L'AVION STILL STINKS
Faithful readers of this column will recall that I hate and despise a French "business class" airline unimaginitively called L'Avion. What put L'Avion on my "Merde List" was their cavalier attitude towards my disabled father. We had requested a wheelchair and bulkhead seating for him far in advance of our flight. Not only did L'Avion ignore or delete this request, they refused to accommodate his needs in any way when we arrived at the airport. Europe has limited or non-existant civil rights legislation for the disabled and we were flat-out told by a hateful airline manager that my father's physical limitations were not L'Avion's problem.
L'Avion's attitude was simply astounding, not least because they are an "all-business class airline" for which we had paid over $1000 per seat.
VIRGIN AMERICA STINKETH NOT
Contrast French "customer dis-service" with my experience on Virgin America this past weekend. And as you do that, remember that Virgin is considered a "budget airline" with excellent fares.
We started out somewhat annoyed with Virgin because our direct flight from Seattle to New York had been canceled. A customer service rep named Kelly Barncastle had called us directly, however, to reschedule, and had gone out of his way to accommodate us on a new flight home.
When I called to confirm Dad's wheelchairs the day of the new two-segment flight I learned that first-class seats were still available for a nominal upgrade fee. We had a credit due to the flight change and I tried to apply it to purchase the upgrade but the rep could not find the credit record.
Kelly had sent me his mobile number when he confirmed the new flights so I called him only to discover it was his day off. Despite the fact that he was not at work and did not have access to Virgin's system he took the time to call a supervisor at Virgin to help her find the missing credit. He then emailed me from his home computer to make sure I was up to speed on the new reservation info.
Kelly was the hero of our trip. I was really shocked that he took time out of his vacation day to resolve this matter for us. I'm not sure how Virgin trains their staff but it was clear from Kelly's actions, the follow up of the supervisor with whom he worked, the pilot that invited our son to sit in the cockpit and all the other Virgin staff we met that this isn't a typical airline.
And it sure ain't L'Avion, I can tell you that.
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