jods

To cut a long story short, On our last flight home to the UK from New York we were asked if we would voluntarily downgrade from premium to economy as the flight was over subscribed. We were offered £250 each as compensation and would also receive a refund of the difference in fare between premium and economy.

If only this had happened!

What actually happened is that we got two vouchers totalling £500 off our next flight (unfortunately we had already booked and paid for our next trip in October so cannot use them for that flight) the vouchers expire before we expect to be able to use them!

We got a letter this morning from "Customer Relations" saying they will "CONSIDER" offering a refund of the difference in fares and taxes!!!

CONSIDER?

We paid for premium and they asked us to help them out by downgrading to economy and they are going to CONSIDER refunding the difference!

The wife has gone ballistic and I'm none to happy either.

Unfortunately we have both noticed VA is losing it's touch over the last few flights. Regular overbookings, cancelled flights, shabby cabins...

I don't like to say this but we are going to have to CONSIDER using another carrier and as often as I promised myself that I would never fly BA (due to their disgraceful handling of Concorde and now having Willie Walsh as CEO) I am afraid we may switch to the darkside or even worse a US carrier!

Rant over

PaulC72

are they transferable? if so see if someone will give you £400 for them

speye91

Don't fly US Airlines.

madcyril

boxst

Flying to America in Economy you are probably better off with British Airways, they have caught and and surpassed 'old' Virgin where-as Virgin appear to have downgraded their service in the last few years for some reason.

When the current downturn picks up, I hope my company lets us fly in Business Class again which is just great on BA.

Edit: Just to mention don't ever fly an American Airline (as in one owned by an American company such AA, Delta etc..) as they are all universally awful.

Steve

Fangoria

iTrader: (1)

I fly all over the World regularly so know most of the airlines reasonably well, especially BA, Virgin, Quantas and Singapore

The best Airline by far in terms of service is Singapore but they dont do flatbeds which is a pain on longhauls as its harder to sleep. Food is great and the service out of this world - BA and Virgin should really take note!

I generally dont like BA - I call them Budget airlines as their service is lousy - I fly Business mostly (though more and more Premium given the recession and the fact that prices on Business dont seem to have come down much of late) and to have to ask for drinks is a disgrace on a Business class service - most of the cabin crew I find lazy and indifferent. However on the odd occasions I have flown Premium I have been upgraded

Virgin is variable quality dependent on the craft - Upper is generally the same and decent - I prefer the quality of virgin Upper Class to BA Business. I also prefer Virgin Premium to BA Premium as the staff are friendlier, I find the seats and space roomier and the entertainment system is usually better - however it depends what aircraft you are on - I'm not a sad anorak so cannot name the different types of aircraft (nor would I ever want to) but Virgin seems to have 3 different ages on the fleet - if you get the oldest stuff the entertainment console and size of screen is crap, then there is better, mid level I call it - and the same as BA
Its the little touches on Virgin that I like, like the drinks when you get on Board - you get nothing on BA on Premium
I've never been upgraded on a Virgin flight though

I'm a gold card holder on BA and Virgin

I had the option to downgrade from Upper class to Premium on a recent flight from New York on Virgin. They offered the price difference plus 30k miles. Price difference no good to me as it was a business flight so would have gone to my company, so I asked for more miles instead to make up to a reasonable level of miles - after about 30 minutes debate they refused so I said fine '**** off' then I'll keep my seat........ was rather surprised that they wouldnt offer more miles- oh well... did put me off them a bit and the next few flights I booked with BA instead (but more to retain Gold card status as well)

For Business class flights I find Virgin the most comfortable

In terms of the money situation theres no way they'd have been able to refund via vouchers - thats a nonsense
I have downgraded twice on BA, once on a first class flight for myself and the wife to Business as they wanted to close off first (not enough passengers), they offered £1k cash each on a card, then and there and we accepted as I used airmiles to book the flights anyway

On another occassion Ecomony was oversold to Chicago, they offered us £250 each, on the spot and flights in Business on the next flight - we took that as well

If Virgin fobbed me off with that **** I think I'd have to boycott them for life, cheap skates.

Jerome

I've flown BA and Virgin on transatlantic flights as well as a few budget carriers.

Despite your understandable annoyance with them, I would still say stick with them. All airlines will eventually p*ss you off.

But, whatever you do, never ever fly US Airways. IMO the worst airline in the world. I would rather swim the Atlantic with concrete arm bands than fly US Airways again.

bigsinky

no that was Les

speye91

I know what you mean,Sadly i have to fly with them again in December,pass me those concrete armbands.