Virgin America's New Reservation System Still A Complete Disaster

It’s been a month since we reported on the study that found Virgin America’s new reservation system was keeping customers on hold for an average of 24 minutes — four times as long as the next-worse airline. And according to a new report, things have not improved as travelers head into the crowded holiday travel period.

CBS 5 in San Francisco looked into the rash of complaints about Virgin America’s new system and found that it’s not only the phone system that’s keeping people on hold. Travelers are also gnashing their teeth in frustration over the airline’s website.

A CBS 5 producer went online to verify viewer complaints by booking a flight from San Francisco to San Diego. They were able to choose their flights but were then greeted by a “loading” screen that lasted for several minutes, only to then be told that there was an error and the selected flights were no longer available.

One customer tells the station that he has spent hours of his time on the phone during the last month trying to reserve a flight, and that he was put on hold for anywhere from 18 minutes to 82 minutes. Ultimately, he turned to a travel agent to get his travel booked.

Virgin America says it has increased its staff by 45% and that those over-24 minute wait times have now been reduced to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 15 to 23 minutes.

The airline is also boasting that it’s solved a lot of problems via its Twitter account, which is all well and good, unless you’re one of the millions of people who don’t use Twitter.

ConsumerWatch: Virgin America Customers Complain About Reservation Issues [CBSlocal.com]

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