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VB Random Service Comments - OK... but baggage blues and flight delay
I recently flew on a leisure trip ADL => HBA and HBA => ADL, accompanied by my aged but fit mother.
Random comments:
VB is the only airline that flies ADL <=> HBA non-stop. 1 flight daily. Kudos!
The flight out (ADL => HBA, a Thursday) was about 2/3 full. I booked both me and my mother on the same booking reference. I did online check-in, all went smoothly. The bag drop at Adelaide airport insisted on checking ID - is this normal with VB? Qantas doesn't ask for it and VB didn't ask for it on the return leg.
Mum & I enjoyed The Lounge at Adelaide airport. Smaller and far more intimate than the huge Qantas Club at the Adelaide terminal. Very fresh quality ingredients to enable MYO sandwich construction were on habnd in small quantities and frequently replenished. Good range of beers and wines, all served with a genuine smile. The Barista coffee service was exceptional - terrific quality (better than most comercial coffee bars) and the staff insisted on delivering orders to our table.
Boarding went without incident and after a good lunch in The Lounge we felt no need to use the in-flight catering. Live2Air worked well, though there are better Foxtel channels to show than what was on offer. Sky Business Channel, for example, was not on the menu and would be a killer channel to show for an airline that aspires to taking business travellers away from QF.
Arrival in Hobart was a problem. Mum's bag failed to appear and only after formally reporting the loss did the bag finally appear - sneaked in and left beside a door to the baggage handling area, well away from the conveyor belt. The loss reporting procedure, however, went smoothly and we were promised courier delivery of the bag to anywhere in Tasmania if/when it showed up.
The return flight (HBA => ADL, a Tuesday) was full. I booked this flight using two separate bookings - a joint booking would have cost $115/person whereas two separate bookings were charged as $95 + $115, a $20 saving. The online check-in was interesting. I was placed in the very last row of the plane but I could see available aisle seats right up to row 3. My mum was placed in row 12 but the online checki-in would not allow her to view seats any closer to the front than row 9. She is not a Velocity member whereas I am - although I only fly with VB once or twice a year - could that be the reason?
Anyhow, I was able to move both our seats to either side of the aisle in row 9.
The flight was delayed for over an hour due to "minor engineering problems." There were announcements every 15 minutes promising boarding "within 15 mins" and updating our estimated arrival time in ADL. Useful, to a point. Those with Virgin Mobiles probably helped expand Mr Branson's franchise fee for Virgin Mobile by calling various relatives with ETA updates every 15 mins!
Flight went fine, pleasant staff. We had a couple of drinks, appreciated the credit card payment system, saving us the hassle of finding change. Take note QF.
Live2Air was missing a couple of channels - Fox News permanently 'stuck' with a static picture and a blank screen greeted the MAX channel's viewers.
Arrival was without incident but then Baggage Blues set in again. Mum's bag failed to appear on the conveyor, although a bag somewhat similar to hers remained unclaimed. I went to the Virgin lost baggage counter to file a report and was met with stiff resistance to taking that path by the humourless Virgin operative. She was adamant that "another customer" had taken our bag and there was little she said she could do. We finally managed to get her to do a lost luggage report and take some sort of responsibility. She complained that the only outcome this would achieve would be to generate a welter of paperwork for her. Most unprofessional and not in line with our customer service experiences at other VB points of contact.
Overall, things worked reasonably well with Virgin but after two baggage problems with successive flights, I am concerned that baggage may not get the same management attention as other parts of the company's operations.
As they say, once is an accident, twice is co-incidence, 3 times is a habit. We haven't experienced the third baggage incident yet but we are considering whether to give VB a third chance.
Last edited by SIA1A; 7th March 2008 at 04:37 PM.
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