Disapointing (Virgin Atlantic)

Member Name: xjenniex2008

Product:	Virgin Atlantic
Date:	11/11/08 (309 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Downtown Disney check in, good baggage allowance

Disadvantages: Rubbish service!

Having originally booked with XL to go to Florida for our wedding in september and then going bust we booked new flights immediately with VA. I was very excited as having flown with them numerous times in the past I knew how good they were. We were going with my parents and siblings all of whom have flown with them too. And my (now) husband and our 9 month old daughter who had never flown with them, so i hyped it all up to him and he was also very excited.

So we booked the flights 9 days before we were due to travel, a bit more expensive i.e we paid £85 for our daughter with XL (and she would have been £65 with thomascook) but with VA she was over £200. I booked a sky cot for her also.

We got to the check in at Manchester airport to be told there was no sky cot booked, we spent half an hour stood there whilst they sorted it and we eventually got one. There was a family behind us who had also booked the same day as us with an infant who had booked a skycot and they didnt get one.

Boarding the plane was a bit of a faff because VA are not paying for sky tunnels at Manchester airport anymore (despite not lowering their prices) and you have to get a bus which isnt easy when you are trying to hold a wriggly baby! Seats were fine we were all sat together, the plane wasn't very clean and was looking a bit shabby, we were sat on the bulkhead seats where Premium Economy is so those who want to book it beware that you are where Skycots are placed so you will most likely have babies there (just so you are warned and parents don't receive the looks we did from the PE passengers)

The cabin crew werent great, they came round once with drinks, they werent interested unless you were PE of higher. We eventually landed in Orlando an hour and a half later than scheduled. During our holiday I called the Virgin call centre twice and was told no sky cot had been booked for us even though I have the name of the person who did it for me (and I actually caled 4 times before we left the UK to double check!) anyway they booked it for me but I was still very dubious as to whether we would get it.

We use the Downtown Disney check in which was fantastic and I will praise them on it, there was no queue and me and my husband actually received £20 in duty free vouchers as a little wedding present for them. On boarding at Orlando the plane was absolutley boiling the air conditioning wasnt working, again the cabin crew weren't interested, forgot people's meals, drinks etc. Breakfast was just a ham and egg roll whereas previous flights it has been continental. On landing my parents told me that my cousin had prepaid for a bottle of champagne for me and my husband on the flight which we never received, we sat on the tarmac at manchester (again the plane was roasting) for an hour before we could leave and then get on the dreaded bus back to the terminal.

On our return I have complained to Virgin and have been offered Miles which I have told them I wont use as I doubt I would fly with them again and then they offered me use of their first class lounge. No thanks!

Really dissapointed as when you pay their prices you expect good service and we just didn't receive it. I also think they need to sort their call centres out in India, maybe if they had English speaking people answering their calls there wouldn't be such a mix up with bookings!

Summary: Don't bother!