Best Passenger Complaint Letter

[I-Hate-Hulse]

An ad exec flies from Heathrow to Mumbai on Virgin Atlantic and chronicles his horrible flight to Sir Richard Branson in a hilarious, widely circulated email...complete with pictures!

So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.
I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:

On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird. Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

Lots of followup stories on the links of the side of the page, including a response from SRB himself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...nt-letter.html

[JBR]

What a dick. Virgin Atlantic is an airline, not a restaurant. They did their job: Getting this ###### from London to Mumbai without incident.

Does he walk into Ruth's Chris and ask them for a ticket to LaGuardia?

If you don't like your food, don't eat it. First time flying? I also hate the argument that "I paid good money for this ticket and should be served better food". No, you paid for someone to safely guide a tin can moving at 500 MPH, 40K feet in the air while you bitched about you tomatos.."

[Russic]

There's a brilliant Louis C.K bit related to people whining about stuff like this. It was on youtube but has sadly been removed.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by JBR

What a dick. Virgin Atlantic is an airline, not a restaurant. They did their job: Getting this ###### from London to Mumbai without incident.

Does he walk into Ruth's Chris and ask them for a ticket to LaGuardia?

If you don't like your food, don't eat it. First time flying? I also hate the argument that "I paid good money for this ticket and should be served better food". No, you paid for someone to safely guide a tin can moving at 500 MPH, 40K feet in the air while you bitched about you tomatos.."

Actually, no. Virgin Atlantic bills themselves as restoring the glamour in flying. They are not low cost carriers like WestJet or SWA where I think your comment would be valid.

From their website:

At Virgin Atlantic we always like to challenge the mundane to give our passengers something a little special; why should getting to your destination be a chore? Our Upper Class Suite offers the ultimate in long haul comfort and the innovations and entertainment go all the way back down the plane.

And their latest commercial, entitled : Still red hot! reinforces this image with hottie flight attendants. Man, these ain't no gramma AC attendants... Virgin Blue attendants in Australia also seemed to follow this trend when I was there, despite being a LCC.

http://www.virginatlanticstillredhot...pup/tv-ad.html

[bcb]

Around here, if both you and your luggage made it to the destination, you'd be ahead of the game.

[troutman]

My mom used to write angry letters to Air Canada about the poached egg served on a tomato slice breakfast.

[troutman]

The complainant was offered a food taster job with Virgin:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...od-tester.html

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by JBR

What a dick. Virgin Atlantic is an airline, not a restaurant. They did their job: Getting this ###### from London to Mumbai without incident.

Does he walk into Ruth's Chris and ask them for a ticket to LaGuardia?

If you don't like your food, don't eat it. First time flying? I also hate the argument that "I paid good money for this ticket and should be served better food". No, you paid for someone to safely guide a tin can moving at 500 MPH, 40K feet in the air while you bitched about you tomatos.."

I don't think he is a 'dick' Long haul flights pretty much have to feed you.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by Russic

There's a brilliant Louis C.K bit related to people whining about stuff like this. It was on youtube but has sadly been removed.

Haha as soon as I read the link, my first thought was to go onto Youtube and post that Louis C.K. bit. The man is a golden God. Best stand-up comedian by a mile.

[Mightyfire89]

Originally Posted by JBR

What a dick. Virgin Atlantic is an airline, not a restaurant. They did their job: Getting this ###### from London to Mumbai without incident.

Does he walk into Ruth's Chris and ask them for a ticket to LaGuardia?

If you don't like your food, don't eat it. First time flying? I also hate the argument that "I paid good money for this ticket and should be served better food". No, you paid for someone to safely guide a tin can moving at 500 MPH, 40K feet in the air while you bitched about you tomatos.."

Holy. Such vitriol. Are you a stewardess or something?

[browna]

The few times I've had Indian Food (usually takeout) it doesn't look much more appealing then that. Then given he's taking pictures on a crappy camera phone, its not going to come out appearing much better then bland.

And given the confines of mass producing, storage in a airplane galley, and needing uniform trays to be able to store it and warm it, no matter if its upperscale brand airlines or not, there are limitations to presentation.

Did he eat any of this, or did he save his verbage for presentation alone?

Plus, how many times does he have to say "Richard" in that letter? I count 11.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by browna

The few times I've had Indian Food (usually takeout) it doesn't look much more appealing then that. Then given he's taking pictures on a crappy camera phone, its not going to come out appearing much better then bland.

And given the confines of mass producing, storage in a airplane galley, and needing uniform trays to be able to store it and warm it, no matter if its upperscale brand airlines or not, there are limitations to presentation.

Did he eat any of this, or did he save his verbage for presentation alone?

Plus, how many times does he have to say "Richard" in that letter? I count 11.

Uh, you realize that this letter was written over the top to make a point right?