Thank-you, Virgin Australia

It was only a few days ago I was writing of our frustration with Virgin Australia about an experience with them at Perth airport, where we had to desert them and fly with Qantas in order to get home that day, which we finally did. Well this post is to acknowledge and thank Virgin Australia for their response in the situation, which has been great. Here is what has happened over the last few days.

I wrote my blog post on the (Qantas) plane flying back, and posted it that night once we got home. The next morning (Thursday) while running I had the chance to think through it some more, pondering the options and potential ramifications of taking it further. I was motivated by it being a interesting story which I thought others might find interesting...if only because it might be a lesson for other pregnant women who might be flying soon. I also was curious to see how social media might play a role in bringing it to the attention of Virgin Australia, as an alternative to letter...I suspected the combination of pregnant women versus big organisation would press some buttons!!!

It even crossed my mind to go the full mile and get the media onto it, like A Current Affair and Today Tonight, but I prefer not to lower myself to their low level.

When I got home I said to Ms A I would do a post or two via Twitter and Facebook to see what happened, and maybe contact the Herald Sun, to which she kind of laughed... So I fired up my laptop and armed with my blog as a description of what happened, proceeded to hit the social media universe.

First I went to Facebook and updated my status with “Virgin Australia screwed us over yesterday...thanks for nothing!!” and a link to my blog. Over the course of the day it got 8 comments and a few Likes, where the court of public opinion seemed to be on our side...phew!!! Then I went to the Virgin Australia page and made a similar post, again with a link to my blog...but this post didn’t last long until it was deleted, not surprisingly. Next was Twitter, where I started following Virgin Australia and then did a tweet saying “@VirginAustralia screwed us over yesterday. Thanks for nothing.”

After this flurry of activity I shut the laptop down and went to work...it’s so quick and easy to stir things up!! All morning I was waiting for something to happen (other than Facebook comments), but nothing. Humph!! What do you need to do to get some attention?? So feeling a bit left out, after lunch I went to the Herald Sun web-site and posted a news tip about “pregnant woman versus corporate Goliath” to see what would happen...this was becoming a bit of fun game!!

After a meeting I came out to, finally, some developments!! Virgin Australia had replied to both my Facebook and Twitter posts, apologising and that someone would be in contact with me soon. I also had a missed call from a journalist at the Herald Sun. Finally some attention for us!!!

First up I called the Herald Sun back, who were interested in the story, so I went over some parts of it again in addition to what they’d already read on my blog. By coincidence, when I told the journo who our obstetrician was, she said he was same doctor she’d had for her two kids!! Anyway, they wanted a photo of Ms A, so I gave them her ph nbr knowing full well that the thought of her picture in the Herald Sun could well put her into labour early. As it turned out, they weren’t able to get in contact with her to arrange a photo, but the story was “in the can”, so to speak.

Then a little later on came the best part of the whole thing. I received a phone call was a guy who introduced himself (I missed his name), but did hear him say he was from the Office of the CEO of Virgin Australia. Now you’re talking...and I was all ears!!! He was a terribly nice fellow, with a very soothing voice and gentle nature (over the phone, at least), and also very keen to talk through the whole thing. I explained our frustration was not with the airline as a whole, but with the particular application of the pregnancy policy where, in the circumstances, we felt some discretion could have been used in applying the policy, to accept the verbal and email advice from our doctor rather than require a written, signed letter head version of the same information on a public holiday.

He was very understanding and started out by acknowledging that the pregnancy policy was hard to find on their web-site, under “Special Assistance” which suggests wheelchair type issues rather than pregnancy. So he said he’d have the information moved to be more accessible. Then we went on to say he was very concerned about getting our confidence and support back for the airline, and to that end, offered us some free flights!! Wow!! He promptly followed up with an email, and to contact him directly to arrange the flights...although it will be some months until we’ll be flying again...

I hung up the phone being really impressed by their concern with dealing promptly with the matter, treating it with great priority and importance, even if the matter wasn’t that big in the grand scheme...he was concerned with us and our lasting opinion. I subsequently spoke to the Herald Sun journo to say how Virgin Australia had followed up – the story (still) hasn’t been published yet.

So after all that I felt I should update the record about Virgin Australia, and say thank-you for the way they dealt with the matter, not just because we’ve ended up with some free flights, but the manner of personally working through it. Thank-you, Virgin Australia.