Providing 15.000 credited miles on the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is three times the amount of miles flown on the leg of the flight being complained about. This is payment for not only the flight but the stress of not having food for nearly eight hours that was palatable to the passenger. Again reverting to the perceived severity of the issue, opting to provide the 15,000 air lines is very low cost but very high perceived value, an excellent strategy for overcoming sever service recovery issues (Craighead, Karwan, Miller, 2004). Second, mailing the £100 American Express Gift Certificate in the letter written says that Virgin Atlantic is very sincere in its apology. In effect the Gift Certificate says that the discomfort of the passenger is so empathetically felt that now the customer can have an excellent meal anywhere in London they wish on the airline. Third, the call from Richard Branson seals the service strategy with accountability and transparency, two critical elements in any service recovery initiative (del Rio-Lanza, Vazquez-Casielles, Diaz-Martin, 2009). All of these factors must contribute to an over-balancing of the scales in the customers' perception if service recovery is to be complete (White, Yanamandram, 2007). References

Christopher...

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White, L. & Yanamandram, V. (2007) A model of customer retention of dissatisfied business services customers. Managing Service Quality, 17-17, 298-316.

Wirtz, J. & Mattila, A.S. (2004) Consumer responses to compensation, speed of recovery and apology…