Agh

[ricevermicelli]

I hate Virgin Atlantic's website.

I like Virgin Atlantic, and since I'm going to the UK next month (instead of going to New York), I'd like to fly their airline. So the website has to pack in a lot of aggravation to make me change my mind, and they've just about managed.

You enter your planned travel dates, and they quote you a price without taxes, fees, or surcharges. Only it doesn't say "price does not include taxes, etc.", it just says that the price is USD 250 per adult. That looks good, you click "book now!", and the site informs you that your ticket will be merely $300 more than that. At this point, the site will offer you the chance to upgrade to "premium economy", which sounds nice, and costs only about fifty cents, according to the page you're looking at. You go ahead and click "Upgrade!" and your ticket price takes another $300 jump.

I keep thinking, hey, British Air isn't *that* bad... and I know that, in fact, it is. Bah. Humbug.

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Huh, I hear all kinds of nice things about BA.

Then again, I hear them from chrysaphi, whose company pays for her to fly London/NYC in BA's business class. Which could, I suppose, significantly nicen the experience.

I'd say "why not just use expedia or something and get whatever's cheapest?", but having recently flown on an international carrier, I was pathologically grateful for the fact they fed me, which goodness knows US carriers never do. (Icelandair, by the way. It was the second-cheapest of the options when I looked, by a mere $10 over its competitor. The entire country has no customer service at all, but the plane is OK and they feed you.)

Why're you going to the UK?

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

BA has hideous ticket policies. They may be nice to fly, but they are awful to purchase from. Once you have the ticket, that's it. You have to qualify for a frequent flier program (just buying a ticket won't do it), and you can't buy upgrades unless you buy the right kind of ticket in the first place, and they will not exchange or refund their cheapest tickets pretty much ever. With a personal thing, I might put up with it, but for business (which may involve changes) - no.

I'm going to the UK to help run a bunch of lectures. It should be a good trip. It will especially be a good trip if I can convince someone besides me to do something with the catering menu - we've got this reception to plan, and I'm really tempted to just pick three canapes with chocolate and three with stilton and call it done. I am not sure anyone but me would appreciate it though.

[mangosteen]

I just flew BOS-LHR on American Airlines, and while I like the food and entertainment on Virgin more, I feel slimed everytime I use their website.

American also has a couple more inches seat pitch than Virgin does.

[(Anonymous)]

That's ... [fumbles for words and doesn't find them]

I've gotten used to domestic cheap-airline sites that quote without taxes, security fees, etc. -- but those usually add only ~15%. I wonder just what kind of taxes are getting added on?

Virgin was OK 9 years ago (the little screens in each seatback were new then), but it sounds like their service has decayed even worse than most airlines'.

/CHip

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Some (many) companies just have bad web sites. I think of it as part of modern life.
I flew with Virgin in August. The food was OK (I don't know about the regular food, but they had my vegetarian meals in both directions, something that BA doesn't always manage). The entertainment was entertaining. The flights were late in both directions, but that has been true on every plane everywhere that I've flown in the past year. The excuse for lateness leaving London was that "it's a busy morning" (like every other morning isn't?) We were loaded on the plane in time and made to sit for an hour on the tarmac, waiting our turn to taxi. I expect that points to a larger Heathrow problem, which would affect BA and American as well.