DEBACLE #2 - The staff on board was terrific. BUT, once we hit the ground at noon the local crew in JFK was uniformly rude, very young (on average I would guess that they were all 18-20), and lacked the essential skills of empathy, organization or kindness. When asked what our options were, we were told that we only had one. We were told that we were to collect our luggage, get on the hired coaches, go to Newark (all the way across the tri-state area), check into the hotel and when we checked-in we would get our flight instructions. At NO time were we allowed to talk to a ticket agent. We were told by every Virgin staff member on hand that talking to a ticket agent was not an option, and that we could only find out our flight arrangements by “trusting” them, and get on the bus.
DEBACLE #3 - I called the reservation phone line and talked to “Leon.” He told us that there were no other available seats on any Virgin Flight until Monday Feb 19th, but that I should still “trust” the local ground crew at JFK and go where they wanted us to go. I had my office staff in NYC check other carriers to see if there were openings, and they could clearly see that many other carriers had flights. I asked Leon if he could rebook me into one of those flights from another carrier, and he said no. I should just “trust” the local crew and do what they wanted. Leon told me that the local ground crew would put me on other flights with other carriers.
DEBACLE #4 - I asked the local crew if they could rebook me on one of the other carriers that had room that evening. They told me that there were no other tickets available on other carriers. THIS WAS CLEARLY A LIE. Over 6 other carriers had room on their flights, but even when requested we were not given that option.
DEBACLE #5 - When I asked one of the local crew why they were not more prepared for us (they had after all about 90 minutes before we landed to organize other flights, etc), his response was…I kid you not…”I have been up since 2:30 a.m., what do you expect of me? I have the answer for you and that is to get on the bus and get checked into the hotel.” I told him, along with other befuddled passengers who heard his response to me, that we did not want to check into a hotel, and that we wanted to be put on other flights, he said “Trust us, we will have your flight arrangements when you check into the hotel.”
DEBACLE #6 - I asked the local Virgin ground crew if Virgin would refund my ticket if I went ahead and bought a ticket on another carrier. Even after looking at my e-ticket, the local Virgin ground crew could not tell me if my ticket was refundable or not. Isn’t that their job — to read a Virgin issued ticket? As you can see from looking at my reservation, I had purchased the ticket directly from Virgin, so they should have been able to read the ticket. Still — they told me that all 250 of us should “trust” them, and get on the bus and go to Newark. Like the blind leading the blind, we all went to the buses.
DEBACLE #7 - At 1:50 pm we all boarded the buses. I was on the first bus and we quickly filled up. The weather was a very windy and very cold 18F (probably less with wind chill.) I was sitting near the front of the bus, and the driver refused to close the door. The wind roared right into the bus and hit me head on… For over an HOUR we all sat in 18F weather (again colder with wind chill), on a bus hired by Virgin, at the mercy of a driver who refused to close the door. He kept leaving the bus to help the other drivers load their busses, but we sat in unhealthy frigid busses.
DEBACLE #8 - (This is a juicy one) – The bus began its journey from JFK to Newark. At one point the bus went the wrong way down a one way street. Then…
DEBACLE #9 - The bus hit a truck. Then…
DEBACLE #10 - …pulled up to a hotel (the Sheraton), only to find out that they had no room for us. Shouldn’t the Virgin staff at JKF have called ahead to see if they could have handled 250 passengers?
DEBACLE #11 - For over half of the ride I was on the phone with the ONLY supervisor in the USA that I was allowed to talk to for this entire 2 day ordeal (oh yes this goes on for another day – keep reading). This supervisor at the reservation phone lines (Daryl) was probably the rudest person I spoke to on the phones. He assured me that Virgin was on the ball and that they would be calling me on my cell phone when they had the flight arrangements ready for me. PLEASE NOTE THAT I DID NOT GET ANY PHONE CALLS FROM ANY OF THE USA GROUND CREW EMPLOYED BY VIRGIN, EVEN THOUGH NUMEROUS PROMISES WOULD BE MADE THAT AFTERNOON AND THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT. I let Daryl know that our bus was lost, the driver was endangering us, and that the driver even hit a truck. There was no empathy, no “I am so sorry,” nor was there any firm information for us that we would be flying out at any time. He told us that they knew exactly where we were located (at the very same moment when the bus driver went into the Sheraton that could not accommodate us). AGAIN – A LIE – VIRGIN HAD NO IDEA WHERE WE WERE LOCATED AT THAT TIME.
DEBACLE #12 - At 5:15pm, we arrived at the Ramada Inn near Newark Airport. Please remember that we only got on the bus back at JFK when we were PROMISED that a Virgin representative would be at the hotel upon arrival to give us our flight arrangements. There was NO Virgin representative at the hotel. Please note the time. If we were to be flying out that night, we would need to be heading to the airport to check in.
DEBACLE #13 - My office staff has been on the phone with me during the bus trip, still informing me of flights that were available on other carriers. Why were we not put on other carriers with room that evening? I asked this question of every Virgin phone rep, but no one could give me an answer.
DEBACLE #14 - We check into the hotel. This was the FIRST time since de-boarding the plane that Virgin had any idea who they needed to place on other flights. We check in my signing our names onto a piece of paper that the Ramada issued. Not printed, just signed. Virgin had no way of reading that paper, even if they could wrestle it from the Ramada staff’s hands. The passengers began to circulate stories of seeing others in JFK leave our group to go buy tickets on other airlines (including a young man who needed to get home to London to see his dying mother who only had hours to live). I realized that Virgin really had NO idea who was needing flights. Shouldn’t this information have been gathered by the Virgin ground crew back at JFK?
DEBACLE #15 - The front desk of the Ramada begins to tell us from the Virgin Flight 18 that there would be a big meeting in the lobby at 9 p.m., and that a Virgin representative would be there to tell us what was going on. 9 p.m. comes and goes and there is NO Virgin representative.
DEBACLE #16 - At 9:15pm, I call the Virgin Flight Club for the first time, and speak to “Marvellette.” Just like every other Virgin employee I spoke to on the phone since we landed 9 hours earlier, Marvellette tells me that she has no information for me. I tell her that no information is not good enough, and that I needed to speak to a supervisor. I am put on hold for 45 minutes and no Virgin supervisor comes on to the phone.
HUGE DEBACLE #17 - At 10 p.m. the Virgin representative finally shows up in person at the hotel. I apologize that I do not have her name, but I do have a digital video. Believe me, you want to see it. At the very least it will make an excellent addition to YouTube under the headline “Inept Virgin Employee does not know the difference between 12:00 a.m. and Midnight.” I really do not want to sound like I am an age-ist, but she had to have been 19 at the most, had absolutely zero people skills, and could not tell us anything useful. She said that she would be getting more information and would call each and every one of us in our rooms “Between 12 and midnight” (I kid you not). FYI — I NEVER got a phone call, at any time in the night, to tell me she had information, or even that she had no information for us. We asked to speak to a supervisor from Virgin and she refused to call for one.
DEBACLE #18 - She FINALLY did say that at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. the next morning, there would be a bus to take us to JFK where we would be put on flights to London. This did not make any sense. If we left at 9 a.m., we would not make it to JFK until 11 a.m. We would then have to be checked into our flights, and there is no way that we would all get thru security and on-board to depart by noon, so that we could land before midnight (London time). I am sure that YOU realize that all flights need to land at Heathrow by midnight, or they are turned away. This fact was lost on this Virgin employee. I really felt bad for her. She appeared to have just gotten out of training (very poor training at that), and she was put into a room with 250 angry passengers who ate her alive. But seriously, how would you feel if you gave your “Trust” to a loved brand only to find that for 10 hours you have been ignored, abandoned, forgotten, sworn at, forced to driven by a hazardous driver, and still get no information that would get you out of this hell?
After videotaping a good 15 minutes of this employee making a fool of herself, I determined that she really had nothing to say. I got back on the phone with the Virgin Flight Club and got thru to a very nice employee by the name of Derrelle. She was the only nice phone staffer I spoke to that entire day. She listened to me, and for the very first time that day, a Virgin employee said “I am so sorry, this is just awful.” Was that so hard to say? No. But it sure meant a lot to finally hear it. She listened to the whole ordeal and told me not to hang up, and she would not let me go until she had information for me. She kept typing away and after about 30 minutes she gave me the news that flashed across her screen — that a bus would be at our hotel at 8 a.m. to take us to the airport. I thanked her with praise, hung up, and told the passengers (and the Virgin employee) the news that I just found out and went to bed.
On the morning of Friday February 16th I get up at 5:30 a.m. to find out that there is no firm plans for a bus at 8 a.m. I did not get any call that night with firm info from Virgin and I was scared. At 6:00 a.m. I call the Flight Club phone line and am put thru to Holly Best in the UK. I tell her what is going on, and she is lovely, but tries to blame the delay on the storm. I tell her that the storm has been over for 2 days and in no way has affected our flight, or the debacle of this flight. She apologizes, but that is what she has been told from the USA (another lie?). She takes my cell phone number and promises to get me info. To Virgin’s honor, she does call me back and tells me that there are 5 representatives in the lobby. I head right down.
