Virgin Atlantic Reviews

This was an expensive flight to America not an budget airline where you can understand. I have spoke to several people at Virgin regarding this and they agree that the charge is excessive but refuse to do anything to help or even reduce the charge by any amount. I'm disgusted in them and they need to read their reviews on here as most people are having the same experience as me with poor customer service.

I flew with Virgin on Saturday from Manchester to Orlando, being that Manchester was a connecting airport from my previous flight. Upon arriving in Manchester I had to check into the flight, as it was not allowed online nor could the other airline do it at the airport. When checking in I made a point of highlighting we had luggage and asking the Virgin representative to double check that the luggage would be sent to Orlando, which he pretty much dismissed even though I insisted. Upon arriving in Orlando my luggage and my husband's wasn't there, at that point we opened a case and were assured the luggage would be on the next flight in and dropped at our home the next day or Monday at the latest. It is now Saturday of the following week and I still don't have my luggage.

Throughout this week I have had a terrible experience with Virgin Atlantic's staff. I called the next day, and the next, and everyday I was assured the luggage was located, that it would be on the next flight, and that I would be contacted with updates. Unfortunately even the updates worked poorly, I only received one update from a US representative, other than that I had to either call her and leave voicemail messages before hearing back, or I had to contact the customer service line (located in the UK) directly, which was even more complicated with the waiting time, and less helpful, as call center staff do not appear to care one bit about the fact that I am requesting my luggage to be sent over urgently because I have medication in it.

Eventually, in one of the dozens of phone calls I made, I was informed that the luggage was in Orlando, and that once it cleared customs it would be sent to my home. On Friday morning, and without any of the promised phone calls letting me know that the luggage was through customs and would be sent over via FedEx, I get a call from the management office of my apartment complex letting me know that my luggage had been delivered to the front office. Once I got to the front office there was only one bag, my husband's, and FedEx had not contacted me because the Virgin representative had filled in the tag with the wrong phone number.

At this point I contacted Virgin again, the US representative obviously did not answer the phone, I left multiple messages to no end. I then contacted the customer service line and first no one could tell me where my bag was, then eventually they told me it was with the courier, although FedEx had denied having received a second bag. I asked for help, mentioned the urgency of having the bag delivered as I needed the medication today, and now its Saturday night, there is no indication as to where the luggage actually is, when it will be delivered and no useful feedback whatsoever from Virgin.

On top of this, the excuse I've heard constantly is that I cannot get an update or the tracking number for the delivery company because no one can get in touch with the Orlando crew. I have to say that my luggage has been delayed before with other companies and I never saw this level of incompetence nor such a longer delay anywhere. Right now the blunt disregard for my wellbeing is very clear and I am beyond upset with Virgin and its staff.

However our screen stated 'on time' since we entered the lounge but no update on boarding at all. We initially presumed some delay in boarding. We decided 30 mins pre-flight to go to the gate to check what was happening. When we arrived we were told that the gate had closed and we were denied boarding. We argued that the flight was not announced by the staff in the lounge or shown as boarding on the flight screens. We were then shown on our ticket which was issued the previous day a boarding time and told we should have arrived at that time. In the end I had to pay $8000 to book 4 one way economy seats back home with another airline.

I complained to Virgin Atlantic only to be told that Delta do not update flight screens (unlike all the other airlines) to state boarding in the sky lounge and the staff always announce the flight last boarding call (which they did not). Virgin have refused any form of compensation and will not allow us to use the missed flights. I am taking this to the Ombudsman as I feel that there was none of the usual expected announcements I have always relied on for boarding flights over 30 years of flying. We should have been told by Delta Sky staff not to expect the screen to show boarding and to arrive at the Gate at the time shown on the ticket an hour before the flight was due to leave to secure boarding. Let this be a warning to all Virgin/Delta passengers.

This year I am going to Las Vegas with Virgin, yet again. We have had nothing but problems still with this website, some 6 months later. Customer Services keep putting the onus on me and blaming me with an array of excuses. Eventually customer services state that they had booked special dietary meals for us, and yes you have guessed it, it doesn't show on the website again. Every time we tried to update the website with essential information i.e. contact details, it was not accepted, stating that this action could not be carried out.

I sent two screen shots of the website messages to Virgin Atlantic Customer Services to prove what I was saying. Furthermore Virgin Customer Services agreed to select seats one way free for the problems we have incurred for months with this website. Again, yes you have guessed it, the seat selection does not show. The seats that we selected with customer services' help are not selected at all and free for anyone to choose.

Despite many, many complaints to Virgin Atlantic Customer Services I am getting absolutely nowhere. All I am getting is stupid comments like I should clear my cookies, when they themselves cannot carry the actions out and like before it is clear that check-in will not see these actions on their version of the website. So who knows where we will be sitting; I may not even be sitting with my son at all. Virgin Atlantic staff have caused us nothing but stress. I have emailed Richard Branson who does not want to know. I am never going to use Virgin again until they get a proper, decent website. Absolutely disgusting and so stressful.

Unfortunately I feel Virgin are being disingenuous regarding this issue. My wife and I paid over £3000 air fare and do not expect to have to compete with premium and economy passengers who definitely do not fit their alleged criteria. The fact is no one was ‘turned away’ from the other passenger sections and their staff informed us ‘We have to allow any passenger to use the toilets’. The issue therefore remains of the non restricted use of the Upper Class Toilets by both premium and economy passengers.

If they were genuine in trying to keep Upper Class toilets for the main use of Upper Class passengers they could simply make the appropriate announcement over the intercom as well as having notices on the toilets saying - ‘Please note these toilets are for the use of Upper Class Passengers only’. I regret I am still very unhappy that after all these years of being a loyal Virgin customer. I feel unappreciated and uncared for by their lack of concern. What is the point of paying over £3000 for our fare if we have to compete with many other non Upper Class passengers for the use of the toilets? Virgin have forgotten that we -'the passengers' pay their wages and are 'the bosses' of the company.

Another 30 min wait, another person. She admitted the mistake was on their end and a refund would be available in 7 to 10 days. We waited. It never came. We called again. This time they apologized (gave my daughter mileage to begin smoothing it over) and said would give it priority. We asked for an email with the correct booking info and the correct price as proof of what they told me over the phone. An email finally came. It still had the wrong high price and now (shockingly) they moved our departure day to April 9 (without our permission) to compound the problem more. I just happened to find this new error a few days later, (now more in shock), called them and politely went through the phone wait cycle again, got them to correct the day back and agree to send me an email with correct price and date. Email received, corrected the date, still again wrong price and still no refund.

Next day same long phone cycle... Got a rep. She said she could not issue the correct email. I asked for a customer service email. She gave me the email and spelled it out and I repeated it back. Customer.services@fly.virgin.com. I sent an email to that address with all info. Waited days, no reply or acknowledgement. Looked up Virgin customer service. Again shock. She gave me the wrong email. It's Customer.Relations.UK@fly.virgin.com. Wrote that, instantly got an auto reply. Now many days later still no email or call back so while they receive all this, they simply don't care to reply. I've been checking my credit card daily for last 3 weeks, No refund after 3 weeks. Yesterday, I called my credit card company and put a dispute on the charge, but only for the amount expected to be refunded so I don't lose the tickets we booked.

Among the very nice people who tried to help me in VA, there now appears to be a general incompetence or unwillingness to refund even if it is clearly their mistake. This now is the worst collective customer service experience I have ever experienced. Our dream trip in April has started with a nightmare experience dealing with this airline. IT is still unsolved now on Jan 12th for this booking.

There is more to the story. Within minutes of the other family booking, I also booked a RT to London for me on a different schedule and not surprisingly the same glitch occurred, and they overcharge by $2000 on that ticket also. Long story short, after two weeks of another set of wait times, calls, hang-ups, dropped calls, nice ladies, 1 rude man, I finally received the refund owed. That one alone was a bad experience, but I'm still trying to clear up the second set of four tickets and get the $8198 they agreed to... This is now beyond the pale and in British speak I'm absolutely gobsmacked by this.

After multiple calls with Virgin Atlantic reps and waiting for about 45 minutes the Virgin Atlantic supervisor told me that We could not go on the Delta flight because Virgin Atlantic refused to release the ticket to Delta. I then called my travel agent to ask for my options and after talking to them for 3 hours (and them talking to Virgin Atlantic) they found a flight for me going from Detroit->London->Mumbai->Delhi for Dec 17th. I agreed to take that flight and after waiting 30 minutes for confirmation my travel agent advised that Virgin is not allowing them to book that flight because Mumbai to Delhi flight was not Virgin Atlantic. After another 2 hours they were finally able to re-book me on a Virgin Atlantic flight on Dec 21st 5 days after my original departure of Dec 16th. My travel agent CheapOair also charged me $4100 extra to re-book my flights (of which I'm told $2318.16 went to Virgin Atlantic).

As a result of that I had to cancel my flights within India between Delhi and Mumbai which cost me additional $350 in re-booking charges. Had Virgin allowed me to take the Delta Flight at 10:30 PM on Dec 16th and charged me appropriate fees, I'd have been able to maintain rest of my journey. They have caused me and my my family financial and extreme mental anguish which should be compensated. Virgin takes no responsibility and doesn't even want to discuss with me the situation leave aside. Very unfriendly customer service and utter disregard for their customers.

I was asked to go to the other place and even there was NO ASSISTANCE for baggage when I was crossing through security to go to the different gate. I had baggage which was also quite heavy and I was not able to carry. In fact, I was ripping because I was neither getting any help from Airport staff nor from Virgin Atlantic. Sorry to mention but this type of service I have never seen by any other airline. I thought that Virgin Atlantic is one of most premium airlines and they would have better courtesy but my impression was ABSOLUTELY WRONG.

I have traveled by the other airlines also and would find that Cathay Pacific is the best when you land at Hong Kong, at the exit of the plane one gentleman is waiting to receive you with wheelchair and throughout they are helpful. Even other airlines like Jet, China Eastern, Air India are much better. Next best would be Emirates. I have traveled many many times and they are very very cordial, helpful and extend full cooperation. Once I landed at Pusan airport by China Eastern and staff was just waiting to receive me and throughout they were very helpful.

In your case this time when I asked Virgin Atlantic for help the answer I got from your staff at London Heathrow airport that airport staff is responsible and they are service provider not Virgin Atlantic. I TOTALLY DISAGREE with this type of stupid answers given by your staff at Heathrow airport. Under the above situation I need to claim damages from you for suitable compensation. I have suffered a lot and because of back pain even I had not been able to work for almost 5 days. This was ONLY on account of IRRESPONSIBLE ATTITUDE of Virgin Atlantic. If I don't get any satisfactory reply through you about damages/my claim, I will have to proceed with a different action plan. Thank you for your understanding.

What they fail to understand and this is where the absolute terrible lack of customer service, is that they held my bag for 8 days. Yes, I understand for those couple days when someone else takes my bag, they will not reimburse, BUT what about all those other 8 days!! Really? Unbelievable. Not only do I have clothes expenses but also cell phone charges because had to constantly keep it on hoping to get a good update from Virgin. I had to call them daily and incur international phone charges. They never called me. Not flying Virgin again.

I may add Turkish Airlines charged her additional $675.00 to rebook for the next day flight. Virgin Airways employees had lied to us on several occasions, suggesting the delay is for the reasons beyond our control. Initially, they had told us, the delay was due to weather. When we had told them that can't be the case, they change their position to be mechanical failure. That meant my daughter had to spend at Starbucks for 36 hours. This is the ultimate of any parent. The entire time we were treated like dirt. If you a person of color, stay away from Virgin Airways. Trust, we know what we are talking what.

How many of us have not been able to use our air miles? On top of all this one must question the whole system of air miles. Presumably once the miles are issued they become a liability in the company accounts which means they reduce the company profit which means the airline pays less tax. Over the years this liability must get to a very high figure which will never in fact be expended because we can't get to use our miles in the first place because the airline stops us and controls that expenditure. In other words it is a massive tax saving to the airline. Perhaps the Government should investigate these schemes where we are it seems given a gift that cannot be used whilst they get tax saving on that same gift that will probably never be used. I have found that frankly I have been misled by the site and I am sure thousands more have too. The travel industry should investigate this too!

I've just booked flights for a trip in March and the whole package (including Delta Comfort+ on three legs of the journey) was less than the quoted basic Virgin economy fare. Using the Delta booking I was then able to reserve an exit seat on the only Virgin flight for $65. The other bonus if it anything fouls up in the USA I'll be dealing the Delta agents not Virgin.

As for poor customer service? Sadly, that's just typical of all UK airlines. If it's any consolation BA are far worse. The airline attitude to passengers here is that they are simply 'walking cargo' and until that changes your experience flying on any UK-based airline is likely to be less than satisfactory. I've just flown on a BA transatlantic route that was so short-crewed. The passengers in the exit rows (I was in one) were told they were in charge of evacuation in an emergency - the crew jump seats by the exits weren't occupied.

We contacted the baggage services with all necessary papers within the time frame but had maybe 2 replies and solution and that after over a year of the incident! My travel partner is travel agent as well and has never seen or heard of anything similar. Consequences are for myself that I can certainly not recommend an airline like the aforementioned and that I will never use them again!

I complained directly to Delta and got results, but I do not know if I ever would have seen those benefits without filing a complaint. My only complaint now is that Virgin Atlantic does not fully honor Delta's baggage policy when it comes to certain levels of SkyMiles membership (extra bag for Silver booking with Delta's AMEX card).

Original Review: Sept. 12, 2015

Virgin Atlantic did not honor Delta's baggage allotment and I received neither medallion qualification miles nor medallion qualification dollars for the Virgin Atlantic portion of my flight. The people at the Virgin Atlantic check-in/baggage check counter were not helpful at all! I later found out that the baggage rules were at the bottom of my six-page receipt. I could not choose my seat or check in through Delta's Website and also had to pay Virgin Atlantic to pre-book a window seat (bad hip - helps to lean against the wall). So far, I have not received any Delta medallion qualifying miles or dollars for the Virgin Atlantic leg of my trip. The next time I fly Delta, I will make sure not to book any portion of my trip on a Virgin Atlantic flight unless it is the only way to get me to or from where I have to travel on time.

This is disturbing because if there was anything the airline was querying or suspicious about, I feel she should have been there when her bag gets ransacked and her clothing items being roughly shoved into the bag as anything which she did not pack could have landed in that bag e.g. drugs or any illegal stuff and she gets implicated in something she did not do/know. Her shopping she did at Chicago is not in the bag. When we get to open and check the bag on arrival at home, a pair of her shoes is missing and she got 1 shoe from the other pair.

I'm disappointed by this and will think twice to fly Virgin Atlantic again or refer anybody to fly with your airline. My daughter was so excited and looking forward to this trip. Going, she was fine and happy and the care she got from the crew who flew out of SA with her was amazing but after leaving Chicago, she was not impressed. I've lodged a complaint with the customer relation and got automated message that someone will get back to me in 14 days. I haven't heard anything from anybody up to date 16 days down the line.

The person I spoke to, named Ian, told me that a claim was never made and that they only allow claims made within 7 days. I DID make a claim, or I thought I had, as that was what the person at the airport told me. I'm now having to submit the claim by email (hoping I still held on to my ticket and luggage tag, which they require as additional proof) along with the receipt for my purchase and an estimate for replacement. Ian (who claimed to be the only manager available at the time of the call) was defiant that they only accept claims sent within 7 days but I could try to email their baggage claim team anyway and they would investigate it.

I am so livid with this, given all that we spent to fly premium economy so our child could meet his British relatives, to have his stroller and my trust in Virgin completely ruined. I doubt I will hear back from anyone at Virgin but I wanted to put it out there as I hope no one else has to suffer like I did. And last but not least, I would have forgotten all this and put it behind me if I had our claim handled as I was lead to believe it was, and we had our new stroller in hand.

On reaching the hotel there was no one from the Virgin Atlantic staff to help us. We had no water or food as some of us were really hungry and thirsty. I had to pay 4 pounds for a small bottle of water at the Hilton hotel. There was no one and I repeat NO ONE to help us with our luggage, leave the younger generation the older generation who were anyway so worried were taking their bags off the bus on their own until some of us helped them. A family did not get a room until my father went and gave them our room as we had taken two and ended staying in one. Night ended at 3:30, after being at the airport for hours.

Some of the passengers flew to Delhi in the morning on British airways, while some of us are flying the night Virgin flight same time as the cancelled one. So we woke up in the morning and were asked to check out... hello?!! Our flight is at 10 PM we don't want to sit at the airport from noon! On calling the Virgin services from the hotel they said we can pay for the stay and they will reimburse it but it's a long procedure... I'm sorry Richard firstly I don't want to pay for my day stay and secondly I don't want to go through the process of reimbursement. I have been travelling Virgin Atlantic since the past 4 years and it's been very good and I thoroughly enjoy my time on the flight, but this was really not expected the way we were treated was absolutely upsetting. There was no care given to any of the passengers from first class, premium economy or economy.

Priority should have been given to the older generation and the first class passengers as we are paying you a lot for this, for when a flight is cancelled how it should be your responsibility to take care of us in a better manner, how our luggage should be taken care of, how there should have been assistance given to the elderly. I really feel as my money has gone to waste. I understand it was last minute and was chaos for everyone, thanks for the place to stay but I've really been disappointed and Mr. Richard Branson you really need to fix a plan on what to do when a flight is cancelled. Really really was a bad experience for all of us travelling to Delhi on VS300 as we were not looked after at all and were left in the lurch.

Get this. After you book the flight then you find out you can't pick your seats! If you wanted a guaranteed seating together it will cost $40 for each, each way. In other words $160. Should have known then this was a bad way to go. They make it sound so good that all of your food and beverages are included. My daughter just wanted to get me away from it all and enjoy time together. We had so much time to make up for. Well, our flight out of CLE was delayed three times and we called Virgin's customer service line, which takes forever to get through. The lady seemed very helpful at the time. She said if we missed our flight they would reschedule us. That's all she said.

We landed in Boston at 9:41 pm. Our London flight was leaving at 9:50 pm. By the time we got from Concourse B to E, there was no one at the Virgin counters. We continued to the game anyway. No one there to assist. All went home right away. We were stuck overnight in Boston. Called Virgin first thing in the morning. Found out that they could rebook us on the same flight that evening for $1500.00 more!!! Well, we showed up at the ticket counter that evening and explained we should have a booking, then only to find out they lied again and it will cost $3000.00 - Yes, $1500.00 EACH! We were crushed, no exceptions of any kind. We even asked then for a refund. They said they could try but do not know if it would go through. This is robbery in every sense of the word. Even a military person who has served this country.

We never went to London, lost out on our hotel $$, Convention ticket money. Lost a lot of money on this dream vacation of a lifetime. If you have two empty seats from one night that were paid for but were able to get them on the next night's flight, I do not see how they think they lost money. And I would be they probably filled up those two seats the first night. We paid $1640 together for our tickets. Now you are charging up Upper Class prices for economy seats. Are you crazy??? Went from "We can reschedule you" --- to "It will be 1500.000" -- to "It will be $3000.00."

Never ever again and never will recommend Virgin to anyone. Was so looking forward to their top of the line treatment in any class flown. There was a British Airways flight leaving at 10:30 pm that first night and gentleman at the boarding desk was so much nicer to us when we stopped to ask him a question. We so wish we went with them and we would have been on our way to London. I am more devastated for my daughter and her dream of taking her mom on a trip of her lifetime. If only Sir Richard Branson knew how his employees are representing him. I can't believe he would put up with it. More bad unsettling reviews will hurt his business eventually. London will always be there. Don't know if we will ever get another opportunity to plan a trip like this. If we can, I don't want to be going in a wheelchair. Sadly disappointed.

On top of that, as if that isn't enough, I have been on the phone to their so-called "customer services" for 2 days straight. I have been referred to other depts and agents, been quoted misinformation and irrelevant information, I have been hung up on 3 times, been told that I cannot speak to a manager by two separate agents (apparently managers don't want to deal with complaints from customers at Virgin) and been lied to by Virgin representatives. I was also told by one of their agents that they only have a fleet of 40 aircrafts as opposed to BA who have a fleet of 400 and I should have flown BA. Strange thing for a customer service agent to say to a client.

I thought Virgin was an airline which prided itself on its customer service and experience but I have to say this is the worst I have ever been treated by any company. I travel a lot as I am in the process of moving my family to LA and I will certainly never be flying this joke airline again! I am truly disgusted at how they think they can get away with treating customers and how they feel they can manipulate the rules to suit themselves. Their COCs seem to be all about how they deem changes to affect customers not the inconsiderations and problems they cause the customer!

Original Review: Nov. 5, 2014

In June 2014 I arrived at Gatwick Airport to board a flight to Las Vegas. On arrival at check in there was no record of my booking and after lengthy discussions and record searching, it transpired that I had become a victim of a scam by a member of Virgin Atlantic Cabin Crew. After supplying Virgin Atlantic with all the documentation etc, they refused to accept any responsibility for their employee's action and would not reimburse me for monies lost. The employee was disciplined and later sacked but still they refused my claim. As soon as they realised I had a valid claim against them, they closed ranks and refused to deal with me. They harp on about their excellent customer service but believe you me, if there is any possibility of discrediting their "Wonderful" image, they try to use their legal might to shut you up.

Also on Mumbai airport, they asked us to pack our laptop bags - pack in any of 4 check-in bags only. They said, they won't allow free bag-packs. so last moment, me and my wife had to adjust our bag-pack stuff in check-in bags. Had they not told us about refund, I could have kept my bag-packs and would have checked in as separate bags because I had already paid for my bags. But instead, Virgin people asked me to pack everything in 4 free check-in bags and file for refund.

Two days later, I was so frustrated that I called the Vancouver airport myself and found someone in "Lost and Found", who took pity on me when I explained my situation and found a baggage handler who worked for the airport. He took my cell number and called me back the next day to tell me he had found my bag in the Virgin Atlantic baggage room. My bag had been sitting there for three days! The baggage handler had it put on the next flight to Heathrow and four days after I flew to London, I received my bag with the handle broken.

I saved my receipts to be reimbursed and was just sent an email that they will not be reimbursing me because they were received past their deadline. I travel a lot and this is the worst airline experience I have ever had. I will never fly with Virgin Atlantic again.

Our son then in the middle of the night was walking the streets of NY & even slept in Central Park. Anything could have happened to him. We didn't hear from him. When we found out from Virgin he wasn't on the flight, we were worried sick. We were phoning NY Police, our home office, foreign office, you name it, we phoned it. Finally, we got a phone call from him at the British Consulate and we then managed to arrange ANOTHER flight, also send him some money via Western Union so he could eat and drink.

I've complained to Virgin and all they could offer was some air miles which I've told them I'm not interested and it's an insult to our son and ourselves. Also there would be an internal matter into the woman who swore and threatened him which we would not know the results of. In other words, they were not going to pursue the matter. I thought British Airways was bad but with the experience we've had with Virgin, if we ever fly again it certainly won't be with Virgin Airways. Rude, arrogant, ignorant and totally unhelpful.

I showed up several hours in advance for my flight and was told that the flight was delayed. The staff blatantly lied and said that the delay was due to weather issues, but after checking, I found out that they were the only one experiencing difficulties and delays - all other airlines were on time. Your staff ended up admitting that you had a shortage on crew. So there we stood; hungry, tired, and late, after waiting for many hours. I told the staff that I had my best friend's wedding to go to, and asked if there was any way that I could pay more to go with another airplane or another flight. Her response was "Doctor, don't worry about the wedding. You will be there for the after party!" Can you believe this level of unprofessionalism and disrespect? I not only missed my friend's wedding, but I also lost my prepaid transportation to the hotel and had an overall horrible experience, which, thankfully, was all recorded on video and audio.

Instead of arriving at 7:50, I got to my hotel at 1:00 AM! I missed my friend's wedding, paid $80 for a taxi cab, paid for a hotel room that I barely used, and had an overall horrible experience initiated by Virgin Airlines' horrible service. Your staff then had the audacity to apologize and say that they could give me a $50 voucher if I wanted. Do you think that type of unprofessionalism and disrespect can be resolved with a $50 voucher? Is that the way Virgin Atlantic treated its clients? I anticipate your response and some justification for this horrible experience.

"We are truly sorry for any inconvenience caused by the continued delays you experienced when traveling through San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Unfortunately SFO experiences more delays than the average airport due to low ceilings from that famous San Francisco fog. Also, the shorter runways located right next to the water, combined with the fact that there are only two runways operating at SFO, make for difficult landings/takeoffs in adverse conditions. Again we apologize for any inconvenience this caused you."

There were no refunds, no vouchers, no nothing! They're just a poor excuse for an airline!

When she finally came on the phone, her tone of voice was like a bull in a china shop! She didn't want to hear my complaint and continued to talk over me! Much to my frustration, I said, "This is a joke! You won't even hear what I have to say." To my surprise, she said, "Right, if you are going to call me a joke, then I don't want to continue this conversation." Please! What conversation - a conversation is meant to be when people are actively listening to one another. It was clear to me that she had no time for me. I question how did this lady become a supervisor? Also, she lied to me; she assured me someone would call me back by a certain time and they didn't. Even more upsetting, she encouraged me to speak to the agent who messed up my booking in the first place.

I flatly told her that I did not want to speak to him. Well, this is where it got even more frustrating. I got a callback from the guy who made the error (the one I clearly didn't want to speak to). He was absolutely awful - spoke in such a rude manner that I eventually had to disconnect the call as I was so livid about his behavior. Having already wasted almost 2 hours, I continued my quest to rectify my account. As soon as I spoke to another agent, I asked them straight away that I'd like to speak to a supervisor. Sadly, it took a further hour to finally speak to one after going through the scratched record process of explaining my issues - being told I can call back in a few days, my account is correct, blah, blah, blah.

Then I spoke to a supervisor/manager, who finally listened carefully to my complaint. Some of my faith had been restored in Virgin. However, sourness remained at how those two people from the Swansea call centre had spoken to me. I am pleased to say after approximately 3.5 hours of being on the phone in total to Virgin with a croaky voice and a empty tum, finally they corrected my account. I will continue to follow up on my complaint directly with Virgin, as I do not want other customers to experience what I did. Virgin needs to remember that we as customers choose whom we wish to travel with - and especially those loyal customers who choose to fly with you often should be given the customer service we deserve.

Sadly, I was let down by your company. Virgin needs to actively listen to all their customers' complaints and deal with them in an effective and courteous manner. What I see in this forum is not comforting.Please, please, please. Can you sort this out and ultimately respect all customers from booking to check-in to after sales care and in flight. Else, sadly, you will be viewed as one of the worst airlines out there. Do you really want that reputation? You should treat all your customers - regardless of age, race, class of travel, etc. - with exceptional customer service.

I await my official response from Virgin. I recently followed up my complaint with customer relations, and so far, I must say additional faith in Virgin has gone up another notch. But again sadly, it should never have needed to speak to this department. Apparently, there's an approximate time they will deal with your complaint - I believe it's anything from 4 to 8 weeks. Again, this is quite alarming. Are there that many complaints to deal with? Virgin, please can you restore my faith in you by 100 percent? I look forward to your official response. Lastly Virgin, I would recommend that you record every single call between customers and your staff. Sadly, your Swansea call centre calls are not recorded. Therefore, your staff are clearly aware of this and are given free range to speak however they wish to speak - without consequences! Had my calls been recorded, these would be excellent customer training material - lesson 101 "This is how not to speak to customers!"

I contacted Virgin on 8/25/12 to discuss what had just happened, only to be told that our return ticket was also cancelled even though we were supposed to fly out the very next day! I had hotels booked and rail service already paid for, so changing the dates of the trip was not an option. I purchased two round-trip tickets with KLM that were cheaper than VA and we left the next day at 2 pm.

I want a refund on the $2808.40 that I paid for the Virgin Atlantic flights that you cancelled due to your staff not allowing us to get to the gate. Your upstairs staff said making the flight was no problem if we were in the building, and we were there at 3:34 pm. I was left with no choice but to buy an additional trip after learning my return tickets were cancelled. A refund should be paid given that VA sold the same seats twice. Can this be legal?

When we bought our tickets, all was well and the connections gave us enough time to catch all of our flights. However, when Virgin Atlantic moved the time of our outbound flight from London Gatwick to Havana (Cuba) forward to two hours earlier than indicated when the tickets were sold, the whole planning was an upset. We were forced to buy new tickets to be in London the night before and also book hotel accommodation for one night.

We sent our complaint letter to Virgin Atlantic asking them to compensate us for said expenses. Virgin Atlantic has so far refused to grant us any compensation. According to them, they fulfilled their part of the deal. We strongly disagree. That is why we wrote to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority and are currently waiting for their reply.

We argue that passengers such as ourselves may in some circumstances be expected to make allowances for some unavoidable delays, but to sell us tickets expecting us, the consumers, to take into account the possibility of departures earlier than advertised upon purchase (in our case, of two hours) is not an acceptable demand for an airline to make from us.

It is only fair that we be compensated for these expenses occasioned by Virgin Atlantic's decision to reschedule their flight. This is the other end of the spectrum of the cases mentioned in this press release of the EU Commission.

I had to call three different numbers before getting someone because I was calling internationally. I called and a young man answered, I told him my dilemma and how I needed to change my flight to the soonest as possible. Well, he hung up on me, I called back and got the same guy who upon hearing me say "I believe we got disconnected", hung up on me again. At this point, I'm an emotional mess because of the issues causing me to go home, dealing with another airline to get out of Italy, and now this.

I called back one more time and got this very very nice lady who listened to me cry and listened to my story, told me she would take care of me and wouldn't put me on hold if it made me feel better. She found me another flight, but it was almost a week away when my mother said she was told there were many seats open on flights sooner than that. I had to fly home Sept 11 which made me nervous, but was told there were no earlier seats available. I finally agreed and she said they would also change my connecting flight from LAX to LAS for me since I had bought it through them.

Guess what, they didn't. I found myself in LAX (when I finally got to the States) with no flight home. I had been traveling for over 32 hours and had to fight with US Airways over my flight (that I had a confirmation number for) that was supposed to be leaving in little over an hour. I had to pay a fee for my baggage, which I was never told about and was belittled because "it wasn't their problem, but mine" since Virgin "didn't do their job".

Recently, out of the blue, I received an email from Virgin informing me that Virgin’s schedule had changed the flight time on my return trip from Heathrow to San Francisco. The new departure time was so early that it would be impossible to get from the port to Heathrow in time to make the flight (I confirmed this with the cruise line). I called Virgin’s customer service department on 12/14/11 and the customer service rep told me that they could move my flight to the next morning at no additional fee. Stupidly, I lost where I’d written her name down. She told me shed make a note on the reservation while I confirmed with my wife. I called back the next day and got Jacob on the line. He then told me that he would be happy to make that change, but there would be a small change fee. I asked about the conversation I had the prior day, and they said that person gave me the wrong information.

I went back and forth with him, finally demanding to speak to his supervisor. He argued that he couldn’t transfer me to a supervisor and even if he could, they wouldn’t be able to help. I persisted and finally convinced him to put me through to a supervisor. I was twenty minutes on hold and then got me to the supervisor Melissa (might have been Vanessa).

I went round and round with her and got absolutely nowhere. It was the most maddening conversation of my life! She informed me that it would be a change fee of $601.80! Finally, I asked what the cancellation fee would be, thinking that I’d rather pay that and book somewhere else than fly with Virgin. She said that since I had a non-refundable fare, it would be the cost of the entire fare. I didn’t know how to respond. Finally, given that I really had no choice, I told her to make the change and let her know that I would never fly Virgin again.

When factoring in the cost of now having to stay an additional night in London, this is costing us almost the amount of adding a third ticket! We felt trapped by this scam. We have no choice because we can’t change our cruise plans. I just feel like we’ve been ripped off for the holidays. I only know that I won’t ever spend another penny with any of Virgin or any of its affiliate companies.

There’s no resolution yet. I emailed their customer service department and a travel consumer advocate to see if I can get any resolution.

I was accompanying my daughter and my 22-month-old twin granddaughters back to London where they live. She, her husband and children had traveled to Canada, came to Miami and were now returning home. My son-in-law had to return to work last Sunday, February 23 and he also encountered problems at the mercy of VA. Since it is terribly hard to fly with two very young same aged children, I bought my own ticket in Miami to be able to assist her. I would be returning on February 8. They bought their tickets in London through Continental with this leg of the journey operated by Virgin.

When we arrived at the desk last night, the employee who was checking us in could not find my granddaughter Noemi's reservation. They said that they could see the reservation but not the confirmation that she was indeed supposed to be on that flight. My daughter reminded them that they had flown from London and that this was their return trip and last leg of their journey, that they had paid a fare for Noemi so that they could have a confirmed seat for one of the girls and that their father, Jason **, had flown last Sunday in this same flight had to deal with the same problem but that one of the employees had figured it out and had no further difficulties returning to London. That employee was not present last night.

When I asked to talk to a supervisor and they pointed to him, he was standing on our side of the counter. I had seen him before and thought he was a limousine driver waiting for a customer since he was not wearing a VA uniform, had no identification on his shirt, was disheveled, and when dealing with my daughter, he was unprofessional and incredibly rude and uncaring. He told us that we needed to go to the Continental desk to figure this out. That it was not a Virgin Atlantic problem. I protested that we had two babies, our hand luggage and that there had to be a better way for Virgin to figure this out than to send us packing to another airline which VA was supposed to be servicing. The supervisor's name is Manny ** and his attitude towards my daughter was highly unprofessional. She remained as calm as could be expected dealing with incompetent personnel and trying to calm her babies.

Under protest, we walked to the Continental desk with our exhausted little girls, because the supervisor would not assist us. I would have thought that a telephone call from one airline to the other would do the trick but they insisted we had to go to the Continental desk. When we got there, we did not find a soul in the over 20 stations of the Continental desk. It was deserted hence no one to ask any questions. We walked back to tell Manny that he had sent us on a wild goose chase but he looked at us with a blank stare and his employees continued their own blank placidity staring at the glare of their computers.

We decided to fly the next day because they wanted us to pay a child's fare for Noemi or otherwise we would have had to fly for 9 hours with a child on our lap after having paid to avoid that very situation. There were no apologies, no words of comfort for 4 exhausted people standing in front of the counter, no suggestion that we sit, while they sorted this out, no offer of refreshments for the girls perhaps or a kind word to an abused passenger and ultimately no solution to our predicament, which was really VA's predicament or Continental's predicament.

If this is the way that Virgin deals with its customers, and I know it is not my experience with you, I can assure you that I am not looking forward to flying with you tonight when all this is sorted out and we actually get on a plane. I am not surprised that people complain about air travel these days. Getting on a plane is a hassle with the TSA regulations and impediments and the long lines to actually get to a plane. We didn't even have the benefit of their attention because we never made it there.

It was the most exhausting evening of our lives. Do you think that Virgin offered a ride home perhaps and a return to the airport? Not on your life. While this was supposedly a clerical mishap, it involved a mother, her two young children and their exhausted grandmother. A bottle of water for the little girls would have been welcome attention. An apology would have been nice. We were treated like criminals trying to get on a flight. No, I take that back. Criminals would have certainly been treated better and probably upgraded to upper class. Shame on you Virgin Atlantic.

Then, I called to schedule my "future travel" for May 5, 2011 to May 13, 2011. Simon told me that although the new flight was only $645 (and I paid $1,300 for the old flight), that I would still be required to pay $449 in change fee and taxes! Apparently, I was deemed a No Show and they have no record of my cancellation, even though I specifically sent an email to cancel the same day that I called.

They have given me the run-around, denied emails that I have record of, indicating that I could use the value of the ticket towards another flight, and tried to weasel more money out of me. Out of $1,300, they would have only applied $200 to the new ticket. Profiting $1,100 with no service rendered seems clearly fraudulent!

Now, it has been four weeks since the cancellation and I still haven't seen my refund, nor received an email confirming that I'll be receiving my refund. I had it with waiting. I spoke to four agents from Virgin Atlantic and I asked about an email confirmation about my refund. They stated that I will receive something. But all four of Virgin Atlantic reps clearly lied to me because I still have yet to receive anything. Today is January 24th and still no response. All they keep saying is for me to wait six to eight weeks for my refund. Virgin Atlantic can take money immediately, but the fact that it would take them two months to refund my money is ridiculous.

On reaching London, I knew that I had missed my flight. However, there was no ground staff waiting to help us. Instead, we were told to go to the transfer desk in the baggage reclaim area which we were unable to get to as we could not clear immigration without a confirmed onward flight. We had to go back clear security and then find the transfer desk inside. The agent there re-booked us on the next day's BA flight to EWR and assured us that our luggage would get delivered to BA enabling us to travel unencumbered. We got out and confirmed this with a Virgin Atlantic Agent outside and she confirmed this as well. However, the next day when we reached the airport, the BA agent informed us that they had no idea where the luggage was and we needed to travel from terminal 5 to terminal 3, pick up our luggage and come back.

We were extremely upset at hearing this but made our way to T3 where we asked to speak to the customer manager. Jeanine, the customer manager there was extremely unhelpful and took 20 minutes to locate our luggage. By the time she could tell us what to do and by the time we reached T5 again, we had missed our flight again! Coming back to T3, the staff there was remarkably unapologetic at their goof ups and just calmly told us that they would book us at the 4PM flight. We were offered no compensation, no vouchers, no upgrades and no courtesy! We did manage to reach EWR finally and got all our luggage. However, we had to pay extra for parking, meals and travel related expenses in London! I will not be traveling with this airline ever again and will advise all of my friends and family to boycott this airline as well. This was my worst traveling experience ever!

Upon hanging up and calling back, I spoke with another colleague of his called Fabian, who actually hung up on me! Now I find this to be surprising and disappointing customer service from an airline such as Virgin. Almost every single person I know flies frequently with Virgin, as do my family and we all have done so for years. I don't know if this man has treated other Nigerian customers like this in the past and gotten away with it but I feel the need to have this issue addressed.

I have not had any problems with Virgin up till now and as a matter of fact have often enjoyed my experience and I'm not really willing to let one rude customer service operative drive me away. However, as a Nigerian customer, I am willing to begin petition, start a Facebook page, write to newspapers, put up the conversation on YouTube, whatever it's going to take to demand better customer assistance from Virgin Atlantic. Nigerians love Virgin. We need to know that Virgin values us back. To worsen matters, the email address given on the website is not a valid one and all you get when trying to make a complaint is an error message.

We were returning to the U.S. after a four-day visit to London. We were delayed leaving because I had been feeling ill that day. We arrived rushing as best we could, and were even held up by Virgin staff trying to sell a seat upgrade. By the time we arrived at the baggage check-in, it was 3:05 PM and our flight was leaving at 4 PM. The agent took a few moments to review our documents, then asked someone else whether we could still put our bags on the flight and that person said no.

Given that there were other passengers who were already at the check-in desk when we arrived, who still were loading their bags, I know it was merely a Virgin policy to not allow us to load the bags and not any other restriction from the airport. What was the next and only option?

They charged us almost $600 more to take seats on a flight four hours later that was 70% empty. It sent an unmistakable signal: Virgin enjoys sticking it to customers who had some bad fortune. Again, don't risk a flight on this airline. It's like the worst of the credit card companies or other shysters in the market - the second they can find a reason and know you have no alternative, they'll unjustly suck as much money out of you as they can.

This was all lie. This morning I was checking the availability of seats between Cleveland, OH to Delhi, India. Your representative could not offer me anything on Continental in the next 3 months, whereas with Continental OnePass Miles, I can get seat for the above sector even for next week and next month. Moreover, I was told that you will charge me miles for both US - US and US - India for the above sector, whereas Continental would only charge me miles for one sector i.e. US-India.

Their online calendar is a joke and the biggest joke is the online e-mail system, which crashes every time I want to send an e-mail to customer service. Do these people have any explanation for all the chaos?

I have been explaining the situation to Virgin since that time but they refused to accept responsibility for this problem. They first advised me to pursue a refund from Jet Airways whose flight I missed and have more recently advised me to see if I can claim under my travel insurance. As far as I know, there isn't a clause where I can claim for the mistakes of airlines who do not have the decency to pay for their mistakes. This woman stuck labels coded for Mumbai onto our luggage and told us it was going to Goa! What can you do with that? We weren't able to see the labels until we collected our luggage so had no way of knowing or reason to believe that she had got it wrong.

Having been a customer of Virgin for quite a number of years and recommending you to friends and work colleagues, I have to say I am very disappointed. Your comments would be most appreciated on this matter. No response, so on 23.12.09 (12.23.09 US) I e-mailed asking why I had not had a response. I then e-mailed some directors at Virgin and was fobbed off with 3000 Virgin points credited to my account. I phoned today (13.01.10) with a message advising that due to bad weather conditions many staff had not made it to work and there would be a delay. Some 10 minutes later I am answered by someone in India! I resisted the temptation to ask how he managed to get to work through the snow! A very dissatisfied customer.

Due to a delay by the Dept. of Home Affairs in South Africa in issuing my infant daughter's passport, we had been delayed in applying for the required visas. We had not planned this purposely and was not intentional. Due to the delay in applying for these visas, we have now been forced to move our flight booking by a week. I have done this via phone this morning with the Johannesburg office.

My issue and complaint lies in the fact that I was charged almost 75% of the original purchase price of these tickets to do this. Please understand that these delays were caused by factors that I could not have influenced. If the change of dates were as a direct result of my own neglect, I could understand that I am liable. However, charging such an astronomical price to change a ticket is not fair. I have made the payment, but it was done under duress as I feel I was forced to do this or face the prospect of cancelling my family holiday and losing all monies already paid for booked events and accommodation.

Please note that my company makes use of other Virgin products such as Virgin Mobile and Virgin Money. This does not put the Virgin brand in good stead with me at all and should you not be able to assist in this regard, I will most certainly think twice about making use of your services and those of other Virgin products again in the future. Could you please look into this situation and give me feedback on how it can be remedied if at all?

I had originally booked a flight from JFK, New York to Heathrow, London for the 10th of April (last week). A couple days before the flight, a close family friend passed away. I had to postpone my departure to attend the funeral. So, on Thursday, the 9th, I spoke with one of your service representatives (who did not provide me his name, but sounded to be in a South Asian call center). I asked for the next available date of comparable fare. This was apparently too confusing for him, so I had to give him a specific date. He did some typing and responded with, "I'm sorry sir, but there are no available flights that day. Would you like me to search another date?" I took a deep breath to calmly prepare for what I realized was going to be a very painful phone call.

Several minutes later, we had found that the next available flight would be about two weeks later (approaching my return date). I realized that, considering the $200 change fee, I might be better off just booking a one-way flight with another airline. The representative said, "Sir, I can make this an 'open ticket' and you can call back once you've decided on the date." Great! I thought. Thanks, I'll do that.

Today, the 13th of April at 3:40 pm EST, I called back in an attempt to finalize arrangements. I spoke with a woman named Donna, but from the quality of the connection and her accent, I figured that I was again connected with a call center and her name probably wasn't Donna anyway. I gave her my booking reference and quickly brought her up to speed. She informed me that there was no note or anything to indicate that I had an open ticket and, in fact, I had been listed as a no-show for my flight. Understanding that the first representative had apparently taken no action during our call and was instead probably organizing his post-its or photos of his family, I sighed and figured we'd press on and see what could be done. She said that I could re-book the outbound flight as part of the same trip but that in addition to the change fee, I would likely have to pay an additional no-show fee. I gave her some dates to search and she kindly put me on hold ... for about 10 minutes. When she returned, she let me know that in addition to the $200 change fee, there would be a $350 no-show fee (note: my original round-trip fare was about $460). Additionally, the difference in fare would be about $980. So, to rebook this flight, I would have to pay over $1500. The sheer stupidity hurt my brain.

I quickly did a web search and found one-way flights for $500-$600. I politely explained to her that $1500 made absolutely no sense whatsoever and I would really have no rational choice but to fly one-way with another airline. Though, as I'm writing this, I am thinking that I better call back to make sure no one has canceled my return ticket and pocketed my money. I have no confidence in the Virgin customer service, so I'm going to have to get on that call now and suffer a bit more.

I'd like to inject an important side note to this experience, while I'm on hold. The Virgin Atlantic website is all but useless. You can't actually manage your booking. Manage Your Flights really only means online check-in. When I first logged in, there were a list of account actions, including change your dates, but the actions didn't link anywhere. There was a note next to it, as a question mark image, that also did not click, but I was able to decipher that holding my cursor over it would reveal other useless information. I tried clicking a customer service link, which ultimately timed out and loaded no page. I did some additional searching for fares and promotional fares which gave me some results but also the note, "Are your dates flexible? We found a cheaper fare for $xx." When I clicked the related link, it just took me back to the original promotional fares / search page. It's completely and utterly useless. Overall, I'd say this website is so horribly behind all of the competition that there is no real use to even having attempting to use it.

So, I'm back on hold now after speaking to a competent representative named Pirshan(?). I have just learned that when a traveler is a no-show for their departure flight, the whole booking gets canceled. This means that I no longer have a return flight. So, had I booked another one-way flight, I would be in quite a bit of trouble! I explained the situation, and the primary problems are that the original agent did not make any note on the account, and I failed to get his name (which I really regret, but I had other things on my mind, i.e., the upcoming funeral arrangements, schedules) at the time. So, they could try to review calls from the date/time I provide them, but without a name, it's quite hard. I understand this. Pirshan also understood that the fees and costs associated with making changes would be 3 times the cost of just booking a new trip through the Virgin-Atlantic website. Why didn't the last representative understand that basic reality of mathematics? So, the minutes are ticking by. We shall see the result. In the meantime, I'm searching flights with competitors. After all, if I have to rebook, I think Virgin has already gotten quite enough of my money, without having to render any service in return.

So, I got off hold. There's nothing they can do for me. There are so many ways in which they could have been accommodating and made some more money off me, but alas, they're not equipped with the knowledge to actually generate revenue for their business. I've just booked a new flight with another airline. I don't think I'll be booking with Virgin again anytime soon. Now I'm exhausted and in need of a drink.

Lost all my clothes, personalize gifts. I am living with one pair of clothes.

She asked her Manager and the later said that it has been given to a family with a disabled kid and the hostess near to her backed her and said that the poor boy has to take that seat for his serious disability. I tried with them to find us another seat and after a while they said they found only one similar seat. As i can not leave my mom alone, i could not take the seat. on the plane, i asked two of the flight attendants why the seats have been changed, and one of them told me that i should have come before the family currently occupying my original seats. I told him that i had done so, but yet it had be given to others. I asked him if they have any disabled child and her denied it!

i confronted them that their colleagues at the air port are the ones who told me about the child disability and that was the reason behind given my seat to the other family. His extremely rude air hostess colleague who was standing with him went angrily In fact yes he is disabled and we are not discussing this with you and she left! To my surprise, when we landed the two kids who were with their parents (the family who was given our seats) were running like horses at the airport! I have suffered a lot from the seat and till now i can not figure out why every one from [the] crew was lying to us! Both of the boys were completely healthy and in good shape! What's the point of coming earlier or the online reservation if your seats will be changed based on no reason at all.

I have sent them the complaint and till now have not received their reply

PASQUAL was pushing the complainer and cmplaint out of his territory to another.He lied but got what he wanted..his line moved,the passengers went and he was happy...but not us about his lie. Can we bring a suit? we recorded the conversation on my ipod at the airport with pasqual. Can i upload it to the net?

nothing yet

I think this is a gross injustice because if I had been given the coorrect information in the first place I would have used the ticket in January when I had to rush to London, when mom ewas taken to the hospital. I was in such a panic I actually forgot I had the ticket at that time. I need for someone to respond to me as I would like to use this ticket to visit my mom in September.

I am not a wealthy person and to loose 557.72 dollars is a lot of money for me. I need this resolved

I have completed all my on-line checking until issuing of an on-line boarding card, and presented my family and myself through all the UK Immigration, ready board our flight, when one of your staff at the 26th gate bridge, said that my visa is not valid because of some writings on the visa, and therefor I was directed to seek assistance from the Local USA Embassy. My bags were off-loaded from flight VS021, and we were told to come back for the later flight in the evening.

Because of such short notice I was not able to book for another reservation on other Airline Carriers to Washington, Dulles. The only available flight was via Canada.

As I have also incurred other expenses ie, Currency Exchange Conversation charges to US dollars and change back to Sterling Pounds. The room reservation paid for by visa card, at Hyatt Regency Reston, Virginia. for 5 nights and Car hire from BUDGET CAR HIRE at Washington Dulles from 26th until the 3rd July 2008.

I am willing to forward these documents if you should require for reference:

5/ copy of, NON IMMIGRANT VISA INTERVIEW CONFIRMATION from, Embassy of the United States of America dated 26th June 2008.

As a result our group of 5 people traveling to London and then to Paris for a meeting on Monday and Tuesday as well as 6 others coming to Paris and two meeting us in London are not going to have the meetings that have been anticipated for several months. Further more since it is a weekend we can not contact those coming from Europe because we don't have their home phone numbers. So On Monday morning our clients will be at the meeting and the suppliers who insisted on the meeting will not. One of the other USA based Company representatives has already arrived in Paris for the Monday meeting and traveled from PHL on USAIR. Sadly, even USAIR is more reliable then VA.

This is the result of Virgin Atlantic not perform maintenance on their aircraft. Is this the true story or am I missing something? Virgin Airlines has cost 14 people 30 days of planning plus 4 days of travel and untold dollars in cost. I hope this complaint makes Virgin Air famous for their utter lack of managerial discipline and interest in their customers. Why didnt Virgin place another aircraft in service or go to their Continental Airline Partner and ask for an aircraft or at least call or email and notify the passengers that the flight was cancelled. They had 14 hours notice and no one was contacted. This is unbelievable and Virgin is clearly incompetent and as a consequence place their clients businesses at risk.

It cost me more that I expected to pay and was very inconvienent.

Anxiety and frustration while running around at Heathrow Airport through different terminals searching for an alternative flight. Paying another 1600 to British Airways for the above mentioned alternate flight.

Bottom Line is: We were forced to stay over night in RSA and purchase exhorbitantly high-priced tickets on South African Air for over $5,000.00 + 4450.00 hotel stay! He literally canceled our e-tickets home. We missed work. Inconvenienced our transport home in San Francisco (friends we had no way of contacting). I need to have this straightened out. I've lost $8000.00 out of pocket.

It was an entirely frustrating experience trying to call Virgin Mumbai and always getting the same answer as no progress was made. I told Nikta that I did not want to wait for the last minute before check in should they need any more documentation to uphold my request. I got zero response till I checked in at Mumbai Virgin and I explained the whole process to them. The reason for the change was illness of my mother who is 94 and since I am accompanying her, I too had to change my date of travel. The experience with the Mumbai Virgin ground staff was even more frustrating as I had to stand there for hours till they could decide the proper course of action. They finally concluded that they would waiver the extra charge for my mother but would charge me the extra fee. I was so fatigued and frustrated by this time I agreed to charge MY PORTION of the extra charge. According to them the Supervisor in charge they would bill me GB50 for the Mumbai London leg and $200.00 for London San Francisco leg. Looking at the receipts, they charged me GB100 for the Mumbai London leg and $400.00 for London San Francisco leg.

I have always used Virgin in Europe and assumed their great customer service would extend to Asia. I was very disappointed and disgusted at the lack of training and response with the ground staff at Reservations and Mumbai airport. I requested wheel chair access and the ground staff at Virgin Mumbai did not do the appropriate paper works so I had to hunt down a Virgin staffer and request a wheel chair. They seemed distracted and confused and again non-responsive. Virgin seriously needs to examine the training their Indian staff receives and improve in the communication and response time and to explain clearly the airline policy. I for one will cease to use Virgin for future travel until I get some reassurance from the Virgin management of improving the Indian division.

The economic damage is $769.09 for the cost of the ticket. I cannot put a price on the strain and stress of being misled by Virgin Atlantic at a time when I am so concerned and distraught because I need to travel to the UK to see my daughter's physician who is treating her for a very serious illness.

I have now been waiting 4 months for payment of this claim and despite mails stating it is to be transferred immediately to my bank. This has never happened. Virgin Atlantic is the only airline that I have ever heard of without a physical phone number to register a customer complaint. When you e mail, you get an automated reply that they will be back to you in 21 days, but it does not happen.

Firstly, he is blind and he was told by the VA officials in Nig that he cldn't fly that day becos they have never dealt with such a customer before. he had to arrange for someone to meet him at heathrow airport before he was allowed to board the flight.

secondly, he kept calling for assistance by pressing the buttons but none of the flight attandants ever came.

Thirdly, he was seated God knows where and he had people passing right in front of him all the time. he didn't have a moments privacy.

Lastly and most horribly, he has been down wih diarhorrea since he arrived London. It started immediately he got off the plane and hasn't stopped since.

Virgin Atlantics service on flights to and fro Nigeria is totally disgusting. They treat Nigerian customers as if they are on the flight for free.

Have you ever had continuos diarrhorea for 4 days?

How do you measure the economic damage when you are discriminated against because you are blind?

I have called 20 times for the last 2 weeks and the 800 number will noy answer , they are either closed or if you hold 1 hour India picks up and says our systems are done. this has happend to me 15times after waiting 1 hour on hold each time. I have tried to contact a supervisor at the V.A ticket line they say I have to call the 800 number and thy hang up on me and will not help me or let me talk to a supervisor.

I had very important bank and attorney documents in my bag from the death of my father which are not replacable.no one is trying to help me or responds to me .My kids had their xbox and Ipod and gameboys in my luggage along with $2000.00 worth of my clothing. now all my kids electronic thing are lost and I am sure it has been opened and taken out by someone and now they can not locate the bag.

I am told to go online to mylostbag.com which is a useless site .

After a lot of confusion they were told to go back to Newark (at their own expense) and talk to the crew at that airport. When they got there no one seemed to know what to do. They were told that they will be put on another plane in the evening and given hotel rooms for that time. That evening when the passengers went back to the airport they were again sent back to the hotel. After all said and done most of the passengers got to travel almost 48 hrs after scheduled departure.

Meanwhile Virgin Atlantic personnel handed out letters to all the passengers which clearly states that Virgin will provide them with a roundtrip ticket equal to that day's trip or a full refund. I have been trying to get the refund from them for the last 5 months and I have been communicating with them thru email and fax. I have sent in all the information they need and they are not willing to honor the letter.

Last thing I got from them was a form to fill out for lost tickets, after trying to explain to them that that form does not and will not help me in this case they have stopped responding to any of my emails. I am entitled to full refund of 4 tickets and I expect to be compensated for all the trouble my family had to go through because of them and the domestic flights that we lost.

They have never put in for any credit. Now, we received an email from them ( after we sent an email stating how angry we are ) that they will begin the credit process now and we have to wait four ( 4 ) to six ( 6 ) weeks. We have heard this on Janury 9th, February 23rd, and now, April 12th.

1st attempt at retrieving booking online - May 1 2006 - 2 hrs after booking. No luck. Called customer service who advised me that I should try some time later.

2nd attempt at retrieving - May 2 2006. No luck. Called customer service. Now I was told the booking cannot be retrieved online as it was not ticketed. Apologized for misinformation. Was asked to email customer service.

3rd attempt - Emailed customer service on May 2 2006. No luck again. Received mail on May 3 2006 morning saying they can only fax and asked for fax #. Replied immediately with fax #.

4th attempt - Called at 12 noon on May 3 2006. Customer rep. promised to fax immediately. No luck

5th attempt - Called at 4pm saying fax was not received after 4 hrs. Was told they will email rightaway. No luck.

6th attempt - Called at 5 pm. Was told cannot be emailed. Apologized for misinformation. Said I could retrieve it online. I said I was just told the previous day that it was not possible. Still upon inistence checked again. No luck.

7th attempt - Finally was transferred to Customer rep. in Florida. She said outright that since the booking was not tiketed I CANNOT get the itinerary inb ANY way. This was 30 minutes before my flight to LA and I had to appear for my visa interview next day. The customer rep. rudely hung up on me as I was speaking.

Felt very insulted and stupid. Wasted hours on the phone over 3 days. Caused extreme irritation, frustration and anger. I was put in a position where I could potentially not be able to get a visa and be in London for an important biz. meeting. Had to take a risk and book a ticket without a visa after that. No redressal of any kind was offerred by Virgin Atlantic despite asking for something.