Dear Virgin Australia ...

 Dear Virgin Australia...

Last month I flew up to Brisbane for the day, to visit Visual Impact. It was a multi purpose trip, consisting of visiting the show, networking, spreading the word about International Print Day, meeting with clients, and making new connections. 

6 am flight out,  and 5 pm flight back. No sorry, 4:55 pm flight back. That's important, that 5 minutes; and you'll see why later. 

Now, there is really nothing dramatic that I can complain about, and truly the flights were mostly uneventful;  but, some small things have let you down. So much so, that I doubt that I will choose to fly VA again when given other options. 

Let's start with the check in process.

I downloaded the Virgin Mobile App. Joined up with Velocity, entered in the booking from the travel agent, and checked in through the phone. 

Overall, not a terrible experience, the app did what it should. There were 2 things that marred the experience though. 

First up, the boarding pass :  I could not download the boarding pass from the app directly into my Apple Wallet ( previously called the passbook) . I had to either email it or text (SMS) the link to an online version, from there, I could download into the passbook. So 2-3 extra steps and clicks to get the boarding pass into my phone. If there is a way to get it directly into the passbook, it's not obvious or in your face in the way it should be considering it's a mobile interface on a phone. 

Second -- the digital boarding pass didn't much useful information about the flightless the airport.  All things that every other airline app I have used so far does show. You don't seem to be making use of the technology to the best you could to make a digital boarding pass better than a paper one.. The fact that you can update things like gate information, or flight details, or even the carousel where my luggage will come out on arrival in real time seems to have passed you by. 

The second thing I noticed, when I went into the app to see if I could change my flight. Was that the flight information was not saved, because I didn't book it under my Velocity number. 

Now, I get that you wouldn't necessarily know which flights are booked upfront, but for crying in a bucket, I entered the information not 5 hours ago ! SO the app itself proved to be totally useless from then on. 

The 6 am Flight in. 

Yeah look, I was very disappointed that there was nothing to eat besides a bunch of sugar, some more sugar, a tiny muffin the size of  small golf ball, and, some more sugar. I have no problem buying my food onboard , especially when my ticket price is a small saver fare. But, seriously, one cup of coffee with enough milk to smear a baby ant, and nothing hot to eat at 6 am ? Are you kidding me ? 

The 4:55 pm flight home.

So,armed with knowledge of what was available on the return flight, I had my card out, ready to buy a few bags of nuts and some cheese ( although it has to come with crackers) to go with my complimentary wine. I suspect every poor bugger  on the plane had the same ideabecause by the time your cart arrived at me; there were no nuts. No cheese and crackers, just Pringles. Pringles are sugar. They may taste savoury and salty, but the carbs in them hit your blood sugar like a tons of bricks. 

So no food for me. Just the wine. Yay, think of all that sugar in the wine. *rolls eyes*. 

And then the final slap - I had to pay for my wine, because even though the flight departed at 5:09 pm it's official departure time was 4:55pm, and, wait for it, wine is only complimentary on flights with departure times after 5pm. Regardless of the actual time you take off. You sneaky frackers. 

The ground and air crew. 

The final point I will make is this. I suspect your staff have trained at American Airlines or Delta. . Let me be clear, they were not overtly rude, just curt, and polite in a brusque sort of way, the kind of dripping politeness that makes you feel like a burden to the staff. I'm sure it was terrible imposition to serve me coffee at 7 am. And even more so to run out of nuts at few thousand feet because of bad planning by the catering staff. 

I will likely not be travelling with you again in a hurry. 

I did want to thank you though,  for this less than stellar experience, as it has reminded me not to drop the reins in my own work. That even when you do exactly what you should,the client could still have a bad experience because you haven't done it with the best possible intentions. And that possibly,not everyone on your team, is truly a team player. It's a very important thing to keep front of mind, so thank you for the reminder. 

Yours truly 

Stephanie Gaddin