In Reply to: Virgin Blue- Change Flights July posted by Mark L on Thursday, 22. April 2010 at 15:40 Bali Time:
Hey Mark
Airlines are a pack of bas##rds.
They have small print to protect them..you have nothing.
They simply dont care..its a numbers game to them...if they dont have volume of passengers they dont stay in business...as long as the 'rabbits' take what they give out disguised as service, they dont care..there's always another punter to take the seat you passed up on, and poke fun at you for daring to ask for what you paid for.
When they go broke, its always the economy or some other reason than their sheer ignorance and poor business practices.
They make you an offer...you accept...they have the right (read the small print) to make whatever changes they want to make a buck....you take it or leave it.They have your money.
We recently had a problem with Delta in the States...booked a non stop flight into Memphis from New Orleans...paid for it, only to be sent an email saying that we were now to take a stopover flight of an extra 3 hours.(to save them money)
If we agreed to the amendment we were to click on a link...there was no link to click if we disagreed to the change...
We were told we had no option...read the small print...they can do what they like.
Apart from the fact that we had paid extra for a non stop flight, and had good seats, now we were to be given seats they chose on the new flight...no refund..no apology.
Anyway...after protracted threats and 'negotiations' they agreed to put us on another airline with a direct connection...so I guess there is some customer service if you threaten all kinds of damnation and hexes on staff who just dont care!
Yes...as some of the people who replied to your post said, it is a trivial matter and you might be 'precious' about it, but hey....whatever happened to the world where you get what you paid for and a person or company's word meant something.
Why should airlines be above having to be accountable like the rest of us?
Its amazing that people dont give a crap about someone else's problem, but we wonder what their attitude would be if it happened to them.
If we accept bad service, lies and bad business practices, we have no one to blame but ourselves.To belittle people who have a legitimate complaint as whingers, says more about the belittler, than the complainant.
Dont get angry..get even...dont fly with them again, tell your friends.. and one day they will be out of business..you can then be the smarty and gloat like hell.It might take years, but it will come.
Do any of us think that cheap flights are available for any other reason than they cant sell the seats?
They treat us, the customer like crap when they can sell all their seats, and crawl to us with crazy offers to save their businesses when times are tough.
Ultimately, we, the customer, do hold their fates in our hands.
Thats life.
Cheers all.