FlightAware showed that was a lie.
We were then told that we could catch a later flight from SYD to Gold Coast, and then a flight from Gold Coast to MEL. So a plane could apparently fly into MEL late last night after all - so long as the plane had warmed up in Queensland before flying to MEL.
We then asked Virgin to transfer us to the 2200 Qantas flight which was still scheduled and showing capacity. "No, we can't do that."
[size=13px]So we had no choice but to paid $600 last minute for 3 seats one-way on the 2200 Qantas flight. If we couldn't make the 2000 flight, Virgin said the only alternative was to stay in SYD last night and return this morning.[/size]
We then discovered that the 2000 VOZ888 had departed SYD at 2200 (at the scheduled time for VOZ898). This seemed curious in light of previous information that Wx had caused the cancellation of VOZ898.
It's impossible to speak with anyone, and you are left on hold with "longer than usual wait times."
Not good enough Virgin. Not nearly good enough.
I hear you and share your frustration.
it’s not only Virgin, Qantas is NO better. In fact very few large organisations deal with customer service well unfortunately.