funny complaints

We're still giggling from the complaint letter written by a Virgin customer about the food served on a Virgin Atlantic flight. The author has been revealed as advertising exec Oliver Beale and he's apparently received a call from Sir Richard Branson offering him a job selecting food and wine for Virgin Atlantic flights! We have yet to hear whether he's taken Sir Richard up on the offer.

If you haven't already read it - have a look here:

"Dear Mr Branson,
REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it:

I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the dessert?

You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a dessert with a tomato would they."

To read the rest check it out here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/4383938/Virgin-complaint-letters-author-revealed-as-Oliver-Beale.html

So that got me remembering a few of our own complaints. Not that we get many - we're very proud of the fact we get so few complaints and on the rare occasion we do receive a gripe or grumble, our fanastic team Leila, Barry & Paula all sort them out quick smart.

However some of them do make us giggle - just a little. Here are our some of our favourites:

1. We had one lady who wanted to bring her animals to a hotel - the hotel were not best pleased when she turned up with an assortment of animals - the most extreme being a vulture!

2. On the subject of pets - one gentleman asked for room service for his poodle and was rather put out when they refused.

3. The British Embassy received a call from one customer who called them to say she didn't like her room.

4. Another customer asked the hotel for compensation for head injuries, having arrived back at his hotel drunk as a skunk, falling off the bed and jamming his head between the bed and wardrobe.....

5. My personal favourite - a lady who phoned up extremely angry because she had to wait for the traffic to stop before she could walk across the road to the beach.....

I'd quite like to meet some of these people! Maybe I'll bump into them on my travels....

it's time to save the pennies...

...or what's the saying? Watch your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves?

I'm not sure, but what I do know is that I'm going for the best value holiday I can get. I've been a little bit crazy with my travelling lately, and even though my taxpaying funds are apparently propping up the banks, the banks aren't really saying thank you.

My bank is more kinda saying - HELLO! who do you think you are? Donald Trump? Pur-leeease!

So, I've checked out HotelConnect's top 10 Money Saving tips... and this led me to the Early Booking Discounts.

I've found myself a discount of 20% at a 4 star in Tenerife. All I need to do is book before May and travel between May and October. Bargain. And check it out...

It's the Golf Plaza Resort in Tenerife.

It is located in the midst of extensive manicured gardens... and looks very relaxing indeed. And this works well for me as one of my new year's resolutions is to learn how to play golf properly this year.

Last year's efforts were kind of embarrassing, starting from my outfit, to bopping people on the head with golf balls, to getting my foot stuck 'in the hole' at round 8.

So, this hotel is perfect as it is close to 2 of the islands best golf courses, Golf del Sur and Amarilla Golf.

If the golfing proves too challenging I can always relax at the spa, or of course lounge by the pool. Sounds pretty perfect for me... especially with a 20% discount!

So now, I guess all I need to do is sit back and watch my pennies roll in, and the pounds will thud in by themselves.... right?

I'll keep you posted!

Laters,

Secret Agent.

Happy New Year!

So what a brilliant Christmas I had - all the family came over to my house - great auntie Beryl bought me a new teapot so that she doesn't need to bring her own every time she comes and stays and cousin Hamish bought me a sporran - I am still deciding what to keep in it. And then Harriet and I headed off to Barcelona where we walked and walked and strolled a bit slower after a few tapas and some sangria. Harriet got to see all the Gaudi architecture that she had wanted to so she was extremely happy and me - well I was quite happy just taking it all in, watching the street performers in las ramblas and generally eating and drinking too much! And the H10 Universitat really was a winner - I particularly enjoyed the complimentary glass of cava on arrival - got our holiday off to a perfect start!

I am now back in freeeeeeeeeeeeezing Blighty and am getting very excited by all this talk of free upgrades! It's fantastic. This is a january sale to beat all january blues by the looks of things. We all had a bit of a sit around and then chatted to our hotels about how we could cheer everyone up in this january and thought how's about free upgrades - that little bit of special treatment for no extra cost that everyone deserves at the moment. So the results of this are that HotelConnect are offering 100 free upgrades available in hotels worldwide. I personally have my eye on a free upgrade to a luxury apartment when you book a standard room at the Hotel Elysee in Prague - I might even head out there for Valentines day - what a way to impress a lady! Plus it's only £28pppn! (I won't be telling her that).

There are also offers such as free entry to the spa or free canapes and champagne - just check out the site here.

My next plan is to find somewhere to go that is HOT. Not minus 10 degrees or whatever it is in the UK at the moment. I am pondering on Cancun, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Sydney ....what do you reckon???