and i also go married whilst out their.
virgin have caused me so much stress and upset that i was physically ill with migranes and nerves for 3 weeks before we left.
It all started in february when our flights were changed from air jamaica to iberia, this ment flying out 6 hours earlier than planed but still ariving in resort later than planned as we had to take two flights and change at madrid. then they tell us on our last day we have to pay all inclusive fee after 2 pm if we want anythin??? bear in mind we wouldnt have been ariving in resort till gone midnight on our 1st day.
also as a result we couldnt use the lounge passes included in our package for wedding and virgin would not offer an alternative. we also did not get many of the advertised flagship benefits at the hotel.
eventually got that point resolved but had to put up with the flights.
they turned out to be awful, the food uncooked properly the hostesses were bout 50/60 and couldnt be bothered to do much work. we were offered a drink 2wice on the whole 9 hour flight and this was with both meals. and as for duty free you had to go to their gally if you wanted any.
i have since found out that the day we flew (27th june) virgin flew their first direct flight full of passengers and mr branson to cuba. we live 10 mins from gatwick. i was gutted.
the main problems before we traveled was that when we picked up our tickets 1 week b4 they had forgotton to inclued our visas, our insurance policy and spelt one of the names wrong on the ticket agggghhh.
after many phone calls to india and back and speaking to ppl at virgin who didnt have a clue they then insist its ok to fly on the ticket(thankfull we were ok, but how was i to know?) this directly contaradicts their paperowrk included with the tickets. i then insisted i wanted this in writing and was told they would email it to me. next day no email. my agent rings again and after many many calls she is told they will fax it monday(it was sat am by now). my now husband went to get it from our agent mon afternoon and low and behold it had not been sent. another few calls and one hour later we eventually get it.
2 days before we flew we packed and at this point i still thought i could take 2 pieces of luggage at 32 kg per piece,(we had a case each to take and one extra with my wedding dress in) a virgin weddings confirmation sent 2 weeks previous also stated this amount and it is what we could have taken if the air jamaica flights had gone ahead. so i checked my tickets again and they all say 20kgs on so i get very worried and ring virgin to check and they say i cant take more than 20 kilos , so i explain the situation its my wedding etc and explain that they have already messed me around and that i have virgin weddings confirmation and they still insist i can only take 20kgs by now it had all been too much and i break down i couldnt take the stress any longer they tell me i have to pay the excess baggage charge( we all know these are steep) and i said where do you propose i get the money from. after another hour of crying down the phone some one eventually agrees to pay my excess baggage but i can only claim it back after. we had enough money for our spending money and wedding extras. but had no choice and only got this offer as i was crying down the phone. they didnt even send the confirmation of this by email until i would have been in the air, so i stioll had now guarentees.
fortunatly we checked in very early and they did not chrge us any excess and none going home either, i have since found out for long haul they do acept 32 kilos.
the hotel and wedding were fab, but im glad i didnt rely on virgin and had been emailing the hotel direct.
2 days before we went home we asked our rep 2 arange the vip service at havana, she said her havana coulge would meet us at the airport and will have aranged this service. we leave for the airport(2/5hrs transfer) at 6pm and arrieved at the airport at 8.45 (our flight was due to leave 11pm) the queue was massive and no reps around we had just got checked in by 1045 but then their immigration to get thru (in cuba this takes a good 30mins-1hour) we were still in this que at 11pm and then were told to run to our flight, virgin out in cuba must know it takes so long and i cant understand why they didnt arange our transfer earlier. and we were all worried about missing our flight and their was no rep around at airport.
all in all we did enjoy our hotel but virgin holidays we so unhelpful befor they totally ruind the weeks leading up to my wedding an i was in bits and ill due to it in the days before we traveld. they have no respect that its peoples weddings they are dealing with and as a group we spent over 13000 with them.
i am awaiting a response.
we are going back to cuba next year same hotel with kuoni and its 300 quid cheeper for same hol but using virgins direct gatwick flights(i have no problem with the plane side of virgin)
Leona McQueen
