Virgin VS022 - 23rd June

[st13phil]

I was on this flight last Thursday when it diverted to Boston and being nosey wondered if anyone had any idea what the problem was? Last info we had from the airline was by text msg on 24/6 saying that the aircraft couldn't be made servicable "anytime soon".

As an aside, Virgin Atlantic's handling of the situation post landing was pretty poor :(

[Nicholas49]

Did the captain not tell you why you were diverting when you were on the flight?

[st13phil]

There was a thud and fairly substantial jolt while in cruise and the Captain announced that we were diverting to Boston to investigate the cause, which they thought may have been something in the hold. Once on the ground they checked the hold and found nothing untoward, then after further checks found no obvious cause so (quite correctly) abandoned the flight on safety grounds.

Pax were all transferred to hotels and the next info we had was by SMS message the next day (24/6) saying that they were examining flight data and awaiting approval from Airbus and Engineering prior to departure. This was followed four hours later by another SMS message saying that "the aircraft cannot be made serviceable anytime soon" and that another aircraft was being despatched from the UK to pick up the stranded pax.

So, in short, there was some issue with the aircraft but what that was wasn't communicated to the pax. Registration of the A340-600 concerned was G-VWEB and looking at the Virgin aircraft database it next flew BOS-LHR on 28/6 as VS122 which is not a normal scheduled service.

[herman the crab]

Where was the bad handling by VA?

- The crew gave you the information they knew.
- You were put up in hotels (and presumably fed and watered free of charge).
- You were kept informed by VA, albeit by SMS. Group SMS was probably a lot quicker than calling all the passenger individually and cheaper for both parties as you would have paid to receive the call too in the USA.
- Is it really relevant why the aircraft couldn't be made serviceable?

HTC

[st13phil]

Quote: Where was the bad handling by VA?


I have no issue with the crew's performance, they told us what they knew at the time and did things right (from what I can see), but the handling from disembarkation onwards was poor:

Disembarked aircraft at approx 23:00, shambolic transport to hotels for 300+ pax relied on taxis(!). I was in the first 100 or so off the aircraft and arrived at the hotel approx 01:30; others were still arriving an hour and more later due to transport issues
Hotel was initially denying any arrangement to provide accomodation when pax arrived - no one from VA present to sort situation
Pax not flown out until approx 10pm Saturday, i.e. 2 days later
No sign of any VA representative outside of BOS terminal for the entire time
If you think that's a good performance then your and my definition of good are different.

Quote: Is it really relevant why the aircraft couldn't be made serviceable?

No. Like I said, I'm just curious.

[robtheblade]

St13phil.
Totally agree, nothing short of disgusting. Virgin should have had an agent stationed in Boston in just in case they have to divert there.
It is also beyond belief that it took 2.5hrs to get you to a hotel. Virgin should have radioed ahead to the Sheraton to make sure they had 300 rooms ready plus a hot meal for everyone, after all it was only 11:30pm.
Next time you fly US-UK, try AA, Continental or even better, US Airways or United. They do know how to look after you should they need to make an unexpected diversion.
Just in case it has gone over your head, I was only joking. I think Virgin did an excellent job in looking after you.

[Hotel Tango]

Well since VS operate a schedule into BOS I would expect that they do have a rep or two there! Secondly, since their codeshare partner is CO there's no reason why they could not provide staff to assist. I would expect airlines the like of VS to have contingency plans in place for such eventualities. If they don't then they're seriously lacking. So, robtheblade, joking or not, it does look as if st13phil may have a point.

[st13phil]

Hotel Tango - My point exactly.

robtheblade - I've flown with other carriers who have managed a much better job of unexpected diversions. If you think that VS's performance was acceptable in this case then you either have very low expectations or you've been browbeaten into thinking that shoddy service is acceptable. It isn't.

Think about it: VS have a scheduled service from BOS so have people there. They knew about the diversion by (I would guess) 8pm which would have given them at least 3hrs to get things organised. If they had a viable plan in place to deal with a diversion then that's not too difficult a task. Based on their performance my assumption at this stage is that either they don't have a viable plan or something went very wrong. Either way it reflects badly on VS.