At the start of May 2016, me, my wife and 16 month baby travelled to Las Vegas for 5 days.
It was our 5th anniversary and also one of the countries off my wife’s bucket list as she suffers from cystic fibrosis which is a chronic lung disease resulting in shorter life expectancy.
We travelled with Virgin Atlantic. They had issues at Gatwick which resulted in us queuing for 2 hours and running to the gates so that we do not miss our flight. However the person who checked us in assured us that there would be no issues.
When we arrived at Las Vegas and waited an hour to find out our luggage had been lost! The luggage had my wife’s medication along with her nebulisor, neither of which can be purchased over the counter as this is prescribed from her hospital where she is a permanent CF outpatient. Further to this all 3 of our clothes.
We then filled in details at the baggage counter and made our way to the hotel.
When we got to the hotel we contacted Virgin to find out details of our baggage and assured that our luggage will be with us the following day and someone will be in contact.
Did anyone contact? No!
I contacted them everyday to get the same generic response from their baggage team and also be told that some will be in contact. Why say that if you don’t plan to contact the customer?
We received our baggage the day before we left!
During this time my wife was neglected of her medication which she has to use twice a day. Not only was she poorly through lack of medication but also all her clothing, jewellery etc which I’m sure every women can understand. There are days where her illness can take over her mind and take her into depression which is usually cured through comfort of friends and family when we are in the UK. However we were in Las Vegas for our 5th anniversary but no medication and clothing essentials for us or our baby to enjoy our holiday you can imagine what that did to her.
We stayed in our hotel room for almost the entire holiday and only went out the day we got our luggage. I had to go out to get food and it was a struggle to get her to eat.
Virgin ruined our anniversary, our holiday and most importantly affected my wife’s health.
Whilst in the hotel room I took to emailing Richard Branson, as a result when we got to the airport to return to the UK Virgin upgraded us to premium economy and use of lounge.
When we got back I emailed Richard Branson and Craig Kreeger regarding the entire issue.
They had a member of their customer service team from baggage department contact me to reimburse me for the essentials purchased.
I obviously responded with indication that this does not rectify the holiday in which has been ruined and cost 2.5k
I now sent an email to Richard Branson and all senior associates of his team. Mark Anderson got back to me and let me know that someone from the executive office will be in contact.
Baggage Customer service contacted me again and this time offered me a £500 gift voucher to compensate me?
I again responded to Richard Branson and associates stating that I was not happy with the outcome and that I had spent 2.5k on this holiday along with outlining all issues this has caused.
I then received another email from the Exec customer service manager stating that they are being more than generous with regards to the £500 gift voucher? Quoting airline policies etc and advising me to contact UK Civil Authority.
I’m not after a £500 gift voucher, I simply wanted to return to the same country and enjoy the holiday which they had ruined in the first place.
So alarmed that I sent Richard Branson and several of his associates (with proof) of me and my families issue. They either haven’t read all my emails or ignored the facts of;
1) My Family Holiday (me, with and 16mnth baby) and our 5th anniversary
2) My wife suffers from Cystic Fibrosis
3) Our Luggage lost containing wife medication and all 3 of our clothes
4) As a result wife felt poorly (health wise) and went into depression
5) Stayed in room for most of stay.
6) Holiday cost 2.5k and is it our fault it was ruined?
My wife’s illness means she has a shortened life span and everything we do and countries we visit are for her to have good memories of us however this holiday was the only one that has ever been ruined and we have flown with several different airlines.
No one from the top of the Virgin chain even bothered to sympathise here and intervene considering they have been sent emails and customer service team clearly haven’t been able to help.
This outcome and handling has led me to believe Virgin do not care about people, only money! Definitely didn’t care about my wife’s Cystic Fibrosis despite given proof. Money obviously falls out of the sky for them as some of us have to work hard to treat our wifes with life threatening illnesses.
Do not Fly Virgin, they do not care!
