Update 28 July: *No contact from Virgin Customer services since they acknowledged with automated response and I now risk losing seat entirely ___________________ 26 July: I flew long haul (economy) with Virgin Atlantic for many years. Earned enough air miles to upgrade to Upper class. I regularly fly London-Delhi every December, but now Upper class is not a luxury but a necessity due to health issues. So to ensure I have enough air miles to cover the upgrades I converted Tesco clubcard points to Virgin air miles a few years ago, and in 2016 took out Virgin MBNA credit cards entirely for that purpose. December 2016 I persuaded my travelling companion to pay £300 extra and fly Virgin economy instead of with a cheaper option, and she was able join me in the Heathrow Clubhouse, the comforts of which I had enthused about for years! 1. 8 Dec 2016, arrived at Heathrow to find most of the Clubhouse disappointingly closed off for refurb, yet no-one had informed me of this prior to booking, or even at check in. 2. Insulted by a waitress who patronisingly told me that I must have mistaken a Virgin Redhead for a Bellini when I queried something. 3. After take off my colleague visited me in upper class for a drink, and I was loudly and embarrassingly berated by the senior flight attendant for not asking her permission! She apologised when I complained, but damage done. 4. Arrived in Delhi, but my colleague's baggage did not! No Virgin rep to deal with this and it was left to airport staff to write up (incorrectly) the report. 5. No contact re bag from Virgin during our 3 weeks stay in India. NB: Too complicated to explain, but in December 2015 I had another major issue with lost baggage. Shown to me in Delhi for identification I asked that it was put on my flight back to UK. It then disappeared and turned up approx 3 months later. 6. 31 Dec 2016, we arrived at Delhi airport at least 3hrs early to query missing bag. Colleague’s baggage report/ticket/boarding card handed over and 2hrs later, with at least three Virgin reps passing docs back and forth, they had done nothing. Concerned that we were now running late for the flight we asked for these back and they said they had given them to us! After much argument and lots of shouting they found the papers on THEIR desk where I had already told them to look! 7. I had an oddly shaped package that weighed approx 1lb, but due to its shape was unlikely to be allowed through security as hand luggage. Whilst waiting for them to investigate the missing baggage I’d spent much of the time asking to check this in. Told I would have to pay £60(?) as it counted as an extra bag. I told them to return one of the checked bags and I would attach it to that. They refused. Now definitely late and being shouted at by another Virgin uniform to hurry up (I kid you not!), they told me to try and take item through security, and if refused to bring it back and they would check it in free of charge!!! Btw, I was in a wheelchair! That was the last straw, and after explaining how ridiculous this was, they FINALLY checked it in! 8. Messed around for so long that we almost missed the flight. Luckily there was a Virgin senior IT employee from Crawley travelling with his family, also having problems, told they couldn’t travel on that flight because it was full. He checked and there were 11 empty seats! Nice man visited me on the flight and reported our checking in problems to Virgin on his return. On the plus side, the Delhi-London flight crew couldn’t have been friendlier! But according to what some of the cabin crew told me, it seems that since joining forces with Delta the entire service has deteriorated. 9. February 2017: Virgin emailed my colleague to say her baggage was definitely lost. Due to personal issues she left it too late to claim on her travel insurance, and Virgin have not recompensed her in any way. 10. Virgin eventually contacted me in response to my numerous complaints and gave me air miles in compensation. So, having waited months for the right price to upgrade from Economy to Upper with air miles, yesterday [25 July] I attempted to book my Dec 2017 flight. The regular Upper class return fare for my dates is currently @ £1, 898, Economy @ £721.17. +56, 200 airmails for Upper class upgrade both ways. BUT - guess what? No Upper class upgrade seats available on Delhi-London return flight! Even though I was assured it’s 2/3 empty! I was offered London-Delhi return flight @ £1, 365, which included outgoing upgrade. This means I would pay only £533 less than the regular advertised price. It should be noted that Virgin have flash sales, and one year I bought an Upper class seat advertised at only £1, 300, so not impressed with this at all! Seems a bit of a scam to get people to stick with Virgin to earn air miles that you then can't use for what you want to! In summary, for all the problems both I and my colleague suffered with Virgin, plus my regular purchasing with MBNA Virgin credit cards, I am very unhappy with the way Virgin (Delta?) treat loyal customers! And I will never again recommend people fly Virgin as I have always previously done. Ref: EVMLVD Advised to do so by the sales person yesterday [25 July], I have emailed my complaint re lack of upgrade availability to Customer services, but with my experiences to date, not expecting much*, other than maybe a few more useless air miles! Perhaps time to find a more rewarding and customer caring airline! _______________________________ *3 days later and not even a phone call ! Found this on InsideFlyer website: "It is notoriously difficult to book partner rewards through Flying Club. You need to call Flying Club and there’s often no way to know for sure what reward space the agents will be able to see."