Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Jorja, whose Virgin flight was cancelled and not rescheduled by Virgin

Transcript

Katie spoke with Jorja, whose Virgin flight was cancelled and not rescheduled by Virgin · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It.
• 0:00
  Speaker 2: As we've been saying on air throughout the last couple
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: of days, there's been a lot of people who are
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: in a situation where their flights have been canceled and
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: changed for various reasons, and joining me on the line
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: right now, I believe that I've got Georgia. Good morning
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: to you, Georgia.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Morning, Georgia.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: You are in a situation where you've been well stuffed
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: around with your flights, haven't you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, what exactly has gone on? So we were
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: meant to fly out last night and then get a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: connecting flight to Mackay with Virgin, and yeah, yesterday I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: just saw the ABC story and then some other stories
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: floating around, and you know, check managed by booking online
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: still showing that it was there and it was all fine,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: But then checks the departure page on the airport website
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and that's where it was showing up canceled. Just waited
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to see if Virgin of contacting me nothing all day,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: and then I thought, oh, you know, they're just busy
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: rescheduling things. But yeah, nothing, and then so I ended
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: up calling them, waiting on hold for two hours to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: find out my options were to either pay eight hundred
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: dollars per adult to change the flight for tomorrow, oh sorry,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and eight hundred dollars for myself, my husband, and our child,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: or to fly on the twenty ninth and still pay
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: three hundred dollars to change it to them. So that
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: was option one. Or option two was to get a credit.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: That is unbelievable. It makes your blood boil. You know, like,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: you booked those flights. I'm assuming to be able to
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: go and see your family at Christmas time.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So they haven't seen our two year olds,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: but they haven't met her. So yeah, it's just it's outrageous.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: It's so disappointing. And you know, like I was sort
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of putting up with the back and forth of our
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: flights being changed. I kept getting emails about it being
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: changed and we were having to flight four flights to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: get home anyway, and then yeah, and then to just
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: not hear anything, see it's canceled, and then yeah, the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: only option is to pay another two thousand dollars to
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: get there on time, or to get a credit, not
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: like not even a refund, just a credit. And then
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: what the guy I spoke to was like, oh, and
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: at no extra cost, I'll set you up a travel
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: bank account where you can use your money. I'm like,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: why would it cost me to do that?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: That's ridiculously Yeah, but also you don't bloody want it,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: you know the fundamentally, all you want is to be
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: able to travel home to see your family and for
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: your family to see you a.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Little two year old Georgia.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: It's like, we actually got a call yesterday from one
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: of our listeners, Bruce, and he had said exactly what
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: you've said, that he received no notification from Virgin in
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: any way to let him know that his flight had
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: been canceled or changed. But he did the same thing,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: went and checked the arrival's page, sorry, the departure's page,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: and could see that it had been canceled. It is infuriating,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: really to think that they're not even contacting people to
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: let them know. So had you not actually looked at
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: that yourself, what would have happened? You'd have turned up
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: with a two year old to get on a flight
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and not been able to Yeah.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And like we avoided another airline, like purely
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: for that reason. That's why we chose to go as Virgin,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: because they're meant to be you know, have some kind
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of a standard and yeah, the same thing happens. And
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, and then you know the fine print being like,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: oh it's COVID related, then there's no fees incurring, but
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: they're not telling anyone sort of what the issue is. Yeah,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the operational issue. And I mean from what I've heard,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: it's to do with staffing because they've got staffing isolation
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: because of COVID, So it is a COVID issue.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Georgia, So what what are you and your family doing? Now?
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: What have you decided to do?
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: So we got the credit, like it's too late to
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: book anything with them, so what with what we're doing
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: now is fine with and no to Townsville and then
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: driving for three hours down to Early Beach. Oh yeah,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So I mean it's it's we're really lucky that we
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: had you know, well we've had to take money from
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  Speaker 1: our house, you know, our savings, you know, to try
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and so to make it work. But you know, we
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: really you know, our family, I really want to see them.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Oh my goodness, I reckon, there's going to be
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: tears when your family meets you two years old.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely, we can't wait.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Bit I mean and isn't it disappointing that, you know,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you go from feelings sort of so excited about being
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: able to do that and getting home to see your
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: family and them getting to meet you little one for
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: the first time, to then the stress of these flights
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: changing and having to deal with that. And I think
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: that that's the really sad part for so many territories
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: at this point, trying to travel to see their families
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: at Christmas time. Is it leaves that real sour taste
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: in your mouth.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and just just a complete lack of communication. Yeah, yeah,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: your care.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so disappointing. Georgia.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate you having a chat with us this
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: morning and letting us know what's happened from your perspective,
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  Speaker 2: because I actually know that there's a lot of people
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: out there listening who are in a similar situation to you.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: I hope you have a lovely Christmas and I hope
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: that it once you finally get to.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Mackay that that it is really nice and relaxing for you.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Great, Thanks Katie.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Thank you, thanks for your time this morning. Georgia,