Virgin Atlantic - Purveyors of Finest Fail

Shortly I shall be flying to San Fransisco, where I shall spend some time with friends before heading off into the wilds of Utah to do exciting things with ropes and carabiners and climbing harnesses and such.

Last year I flew with Virgin, and despite a feeling that they were going a bit Ryanair, trying to sell extras in the check in queue, which felt a bit tacky, the experience was mostly OK. I was able to check in one bag with my clothes and other essentials, and a separate bag with my climbing equipment, and there was a two bag allowance and everything was right with the world.

This year they have dropped the baggage requirements "to simplify our policy and lower our charges for passengers wishing to take additional bags" according to their website. The excess bag charge I'm now looking at is £40 if paid at then airport, or £32 if paid online beforehand. In a world warped by PR, this "lowers my charges" because now I am a "passenger wishing to take additional bags" and last year, despite travelling with the same amount of luggage, I was not.

But wait! In the small print it says there's an exception - "Virgin Atlantic allows one piece of sports equipment in addition to your free baggage allowance at no extra charge, as long as your sports equipment does not weigh more than 23kg". They then go on to clarify what this means by giving a list of sports:

• Archery
  
• Canoeing/Kayaking
  
• Cricket
  
• Cycling
  
• Diving
  
• Fishing
  
• Golf
  
• Hang gliding
  
• Hockey
  
• Lacrosse
  
• Parachuting
  
• Paragliding
  
• Shooting/Firearms*
  
• Skiing/Snowboarding
  
• Surfboarding/Boogie boarding
  
• Tennis
  
• Ten pin bowling
  
• Windsurfing/Kite surfing

No rock climbing. I resolve to contact them and find out, so I look up their phone number. They have a page full of them, and I select the most likely looking one - enquiries for members of their frequent flier club (which I am).

Beep, beep, click, "This number is for Virgin Atlantic outgoing calls only.", click, hangup.

That was not promising. I look again, and see "flight information". I dial it.

"The number you are calling is no longer in service"

Now I'm starting to think I was being harsh to Ryanair.

Finally I try reservations - they have to have someone who's there to take people's money. It turns out that "reservations" is actually their customer service number as well, but the website is full of numbers that don't work, apparently in an effort to disguise this fact. I navigate the menu system and eventually find a customer service operator.

A conversation ensues. I explain my problem - that I have an extra bag for sporting equipment. "Sporting equipment goes free", he assures me. "Mine isn't on the list of sporting equipment on the website though". He seems confused by this. Surely Virgin Atlantic's website has an encyclopaedic knowledge of human sporting endeavour! I volunteer that it's rock climbing equipment.

"That's not sporting equipment if it's not on the website", he tells me.

I ask if I will therefore have to pay the excess baggage charge. He does not know, he tells me to ask at the airport. This is not helpful, because by the time I get to the airport I can no-longer use the online check in to register my potential excess bag and save £8 on the fee. I ask if he can clarify whether the list is meant to be exhaustive, or merely a set of examples, as the website does not make this clear.

"If you think rock climbing is a sporting equipment then tell them at the airport."

Er, thanks. He confirms he can give me no further (perhaps "further" is redundant here) clarification on this policy. I might have to pay excess baggage charges, I might not. It all seems to depend on whether the person in the red uniform at Heathrow deems rock climbing to be a sport or not.

I'm quite disappointed with this. In a former existence I used to fly with Virgin a lot, on business and for pleasure, and they were never this useless. I know times are tough, but dear me, Virgin - you're supposed to be competing with the likes of BA here (or at least the shiny corporate image BA would like us to have). This is like watching an old friend who used to take really good care of themselves suddenly stop caring about their personal hygiene, and it breaks my heart.

So I'm sharing this poor customer experience with you good people, and with Google, and therefore with the world. If this is going to cost me £40, I ought to at least get some satisfaction from it.

Also posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/241552.html - you can comment here or there.