Software

Virgin Blue "error" upgrades passengers to gold status

"Everyone makes mistakes. No one or company is perfect. They offered a reasonable explanation 2 hours after sending the offer and then retracted the offer, accompanied by an apology. What more ..."

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By Ben Grubb

Nov 13, 2009 8:15 PM

Friday the 13th strikes.

Airline Virgin Blue has blamed an IT system error for accidentally upgrading ineligible members of its Velocity rewards program to “gold” status.

An unknown number of customers received an email this evening saying: “We’ve got a treat for you - a free upgrade to Velocity Gold! Given you came so close to making it on your own, we wanted to say thanks so much for your ongoing commitment to the Virgin Blue Group, we really love having you around”.

Gold status allows Virgin Blue Velocity members free access to Virgin Blue lounges, priority check-in at terminals, extra luggage and two personalised baggage tags.

The Velocity website appeared to crash at 6:40PM AEDST Friday, hinting that a large number of customers had visited the site to find out if the upgrade was true.

An hour later, Virgin Blue issued a correction on its Velocity rewards website.

"Oops! Due to an error, you may have received an email regarding a Gold upgrade by mistake," the statement read.

"Please disregard the free upgrade communication. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

The airline also posted to its official Twitter account that Friday the 13th had struck.

A call centre representative from Virgin Blue said that the email was “a system error”.

“IT have advised that we do have a system error,” the representative said.

“Right now we do have a lot of phone calls because of this error."

Virgin members flood Twitter

Before the offer was retracted, hundreds of Twitter users expressed their delight that they had been upgraded to Velocity gold status.

“I just made Virgin Blue Gold! Never even saw Silver,” said Twitter user vbthedog.

But members started wondering if the upgrade was legitimate after other Twitter users started to receive the email as well.

“I wonder if that is a mistake and everyone who has ever flown virgin blue is now a Gold Member,” said Twitter user seanpryor.

Velocity member, Ben Haylock, told iTnews he was “ticked” off the email was sent in error.

“I'm ticked it was an ‘error’, as it contained my membership number [and] greeted me by name,” said Haylock.

“The least they can do is honour it. Then again, do I deserve it?”

Danu Poyner, another member, told iTnews he was also “upset”.

Jodie Miners, another member, said she was “disappointed”.

“The fact that they haven't yet issued another email saying it was an error yet is really not good enough,” Miners said.

“At the very least they need to give all affected people a free flight voucher or some form of compensation."

But Velocity member Shaun Ewing wasn't too concerned.

"Doesn't really bother me if it is a mistake," said Ewing. "I wasn't expecting it".

Did you receive the email? Let us know in the comments below or email editors@itnews.com.au.

Comments: 19

Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.

C1 Nov 13, 2009 11:55 PM	Virgin Blue's handling of this error is entirely unacceptable. Irrespective of the volume of clients affected, Virgin should honor the error and upgrade members for a 12 month period. The cost of upgrading members would be offset by the benefit of clients feeling as though they have been treated with care, rather than disregarded as irrelevant and undeserving. Richard Brant is well known for his dedication to customer care and it would be a rational conclusion for him to take a serendipitous moment and turn it around to mass benefit for the company and clients. After all - two luggage tages, access to the lounge and priority check in really won't be the death of the airline. The damage caused by wiping their regular clients like dirty back-sides may be far greater than they are anticipating. I for one, have a bad taste from the situation as it stands unrectified.
bento Nov 14, 2009 12:10 AM	Do I feel offended? Yup. Do I want to fly with an airline that can't work out which of it's customers it wants to offend? Nup.
OmniaZOID Nov 14, 2009 1:23 AM	Another Awards Program letdown/farce! Why am I not surprised. That it was systems related doesn't give an excuse not to treat members with respect.
jinxy Nov 14, 2009 9:23 AM	I was sent the upgrade email as well and was very close to booking some flights through Virgin Blue because of the upgrade. I was very disappointed when I received the email and feel that Virgin Blue should have to honor what they promised, even if it was an error.
bld70 Nov 14, 2009 9:37 AM	Those of you who want Virgin Blue to honor it, how do you expect them to give half of the passengers in all Aussie airports access to priority check-in and The Lounge? It can't be done. If EVERYONE was in the priority check-in line, it would no longer be the fast line it is supposed to be. The "normal" check-in line then would become the short one. And the run-of-mill seating in the middle of the airport would be the uncrowded child-free zone, although without The Lounge's free beer and tolerable food. HOWEVER... that said... it would be good customer relations for Virgin Blue to do something to make this good to people, like maybe offering "All the gold perks for your next flight booking" (one time use), or free lounge passes. I am Velocity Silver and on track to earn Gold status for the first time, by the end of my membership year early in 2010. Now that I've nearly done it, I don't really want to be joined in the SYD and BNE lounges by 2 million of my not so closest friends who haven't spent the $$ on Virgin Blue flights this year that I have.
adelcomp Nov 14, 2009 9:46 AM	Are you people for real? Go back to worrying about something like how many times you intend to jiggle that teabag! Get a life......
bigyahu Nov 14, 2009 10:12 AM	For me, it wasn't so much that the error occurred, it was how they handled the communication that disappointed me. The first email made a big deal of how I'd been upgraded even though I hadn't earned enough points so now I know that even when the system is working perfectly, some customers get upgraded before they've earned enough points. That's an unfairness in the business rules that should not have been communicated so widely, and when it was, should have been the focus of the communication. For me as a Red level member, being granted Gold status would bring significant benefits that I would value far higher than their likely cost to VirginBlue (that is, after all, the way points systems are designed to work.) To upgrade and then downgrade a customer — to reveal and then remove benefits of high personal value — is a big deal and it has a significant effect on your relationship with most customers affected. I think it way underestimates the impact of the error to just follow-up with a brief generic email beginning "Ooops!". This was always going to end in bad publicity, but a better email could have softened the blow and salvaged the customer relationship. The email should have been personal — from person to person, not from brand to person. It should have been written in the name of a VirginBlue senior executive with a signature and a photograph at the end of the email. The email should have detailed the approx. number of customers affected by the error, the cause of the error in layperson's terms (not just "a system error") and the steps taken to ensure it doesn't happen again. Being too brief about it just gives the impression the company doesn't take it seriously and doesn't care if it happens again. Detailing the approx. number of customers affected helps segue into the most difficult — but most important — part of the email: explaining that it's not possible to honour the upgrade promise. When I received the second email, I was not one of thousands of affected customers, I felt like the only customer affected. It was only because I bothered to search for information online that I realised I wasn't the only one affected. The email sent only said, "you do not qualify for that upgrade." The final element of a better email communication would have been to offer some small token gift in reparation. If VirginBlue values the customer relationship it has with me, it should show that it cares about the damage to that relationship by administering itself a penalty. We've already talked about how points programs work because customers value rewards more than their cost to the company, so any small reward given at this point will earn VirginBlue more in customer relationship value than the bottom-line impact. While offering affected customers a small token reward doesn't add up to the benefits of Gold status, it does at least make the customer feel like VirginBlue cares enough to punish itself for the mistake. VirginBlue deliberately positions itself as the underdog in the Australian domestic aviation market and fosters an "us-against-the-establishment" relationship with its regular customers. That relationship only works if VirginBlue shows it values its customer relationships more than its competitors do. By making such a dramatic error and then doing such a bad job of communicating it, VirginBlue starts to look much more like the establishment than the underdog.
bigyahu Nov 14, 2009 10:40 AM	I blogged about it in more detail here http://doingwords.com/?p=1644
troyhunt Nov 14, 2009 11:39 AM	Thankyou Virgin, you've just given me the material I was looking for in order to blog about software quality: http://www.troyhunt.com/2009/11/is-software-quality-really-important.html
listohan Nov 14, 2009 12:01 PM	Have we become a nation of whingers? Yes, we have.
wjc Nov 14, 2009 12:13 PM	Yes - "system error" equals failure in security and privacy! Essentially Virgin is telling us that their vital airline booking and support information system containing highly private data failed and is thus, in Virgin's own terms, insecure! Why? We have absolutely no details as to the nature of the failure - wrong data entry (human mistake), penetration of the server systems by malware, etc. Imagine if that email also had a trojan or virus attached!
rrrush Nov 14, 2009 1:40 PM	I got that email care factor is nil, it want effect my life and Is everone kidding you don't deserve to be a gold member. "system error is industry jurgon for we F****P" sorry return to normal.
kalena Nov 14, 2009 3:08 PM	Yes I did and I found the whole event fascinating enough from a social media point of view to warrant a blog post http://www.ask-kalena.com/social-media/dumbass-of-the-week-virgin-blue/ and its own Twitter hashtag #velocitygate. The way Virgin Blue's PR agency handle this is going to be critical in the next few days. Other major brands are going to be looking at how this pans out for the brand. Customers in AU and NZ are going to decide whether to switch airlines over this. As we're in the lead up to the biggest travel period of the year, this is the worst possible time for such a PR disaster to happen to Virgin. I wish them luck.
Slatts Nov 14, 2009 5:07 PM	bigyahu wrote: Far too much for anyone to bother reading Then he wrote: I blogged about it in more detail here http://doingwords.com/?p=1644 You're kidding bigyahu, right? If Virgin had stuck to its upgrades, they would have had to instigate a diamond status for the now irate long time goldies who could no longer get a chair in the lounge or check in at their leisure. Then they'd have to downgrade the lurks for the new goldies. If something looks too good t be true, it probably is. A few of you people need to get over yourselves.
Slatts Nov 14, 2009 5:10 PM	And what's with every man and his dog starting to spam their blogs here suddenly. How's that stand with the fair use of the site?
Dislexsick Nov 14, 2009 7:49 PM	Gee thanks Virgin - Here is a logical idea. Still send me the tags, convert some 'normal' check-in counters to priority, drop the lounge part (or discount it), and give a reduced amount of free checked baggage. Voila! Free upgrade for customers without breaking the bank.
Yifu2u Nov 14, 2009 9:28 PM	I think it was a marketing ploy because they blame it on Friday 13 immediately. I thought it might come in handy since I am flying with them to NZ at the end of this month. I was so incensed that I reported them as spam and never to hear from them again.
Addiea Nov 15, 2009 4:21 PM	16 of my family members all received the same email. I'm not overly concerned for myself, but my husband who is a regular traveller and always endeavours to fly with Virgin Blue is very disappointed. He spends a lot of time waiting in airports for mainly domestic flights - that are unlikely to add up to the required amount of points per year to qualify for Gold Status. I agree that Virgin should do some small gesture to acknowledge those that did receive this email in error. The 'one time' option on your next Virgin flight as suggested above is a great idea. Another way to deal with this is to give those that will not reach Gold in the relevant year an additional year to reach gold. We normally lose our status credits anually. This is more about keeping faith with the travelling public. Virgin Blue and Virgin Australia are great airlines and offer travellers good value for money with their fares. Fare price in only part of the package however. I would never travel with Tiger or Jetstar after bad experience's with both. At least with Virgin Blue you get to speak to someone if you have a problem - and if they can fix it - they will. Jetstar and Tiger do not seem to care about good customer service.
JamesyR1 Nov 16, 2009 5:50 PM	Everyone makes mistakes. No one or company is perfect. They offered a reasonable explanation 2 hours after sending the offer and then retracted the offer, accompanied by an apology. What more do people want? Compensation? C'mon, these days too many people are looking for a free ride. Just get on with your lives. If you don't like their service go elsewhere. I love it everytime I fly VirginBlue and they offer a great inexpensive yet good quality services.