Adam is writing in to say that in the year that Virgin America has been operating, he feels that they’ve forgotten how to run their airline. The first time he flew with them, his flight was delayed and his laptop adapter melted. He got a free flight. The second time he flew, about a year later, his flight was delayed, the airline ran out of food, his luggage was ripped open and his valuables disappeared, and the baggage claim rep laughed at his misfortune.
Adam says:
I’ve been mulling this one over for awhile, and by “this one” I mean what I want to do about my experience last week on Virgin America’s anniversary flight from JFK to LAX. I flew out on one of the first last year and had an awful experience, which involved a four hour delay and a MacBook Pro power adapter that melted on me, and received a free flight as an apology. I really didn’t mind the delay or the melted power adapter. Chances are it wasn’t their fault as Apple makes crappy adapters, and they handled the delay very well. One year later it seems they’ve forgotten how to operate as an airline that serves its customers to the point that I’ve decided any compensation on their part would be unsatisfactory. Well, that’s not entirely true, but it would involve cash and lots of it. But really I’d rather they get a bit of bad press and hope they change their ways. They should be the best airline around.
I got on the plane around 11:00am on Friday, August 8th. I didn’t get off the plane for a little more than ten hours later. When we boarded we had a 30-40 minute delay that one should be accustomed to if they’ve ever flown out of JFK before, but by the time it was our turn to leave one of the air conditioning units broke. So, we went back. They figured it would take about half an hour to fix but quickly realized it would take much longer. They informed us we’d be let back into the airport to hang out in comfort but the messages stopped and the pilot went radio silent. The flight crew didn’t know what was going on and no one was let off the plane for a good hour and a half. Those who were finally let off were not let back on. The rest of us, who stayed, ended up waiting well into the afternoon when the plane took off five hours late.
Fine, delays happen. However, you’d think during the delays that someone from the flight crew would have the opportunity to stock the plane with food. Apparently they were only able to grab a few sandwiches and chips. Being a vegetarian I could only have the chips. My fault for my abnormal ethics, I suppose, but they were almost out of sandwiches when they got to my row. I was in row 10. By my estimation, half the plane went without food. To their credit, they did have plenty of water. For ten hours most of us didn’t eat or had very little. I always bring a few snacks on board just in case there isn’t much to eat but nothing to survive for an entire day. Luckily I did bring plenty of entertainment because their entertainment system was down as well. We never got the free movie we were promised. Supposedly we were given a $25 flight credit none of us will ever use, but I haven’t bothered to check.
All of this I can deal with. I had no intention of complaining. The whole event, thus far, was almost a blessing in disguise as I wasn’t looking forward to being in Los Angeles and by the time the flight was over I couldn’t have felt more glad.
Then I got my luggage. One of my bags had been ripped open. It could have easily been unzipped, but it was ripped. I’m not going to speculate as to how it happened but only my Apple TV and some DVDs were missing from the bag. No clothing or other small items fell out, oddly enough, but I wasn’t in the cargo bay of the plane so I can’t say whether or not it was stolen or simply lost via bag damage during the trip. Either way, I wanted someone to check and see if it had fallen out on the plane. I walked into the bag office and Joyce greeted me, before I said anything, with “all I can do is file a courtesy claim.”
Throughout our conversation she continued to tell me there was nothing she could do when all I asked is that she call baggage and make certain they hadn’t found any stray items. After half an hour she finally called, but this was long after her numerous accusations that I was trying to defraud Virgin America by claiming they stole my items. To be fair, those are my words and not hers. What she said to me was that her experience can rule out the TSA and airport employees so the only possible option is that it was my fault.
I asked her why she thought it was okay to accuse me and not them. She said, “you want me to accuse the TSA of stealing from you?” I told her “no, I don’t want you to accuse anyone at all,” at which point she decided to start filling out my claim. Throughout the process she asked me the same questions repeatedly. Given this is the sort of thing you do to a criminal I pretty much assumed she wanted to make sure I remembered my answers, but maybe she was just a complete moron. I feel I should give her the benefit of the doubt there. I could go on endlessly with examples of why this woman was horrible and cruel for no good reason other than what joys one might assume her job can bring, but I would like to mention one more thing. When I let her know which items were missing and how much they cost she laughed at me. She actually laughed at me.
I had a nice cab driver. The cab was cheaper than expected. Those are my silver linings. That and the plane didn’t crash nor was anything else of value stolen or lost. What a great day. Thanks Virgin America.
Hey, why not let the DOT know about your baggage complaint? They keep track of that sort of thing. The TSA has admitted that it has a problem with theft. You should give them a heads up as well. Finally, when your baggage seems tampered with, you should report it to the airport authorities so they can investigate. A spokesperson from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport once said: “We find that people often make a claim for an item to the airline, but never report it to the airport or the police, and then we don’t know that a theft problem is developing.”
(Photo: Maulleigh )
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Delayed-release exploding dye packs, people. That’s what we need. Disguised to look like cell phones, jewelry cases, digital cameras, and PSPs. We need these dye packs and we need people willing to fly with a decoy suitcase and these inside. The dye packs go off two, maybe three days later, unless a special code is activated.
@dorkins: They’re his ethics. They’re not most people’s ethics. Therefore, they’re “abnormal ethics”.
I eat as much meat as the next guy, mind, and I hate preachy vegetarians, but this guy isn’t preaching at you. In fact, he seemed rather upset by the idea that half the plane would have to go without sandwiches, whereas the average preachy vegetarian would probably be happy that no cows, pigs, or turkeys would have to be killed for the passengers.
I think what I’m saying here is, these are not the droids you’re looking for. Move along.
I always worry about valuables in my suitcase too. It may sound overly stereotypical but I would say people in low paid jobs with regular opportunity to steal are more likely to do so than others. I don’t like leaving valuables in checked luggage or in a hotel room when it’s being cleaned. You have to remember that in these cases you’re putting your trust in strangers who are working jobs where pretty much anyone can get them. It’s no surprise things ‘disappear’. Anyone is capable of stealing, but some areas you’ll find more than others.
@shufflemoomin: The problem is that these people have “sticky fingers.” The solution? Remove the fingers.
No, really.
@Snakeophelia: You know, that’s brilliant! Imagine catching thieves literally either red-faced or red-handed, or both. But, it’ll never happen since there is no economic incentive for anyone to clean up theft issues.
@Snakeophelia: Yes, definitely not while they are searching through the bags. Good grief, I can see the next morning’s headline “Ted Kaczynski Escapes from Prison.”
@shufflemoomin: I wonder how hard it is to search all of the TSA employees when they are leaving after their shift. It sounds like they are taking out shopping-cart loads of stuff every day.
Look – even when you could lock your luggage, it was very clear you shouldn’t check anything of interest. Now that locks are illegal (or, if you buy a TSA approved lock, easily bypassed and requiring you to go to a separate line), I can’t imagine what would go through someone’s head as far as leaving the valuables in the unlocked luggage. I mean, how many expose’s do you need to see on TV about baggage handlers being caught going thru people’s luggage. I mean – wow.
As for JFK – amen. I was on a flight that was delayed and we sat on it for 45 minutes waiting for a take-off window slot. Then as soon as we pushed back, the plane went dead. They had to get a tow to pull us the 6 feet back to the gangway. We sat there for an hour (no one allowed off). Then they pushed us back and drove for 20 minutes to one of the far off plane parking lots, where we sat for 45 minutes before driving back for 20 minutes to take off. The fun part was learning, much later from an aviation expert, that the parking lot time was to leave the plane in idle to see if it would shut off or not, before getting airborne. Nice system-test … sit there on the ground for an hour to see if it stalls again.
Just a bit more of a thing that’s offtopic – @Wormfather is Wormfather: It’s because what we consider fruit is actually in many cases meant to be eaten. The intent is for animals to eat them and then poop out the seeds somewhere else.
In any event, most of the time you can eat the fruit without killing the plant it grew from.
Brace yourselves, this may be something that you don’t want to hear…
I bet you guys will try to gang up on me but the TSA doesn’t actually steal, and if their is theft it’s REALLY hard to do.
Hard to believe, huh?
The problem is people don’t know how the system work and wrongfully assume it’s the TSA.
Here is how it works, the TSA baggage officers only have the bags for about 10% of the bags journey to the plane, and the officers only handle the bags if they need to do a bag check. It’s not like the TSA officers ARE THE BAGGAGE HANDLERS…
So the 10% the bag’s journey is the security process (the TSA’s part)… is heavily packed with cameras…
The other 90% of the bags’ journey has NO cameras (which is sadly a HUGE security issue), and the airline company brings it to their plane and can basically steal WHATEVER THEY WANT with out too much of a problem since the airline can just easily blame the TSA.
Look, just do the following, if you don’t believe me, try this out, you don’t need to be a detective to pull this off… just a little human tact: if you ever see a TSA baggage officer (they wear the redish polos) just ask them if they ever heard of anybody who has ever robbed something from a bag, and look at them and see if they seem sincere… even vets who have been there for more than 6 years MAY have heard of 1 or 2 thefts at best… mostly to a quick termination.
On the same side, if you know anybody that works as the airlines baggage handlers, just ask them, most of them will admit it as long as they trust you won’t turn them in…
I know this will blow a lot of people away… but it’s the truth.
The funny thing is a lot of people at the TSA quit just after they start working, because they find out that you can’t actually go around robbing stuff… since it’s “common knowledge”.
At the risk of getting back on topic, I travel monthly and NEVER EVER pack valuables in my checked luggage. It’s never worth the risk. But because I usually have a lot of jars and cans of regional food specialties in my suitcase it’s almost always certain the metal will show up on the scanners and the bags will be checked. I have a collection of the little printed notices they put in your bags after they’ve been checked. I fan them out and cover the inside top of the suitcase with them. Meanwhile, my laptop, camera, ect, are in the cabin with me at all times.
@jdmba:
Yikes! that’s one of the scariest things i’ve ever read in regards to air travel. Thank god the plane shut off when it did instead of a couple hours later.
Did they put you back on the same plane after it passed it’s “system test” or did they put you on another plane?
I wouldn’t get back on the same plane after that even if they offered the flight to me for free!
ochobit is correct. I used to be a flight attendant. There is very little security when your bags are being delivered to the plane. I’ve seen them fall off the little trucks and not make it on the plane, I’ve seen them run over by the trucks, etc.
We all associate our misfortunes with the particular airline we flew when they happen, but the truth is that this stuff happens all the time on all airlines. And yes, it’s shitty.
When tempers flare, it becomes a never ending circle. Unfortunately you’re usually at the mercy of the gate agent or other employees, which at times can make it difficult for you to stand up for yourself without fearing bad service or the worst seat!
Kudos for not throwing a fit regarding the lack of food choice. Flight attendants get the passengers after they’ve been through all the problems while flying. It’s not fun to get that wrath. Most people forget that they’re on a plane, not in a restaurant or stocked bar.
Also – just FYI. The flight crew has nothing to do with catering. I had a few pilots call and request extra food and stuff, but it all depends on if catering can do it.
Where can we buy the stuff that the TSA steals? Do they have a web site? We might as well make lemonade what with this licensed theft ring.