If anyone is booked to travel on Virgin Atlantic in the next few days please ensure you double check with them regarding the carriage of firearms/ammunition.

Had clients departing Los Angeles last night, Friday June 17th and Virgin Atlantic would not carry their firearms, saying they have a temporary suspension system wide for the foreseeable future. Fortunately they were very accommodating and clients were rerouted.

I have just received an email from the Service Delivery Manager, Los Angeles stating they hope to have it resolved within the coming week but not set date.

Just received notice from the Service Delivery Manager in Los Angeles the suspension has been lifted and firearms may be carried on Virgin Atlantic services again.

This seems odd. What was the issue?

There would seem to be a simple solution to this in the future and that would be to book with a different airline. Just knowing that this occurred makes me cross them off the list for future flights of any kind.

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Originally posted by hunt99:
There would seem to be a simple solution to this in the future and that would be to book with a different airline. Just knowing that this occurred makes me cross them off the list for future flights of any kind.

I would not be so fast to cross Virgin off your list. I spend better than six months a year flying all over Europe and Africa and if I have anything to say about it, I always fly Virgin. Why? S-E-R-V-I-C-E, in all capitol letters, even for the guy filling the cheapest self-loading freight seats. Great airline. Notice that they fixed it with no dramas. I imagine that it was something beyond thier control. Sometimes, defecation randomly occurs!

fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me. will take my business elsewhere. if a re-route at the last minute because they screwed up is your idea of service- well it sure isn't mine. the trickle down effect in a situation like that can be tremendous-i.e. who is meeting you in Africa and how do you contact them at the last minute to notify them of an airline change?

quote:

Virgin Atlantic

Only Airbus. Flying Fiat, big crap plane.

Flying Fiat. I like that. Very appropriate.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
if a re-route at the last minute because they screwed up is your idea of service- well it sure isn't mine.

Your making a large assumption that it was the airlines fault. Flying anywhere involves a lot of moving pieces that no one organization holds are the cards on. Had it been any number of other airlines (ones that unfortunatly I am often forced to fly on. grrrr!) the traveller would have just been told thats too bad, not our fault, sucks to be you.

I fly from the UK to Fresno every year or so (my boys live there). If I crossed every airline off my list that screwed up somewhere along the way, I would have to walk now.

RE-READ THE ORIGINAL POST. VA REFUSED TO CARRY THEIR GUNS BECAUSE OF A SYSTEM WIDE BAN. CAN'T BLAME IT ON ANOTHER CARRIER FURTHER DOWN THE LINE IF IT IS A SYSTEM WIDE BAN!!!! THE AIRLINE MADE A SYSTEM WIDE POLICY DECISION- THEN CHANGED THEIR TUNE. SCREW THEM.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
RE-READ THE ORIGINAL POST. VA REFUSED TO CARRY THEIR GUNS BECAUSE OF A SYSTEM WIDE BAN. CAN'T BLAME IT ON ANOTHER CARRIER FURTHER DOWN THE LINE IF IT IS A SYSTEM WIDE BAN!!!! THE AIRLINE MADE A SYSTEM WIDE POLICY DECISION- THEN CHANGED THEIR TUNE. SCREW THEM.

Jdollar, let me quote you a piece of the original post;

"...the Service Delivery Manager, Los Angeles stating they hope to have it resolved within the coming week but not set date.."

It is obvious from this that the Virgin Air did not make a "system wide ban" due to some internal wishy-washy feelings about guns. I would lay very good odds that it had far more to do with their insurance carrier, not another airline carrier. Who knows, it could have been the baggage handlers union (do monkeys know how to unionize??!) that got their undies in a bunch and refused to handle firearms, or a million other moving pieces in the airline industry, but the fact is VA sorted it out. Virgin did not whinge, cry foul, blame somebody else or tell the customer "too bad, sucks to be you." Instead, they sucked it up, helped the customers onto OTHER airlines, fixed whatever the issue was fast as possible and got on with business. To me, thats a first class business. Stuff happens, and all the time. What actions you take when it does separates the men from the boys.

Oh, and bye the bye, no need to "shout", it's just a civilized conversation here.

Kindest regards,

Unfortunately I was not able to find out the true reason for the ban at the time and, though I tried to get the details out of the service manager in Los Angeles, he was not very forthcoming other than it would be resolved shortly, which it was.

As BwanaCole mentioned - it had not thing to do with any other airline and I strongly agree it had something to do with their license to carry firearms/ammunition. Everything has been resolved and all is back to normal.

I would not let this incident sway you from traveling on them. They are a very good airline and I regularly receive good reviews from clients who have used them. The agent in Los Angeles was extremely accommodating in getting them rerouted on other airlines who would accept the firearms and they arrived at their destination within 5 minutes of the scheduled arrival of the Virgin flight.

Hello,

Had bad experience with Virgin and guns.
On my do not patronize list FOREVER.

Nitro

I am with jdollar and Nitro450Exp here. It takes me a solid year to fund a trip to Africa, and I plan to eliminate any known potential disasters.

Posting this here makes it a problem.

thanks,

Rich

quote:

I plan to eliminate any known potential disasters.

Rich

Rich, a wise man once said;

"There are known knowns, there are known unknowns and then there are unknown unknowns."
Donald Rumsfeld

By potentially eliminating a "potential disaster" you are actually inviting unknown ones. At least you DO know that Virgin service is top notch (in my humble experience anyway, and I have flown a LOT for work) and they will work to make you happy.

That is stacking the deck in your favour.

Virgin is a good airline when compared with most any other when service is the main criteria. While service is important to me there are other overriding considerations. The first consideration is that VA flies "SCAREBUSES". The second is their track record where firearms are concerned, especially when headed somewhere internationally for a hunt. I love the fish and chips at the British "takeaways", the RAF and battle of Britain museums are a must see but I will not fly an English airline or traverse their country with firearms.