While easyJet are routinely late - with no explanation or compensation - they have a zero-tolerance policy on passengers who are late. Fair enough, except they have started even closing boarding before the 40 minute cut-off (before a flight).

If this happens to you - as it did me at Luton Airport, where I missed my holiday because 45 minutes before the flight they just closed the desk - I would suggest creating a free blog (there are loads of free sites) and writing a letter with the link to the Head of Marketing.

It can take a while to get a response (of course), and you may have to follow-up with another letter, saying that you intend starting a viral campaign to promote the blog. But eventually I was reimbursed for my ticket (but nothing for my missed holiday).

Small victory, I know. over 1 year ago via web

My Letter to Virgin over the 5 hour delay to Feb 19th VS011

Where is the expected Virgin gloss? Where is the state of the art media and entertainment? Where is the decent in-flight food? Answer: on other routes or gone altogether in the case of the food (which has deteriorated so much that I took my own on Friday and was therefore the only one eating for the first 6 hours).

I joined Virgin as a Frequent Flyer because I was sick of BA’s complacency and snobbery, and fed up with their rubbish entertainment system on long haul flights. I thought walking the entire length of Terminal 3 was worth it to fly Virgin. Now I’m not so sure. The last two VS011 flights I’ve taken, prior to this utterly crap flight, both featured broken entertainment systems, grubby planes and a general feeling of an airline in decline. Then I flew Virgin America, internally in the US, and was reminded of the good old days. However, instead of loyalty I felt cynicism: how long before Virgin America gets complacent, shabby and unreliable, I wondered.

Ironically, on one of the VS011 flights with no entertainment we were given some compensation vouchers. As I queued to get off VS011 on Feb 19th (Oh joy the doors would not open to let us off – I guess that’s one way to keep your customers!) I reassured fellow passengers that we’d probably get vouchers to compensate us for the 5 hour delay. SURELY, when they were forthcoming for no delay and a faulty entertainment system. Ha, bloody, ha. No Virgin manager was there to greet us, no forms for compensation, just the poor old pilot with yet another announcement, “sorry guys and look forward to seeing you again.” Not likely, mate.

So much for your trumpeted Customer Care, after these three VS011 flights and the complete lack of interest in your plane load of passengers on Feb 19th I’d call it Couldn’t Care Less. I should NOT have to be writing to you now, you should have been there when we landed, with a form and a clear message about how you were going to compensate us, to have done SOMETHING to at least pay lip service to your claims for giving a damn about your passengers.

Next time I’m planning to fly BA, just to see whether their policy of 4 flights a day to Boston has succeeded in the war against Virgin. But let’s be clear, you’ve driven me to it. And of you follow Facebook you’ll know that Virgin now has a lot of fed up Frequent Flyers cashing in their miles and heading to the competition.

Time to take a big drink of the Virgin cola and wake up to your disgruntled passengers. about 2 years ago via web

I had a flight cancelled by EasyJet, and got to spend 9 hours in an airport, the final 3 in a queue to get rebooked. There were only two (poorly trained) employees to handle over 300 customers. At one point someone even called the airport police due to unruly crowd in other queue. I received a rebooking for the following night at 21:20. So my flight gets changed from Saturday afternoon to late Sunday night. I requested a refund on Easyjet's user-unfriendly website, which is designed to hide Easyjet from any meaningful customer service. I received a reply that told me Easyjet is a non-refundable airline, and using the weather as an excuse, although other airlines were flying many flights after the 1 cm of snow here in Italy. I have several more emails into the same lame email address. I don't believe there is any commitment to customer service at Easyjet. It appears to be a pyramid scheme. They take your money on an easy to use site for purchasing tickets, but then offer no way of reaching a live person, when it comes to reimbursing the customer. over 2 years ago via web

Sunday night due to a technical fault my flight from Berlin was 4hrs late. Obviously things can happen. However, what I find totally unacceptable is the communication style of the company: aka total lack of communication. In these circumstances a lot could be done with proper, professional communication and threating customers as such instead of seat numbers. over 2 years ago via web

Bumped off my flight due to overbooking with very few apologies. First and LAST time I'll ever use Easyjet. over 2 years ago via web

Back in the day, my flight delays were me getting to the airport at the last minute. BA staff on several occasions were wonderfully helpful and charming. Made you proud to be British. over 2 years ago via web