My first experience ever flying with Virgin Atlantic was about 2 years ago. My flight with Delta got re-routed due to missing baggage issuesย andย I was really impressed and taken with the experience. As aย Gold Skyteam member onย Delta, I got the plushy premium economy seats (Delta needs a lesson from them). VA’s premium economy seatsย are pretty much equivalent to Business class seats on the average American airline, if not more.
The bar was set pretty high for me, only to have it demolished to almost gutter level during several customer service experiences when I flew with them; Lagos – Vegas, New York – Lagos.
I will try to break down the issues in bullet point (see pictures below):
- Different airport flight transfer by the same airline with no information and meansย to get to the next airport for transfer
- So you would have to check out with luggages, buy a 20 pound bus transfer, then find your own square root and a hotel to bunk at. No thanks! I paid to get to Las Vegas, not for a stop over.
- Luckily, I have a US passportย orย it would have been a deportation issue otherwise – lack of information online and at point of purchase
- There is no obvious time indicator for layover duration
- There is no customer service counter for Virgin within the arrivals area. You need to go out through a security checkpoint to get help – at a different terminal!
- Overzealous African female customer service worker trying to ‘read’ me before I made a full sentence
- immediately asked for a manager or someone with better customer service skills and thankfully got one!
- They nickel and dime you – I noticed an issue with layover duration on my ticket as soon as I paid for it. Called within 30 mins to ask for an earlier flight with a shorter layover time (same ticket price), I was asked to pay for change fee!
On the flip side, of all the economy flights I’ve flown as an adult from and to Nigeria, Virgin Atlanticย have the best in-flight customer service. Hands down! Very friendly team, which is a very unusual experience for air stewards flying in and out of Nigeria. Even in business/first class, they are barely able to keep a smile on or even serve warm bread.
Despite the ridiculous amount of money the average Nigerian spends just to fly out internationally, airlines that serve our Lagos port need to stop sending their bottom-of-the-pile planes our way. They need to also stop sending us the bottom-of-the-barrel air stewards to attend to us. We know we are not the easiest people to service, but a friendly team goes a pretty long way.
For the in-flight service, I will definitely be flying Virgin Atlantic…hopefully, their billions in earnings would afford them a better website. Please see Delta.com’s website if you are confused as to how a site should look like.
