Virgin, Once Customer-Centric, Slips by Taking Away Amenities

When you're brand is all about customer service, be careful about downgrading the amenities you offer. Virgin Atlantic’s decision last month to downgrade the freebies it gives to passengers in Upper Class is ticking off its business travellers. The amenity packs, which included items such as socks and a toothbrush and paste, lip balm and earplugs were highly prized by many travellers and have now been replaced by smaller ‘snooze packs’, which some travellers have dubbed ‘Scrooge packs’.

In response to negative feedback, the airline is now offering passengers all the items, but only by request. An airline spokeswoman told Times Online, “Regular travellers found it unnecessary to keep getting the same items again and again,” she said. However, many believe that cost is the main motivator. A leaked Virgin memo says that the decision to replace the amenity kits will save the airline more than £1 million. Whatever the reason, just remember not to piss off your customers by taking away perks which define your brand.

David Doyle, who flies in Upper Class regularly, told Times Online: “I've been flying Upper Class with Virgin since 2003 and at that time was extremely impressed with their service and have since used them regularly for business and leisure travel since then. Unfortunately, I've felt that the service levels and subsequent appeal of Upper Class over Virgin's competitors has diminished in that time, particularly sharply over the last year or so. There's been a number of cost-driven, narrow-minded cutbacks directed from the top which have led many to believe that it's only accountants who are now running the airline.”

“The amenity kit/snooze pack (or aMEANity kit/scrooge pack as they've become known) has, for many including myself, been the defining point of the drive to diminish the Upper Class experience in order to make minimal savings in the short term, but with the effect of driving premium passengers away and at the expense of the brand in the long term.” He added: “It's been little bite after little bite taken out of various parts of what made flying Upper Class special, and the overriding, increasnigly arrogant view of Virgin appears to be ‘We gave you the Upper Class Suite and Clubhouse, what more do you want?’”

“The present amenity kit debacle illustrates clearly the downward trend of service from Virgin's premium offering, and has been, for many frequent travellers including myself, been the straw that has broken the camel's back,” he added.