It’s been almost a year since director Kevin Smith had a very public spat with Southwest after being told he was too girthy to fly. That means it’s time for the Jersey Girl filmmaker to get ticked off at another carrier, and the lucky recipient of his vitriol is Virgin America.
According to Mr. Smith (his real name), he was supposed to be flying on a Virgin America flight from JFK to LAX this morning with his wife and his muse Jason Mewes. The trio had arrived at the airport early, checked their bags and then gone to the lounge to chill until closer to boarding time.
When it came time to board, they zipped through the TSA line no problem (with the assistance of a Virgin concierge) and made it to their gate with 10 minutes to go before departure… only to see Virgin staffers shutting the door to the jetway.
Herewith an excerpt from the missive posted on Kevin’s site:
We pleaded with Manny (the unfriendly face of Virgin America JFK working the gate), pointing out the remaining time (there were still 8 minutes before scheduled departure), and pointing out that the jetway was still attached to the plane. Flying as much as I do (usually up at the front of the plane), I know that the jetway only gets pulled back ONCE THE PLANE DOOR IS SECURELY CLOSED. As we tried to get Manny to realize our bags were under the plane and we’d been checked in for an hour, the jetway stayed in place. The plane wouldn’t pull back from the gate for another 15 minutes…
Manny was joined by Erwin, who identified himself as the person in charge. I pointed out – EXTREMELY calmly – that we’d checked in an hour prior and that our bags were on the plane. He said it didn’t matter, as we weren’t at the gate when they shut the door. We told him we were with sight of the gate and that Manny could’ve held the door – particularly because departure wasn’t for another nearly ten minutes at that point. He said he’d called for us over the p.a. system, but my wife’s name is SCHWALBACH – you say a name THAT distinctive over a loudspeaker, at least two people in an airport are gonna turn their heads: me & Jen Schwalbach. And, the fact that we were going through security mere yards from the actual gate, and we’d heard the last call announcement for the previous San Francisco flight… well, without calling anybody a liar, it’s just REALLY hard to believe that p.a. call was actually made. I didn’t hear my name over the loudspeaker. Jennifer Schwalbach didn’t hear her name. Jason Mewes didn’t hear his name. Dorothy, the concierge service lady, didn’t hear any of our names. Four independent sets of ears, mere yards from the origin point of the alleged p.a. call failed to hear the call; what are the chances we’re all stone cold deaf?
Smith goes on to say that his biggest concern wasn’t making the flight, but in getting his wife’s bags off the plane, as they contained her medicine. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful in that endeavor too.
Concludes Mr. Smith:
You are a great airline – but the wife and I will be avoiding you like the plague from now on. As will Mewes – who must’ve smoked an entire pack of cigarettes outside afterwards to calm down. As will anyone in my immediate and extended family. As will any of the cast/crew I’ve gotta fly around the country (or out of it) for productions.
I don’t fault you for the petty, lazy, unhelpful behavior of your… desk crew. But if that’s the caliber of customer service/customer satisfaction you’d like to be known for, then it doesn’t matter if you’ve got free wifi on the plane and a kickass, in-flight movie selection. It all starts at that check-in desk; and what started there today was the end of our business relationship.
And you WANT me as a customer, man: I’m a first class fiend and I travel TONS. But this shit may have even put me off Virgin Atlantic, too.
Virgin shuts its legs, I shut my wallet [SilentBobSpeaks.com]
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I went to the his blog link, comments to the article have been disabled. I think the OP might have gotten flamed a bit and decided to silence the comments.
This guy was clearly playing with fire cutting things too close. He got burned.
The “you should treat me differently because I’m a big wig traveler” pitch just doesn’t carry any weight with me. Such a frequent traveler should have known better anyway.
Mike Meyers needs to bring back “Fat Bastard” and do a movie parody of this obese asshole.
“Ohhhh. Yah got my lassie’s Cheetos and Bon Bons locked up in da baggage hole. GET IN MAH BELLY! I’m higher in the food chain dan you are!” Lemmie on da plane or I’ll blog about yah while I sit on yah at da same time!”
If Kevin is ever spotted on a beach, somebody please call Greenpeace so they can push him back in the ocean.
But the lesson to be learned from this event is very simple. If a celebrity with big money and a penchant for spending it can’t get a little slack, what chance do the rest of us have for getting barely acceptable service? None.
It doesn’t matter whether money or fame “deserves” courtesy, Virgin has stated loudly “No one deserves courtesy”. Virgin deserves no courtesy, or business.
Why do I think it would be difficult to get through airport security with Jason Mewes?
Read the update on the linked article – it wasn’t Smith’s fault.
—
Via @cbalint “Why did you wait until 10 minutes b4 the flight to board?â€
One of the only pricey indulgences I’m happy to pay for is First Class air travel. I fly LOTS, and when you’re also big fat-ass, the wider seats are definitely more comfortable. Indeed, with the exception of the Bay Area Southwest flights I used to take, it’s fair to say – since ‘96 – you could always find me at the front of the plane (as a first class passenger, not giving the pilot’s “driver’s courtesyâ€).
After Southwest did it’s level-headed best to alienate large passengers everywhere, I was off flying for awhile, sticking strictly to my beloved bus – the last refuge of the oversized traveler with a Jay-and-Silent-Bob-lined bank account. But in order to attend the Walter Gretzky street hockey tournament in Brandtford this summer, I HAD to fly again (we couldn’t make it in time driving, due to a previous engagement).
So I bit the bullet and got on another plane, for the first time in months. And when I sat down, the fella next to me smiled and asked “They gonna throw you off this plane too?â€
And the next three flights I took, it was the same. Even worse: when you fly first, you board first, sit down… and then EVERYONE files past you. And when you’re the Too Fat To Fly guy on a plane? Well, everyone stares. Then the whispering starts. A hundred people look right at you – when you’re not on a stage. It kinda blows.
But Affleck told me that when he flies, he uses a concierge service: a company that works with the airport and each airlines. Their job is to get you to the plane on time, but not when boarding begins; that way, you don’t have to play the Elephant Man for passengers passing you en route to their seats. Essentially, you board last. The entire service is designed to get you to the plane door shortly before the door closes.
We were at the airport and checked-in for over an hour before departure, waiting in the lounge. Dorothy, our concierge, has been doing her job for years; she knows EXACTLY how much time she has to get her clients to the plane before the door closes. This is how she makes her living, so it behooves her to know when to head for the plane; we had time. The plane was not only in sight, it REMAINED in sight for the next 15/20 minutes. Dorothy the concierge was, rightfully, beside herself: the gate agents made HER look bad – even though this is EXACTLY how she does her job every day.
Wow.
You know air travel employees are getting in a state when they start making EACH OTHER look bad. (Yes, I’m aware that the concierge service is not employed by Virgin, but they work in the same industry.)
But yeah, this explains why he was so close to doors-closed-taxi-out, and quite frankly, being a celebrity (and a fat celebrity at that, though I dunno why he harps on himself so; he’s not THAT fat fer chrissakes) I understand why he would spring for concierge service.
But… but… if you give us all the details like that, it makes it harder for us to blame the OP!
Seeing this, it makes a lot more sense why he was so angry. At first I thought it was just him being an assbag. I imagine the concierge was pretty upset too. That doesn’t help her do her job.
They were in a lounge on the OTHER side of security and left for their gate with only minutes to go? Jeebus.
Glad to see you read the comment above you before commenting
I’ve been a Kevin Smith fan for many years and feel like I know the man through listening to the many podcasts each week. I believe him 100% here. He’s not the type of guy to lie. He also has some sway with a very large fanbase. I’d like to see how Virgin handle this one.
Imagine this. Twenty people arrive at the gate late, one each minute for twenty minutes. The first one gets on, the next one arrives only a minute later and presses to get on, the next one … well you get the idea. There has to be a deadline. It may only be a couple of minutes to you, but the choreographed dance that is air travel has more to it than when the plane pushes away from the jetway. But of course, we who are self-centered and self-important are hard-pressed to consider that there might be more going on than we see. Can you imagine how many times this happens at a gate in a day?
>Smith goes on to say that his biggest concern wasn’t making the flight, but in getting his wife’s bags off the plane, as they contained her medicine. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful in that endeavor too.
I have to call BS on that – on a recent flight to Amsterdam, we sat on the tarmac for 35 minutes. Why? Because a passenger had not made the flight, so his bags had to be found and removed. These days, planes do not take off with luggage that does not match a passenger, so that you can’t send a bomb in your checked baggage and then just “miss” your plane. Even most PA announcements these days warn that your baggage will be removed. If his wife wasn’t on the plane, they’d have removed her bags before takeoff.
Wow, I thought everyone knew that you had to be at the gate 30 minutes beforehand, and they close the door about 10 minutes before the plane is scheduled to leave. Oh, and its VA’s fault you hung out in the lounge too long? WOW. But I guess if you are a Hollywood bigshot (or mediumshot) you expect a different set of rules.
“and made it to their gate with 10 minutes to go before departure”
Show up earlier next time. Problem solved.
He deliberately waited to board the plane; he pays for concierge service to ensure he’s amongst the last person to board the plane. It’s the duty of the concierge to get him there on time, and it’s the job of the gate agents to co-operate with the concierge.
Virgin’s gate-agents dropped the ball in this case.
And if he showed up earlier, we would never be reading this article.
The solution remains. Show up a bit earlier.
Waaah. This guy didn’t follow the clearly defined rules and recommendations (be at the gate at least x minutes prior, don’t pack medicine in luggate). He obviously is a frequent flier and should know better. He then expects the airline to make concessions for him because he is a big shot and can make a lot of noise. I have plently of gripes against airlines and their behavior, but in this case I think I’m siding with the airline.
Here’s a plug for Delta. Wife & I booked a trip on Aer Lingus last week, the flight got delayed leaving and caused a ligistics nightmare for us, translation, we weren’t going to make it to our destination that day. So Aer Lingus gave us some kind of voucher for Delta. We were technically too late to actually make it on the Delta flight, but the Delta crew made a few calls and let us on. I didn’t expect that, our ticket was really for Aer Lingus and they could have simply told us to march right back to Aer Lingus, which they didn’t do. So Kudos to the Delta crew in Boston!
They did help me out at St Louis when I missed my plane by TWO MINUTES due to an insanely long security line. The gate agent couldn’t let me on the plane, but she sent me to another gate right down the hall and they got me on that flight instantly with no problems. I did have to make an extra stop in Cincinnati and was a couple of hours late, but I made it.
It’s on Virgin, if you ask me. The concierge’s job is to get them there on time, and it didn’t happen. Stop hating on his celebrity status. If it had been Joe Schmoe nobody who had hired the concierge, it would STILL be the concierge’s bad and Virgin needs to make it better.
Well no, the concierge did their job as best they knew how to do it; which, after 27 years, ought to be pretty damned good at it by now. It’s on Virgin’s gate-attendants for not playing ball.
everyone who blames Kevin for this one, this is the reason I feel the airline was at fault(and so did the airline also since they refunded his flight, and offered a free flight in the future):
“We were at the airport and checked-in for over an hour before departure, waiting in the lounge. Dorothy, our concierge, has been doing her job for years; she knows EXACTLY how much time she has to get her clients to the plane before the door closes. This is how she makes her living, so it behooves her to know when to head for the plane; we had time. The plane was not only in sight, it REMAINED in sight for the next 15/20 minutes. Dorothy the concierge was, rightfully, beside herself: the gate agents made HER look bad – even though this is EXACTLY how she does her job every day.
So that’s why I got to the door ten minutes before the flight: because I was told to by a professional who’s been working JFK for years. It didn’t matter; The gate agents made up their minds to lose Virgin some business.”
The airline only refunded his ticket because of who he is and the publicity. Do you think the airline would have done the same for someone like me who would have bought a non-refundable advance purchase ticket. I dont think so. and I still have no sympathy.
Eh. It was JFK. You gotta prepare for the worst when you get there.
I thought this was another fat issue, to which Id totally volunteer to sit next to him, alas, it wasn’t. Its amazing how many hoops we have to jump through to fly. Too bad there isn’t another as efficient option outside of flying another airline with just as many ridiculous policies. The problem is, when you are such a large company, you have employees who maybe disgusted with their job or having a bad day and they don’t care enough to not take it out on the customer.
Of all the titles under his belt, the author here chose to tout Jersey Girl as his success?
One word of advise: Cut down on the big macs and maybe you can waddle to the gate a little faster.
One word of advice: take a literacy course and learn how to actually read things.
I thought a plane was not to take off if the person who checked the luggage was not on the plane? Isn’t this what was suupposed to be done to thwort terrorism? Stop a terrorist from putting a bomb on a plane and not getting on it? Sounds like Virgin atlantic is doing the opposite? TSA where are you when we need you?
If this whiny movie producer travels as much as he claims, he should know that it doesn’t matter if he checked in an hour before the flight. He could have checked in 6 hours before the flight. Everyone knows that the door closes before the scheduled departure time.
Sorry, no exceptions for whiny movie producers.
Another update on his page:
“Update 1
Unlike Southworst, @VirginAtlantic seems to care: lovely, apologetic email, full refund for flight, free tix offer – all before I’ve landed. I appreciate the gesture/effort.”
Well at least someone cares. It seems the majority of the Consumerist commenter population doesn’t.
I don’t care who you are, get to your damn flight early or expect to get kicked off
It seems to me that if you pay Virgin for a premium service like a concierge it is their responsibility to ensure that you receive the premium (read pricey) service you paid for.
As a 20+ year customer service rep, in my opinion, that would mean from arrival to departure.
Most celebs fly first class for a reason. They’re paying premium rates for premium services and they should get what they pay for. I would be more than happy to deliver extraordinary service to someone who would in turn refer my company to their affluent friends which would in turn make the company more profitable. Hopefully my employer would recognize my efforts to enhance his profit margin and that would result in a personal benefit to my bottom line.
P.S. I’m available if any celebs need service personnel. : )
…at least I’m not the only one that hates fat ass.
I am very glad that at least some of the people commenting on this board have their heads on straight… When he purchased the ticket on VA, he was agreeing to their terms, namely that he needed to be on the plane 15 minutes prior to departure or risk losing his seat. No ifs, ands or buts! The airline has ABSOLUTELY NO obligation to page him, so it makes no difference if the agent did or not, other than the fact that it would be stupid and rude to lie about it. Airline customers bitch about stuff like this all the time–and the idiot first class assholes who were in the club and/or bar getting pissed are the worst! Just suck it up and admit that you made a mistake… We don’t know the whole story here, and never will. We only know one angry customer’s side of the situation. I know that this type of thing happens EVERY day, and it’s almost always the customer’s own fault. I’m especially not sad for a rich Hollywood star who can easily throw down the cash for first class seats on the next available flight on any airline and not think twice about it…
Also–for those people claiming that this “concierge” person should have known better: bollocks. Those people are typically barely functional as it is. Especially cart drivers and such. They get paid minimum wage. They are in NO position to tell a gate agent what to do or interfere with doing his or her job!
It makes me really, REALLY angry that Virgin America refunded Smith’s ticket in this case. It was clearly his fault, and he is receiving this special treatment only because he is a celebrity. Let’s face it: airlines make some of their money from situations like this when customers miss their flights. If his first-class ticket was full-price and fully-refundable, then fine, but I suspect that was not the case, in which case the airline should have offered nothing more than an apology for the gate agent’s behaviour and a copy of the airline’s contract of carriage pointing out why Mr. Smith and company were wrong on this one.
I hate VA. A few years ago, I bought tickets, and cancelled them per their terms due to a medical emergency. Then after that I was going to be unable to fly within the time frame to use my credit. They would not facilitate my selling the credit to a third party, and would not extend the period for me to use the credit. They would not give me a partial refund. The upshot was that it cost $1400, and I never got to use it. Their customer service, at least when dealing with this kind of thing, is terrible. I will never fly Virgin America. I think they are garbage.
(My error was in not buying travel insurance, but being an infrequent flyer, I didn’t even know that such a thing existed or what it was for.)
Most airlines tell you to be there half an hour before the flight leaves, minimum.