Virgin PE

[EllieJ]

Hi , can anyone help ?

We have a flydrive booked with VH for 17th May this year.
Our seats are economy , we considered paying for an upgrade to PE, there are 8 of us travelling , and I was informed by VH that there were 11 PE seats available.

My question is -how do I know where the available seats are ?

I don't want to pay the upgrade , and find we are all split , i would also prefer to be upstairs.
I have got nowhere with numerous calls to VA & VH - the Indian call centres don't know what I am asking.

Is it not as simple as them looking at the seating map to see what seats are left ?

I'm close to giving up !

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I would agree that if you ring VA they should have seat plan readily available for you to check where seats are

When you 'manage your booking' online you can see what seats you can prebook so don't know why they can't help.

 

[Claire L]

If there are only 11 seats left chances are some will be the seats on bulkhead or emergency exit as they cannot be pre requested and total about 16 seats in all from both lower and upper deck. Although it is difficult to know how many people that have tickets will have already pre requested their seats. Some flights people pre request early and sometimes some don't, just luck of the draw as to when you book. Although if VH have 11 seats left that is probably from their allocation do a dumby booking on VA to see how many they show as having left.

Claire

 

[Claire L]

Just checked VA for Gatwick and showing as at least 8 seats left on both the VS027 and the VS015.

Claire

 

[UKDEB]

Even if seats are pre-booked they're not guaranteed. If you check-in online 24 hours before, you can take your pick - i.e. you can steal someone else's seats. It's crazy, but it's true.

Which flight are you on? I'll check availability for you.

 

[Claire L]

Even if seats are pre-booked they're not guaranteed. If you check-in online 24 hours before, you can take your pick. It's crazy, but it's true.

Which flight are you on? I'll check availability for you.

I was told if pre requested on line then you cannot over ride that even within 24 hours that can only be done at Twilight check in or by VA, the only thing that happens at the 24 hour mark is more seats are released for booking?!

Claire

 

[UKDEB]

That would certainly make sense and be fair, Claire. When we checked-in online for our homeward flight from St Lucia last week, Kev & Tam's pre-booked seats had been taken by someone else (we weren't able to check-in 24 hours beforehand for our 6.25pm flight - we were checking in the following morning). It's happened to them on multiple occasions - online, twilight: doesn't seem to make any difference . We've never had a problem though, so I think they're blacklisted!

 

[EllieJ]

Thanks for offering to check - I would really appreciate that.
We are on VS075 May 17th.
Sam

 

[UKDEB]

The entire row 82 is free (i.e. 8 seats in the downstairs cabin). I'd be very disappointed if I paid for PE and ended up downstairs, but that might suit your party of 8. There appear to be four seats available upstairs. Row 73, right-hand window seat. Row 79, left-hand window seat. Row 77, both seats on left-hand side.

 

[EllieJ]

Thanks for your help , and advice - i agree - we don't want to be downstairs.
I think i'll give it a miss this time & I am booking for next may tomorrow - so i'll book PE from the outset .
Sam

 

[oceanscape]

Even if seats are pre-booked they're not guaranteed. If you check-in online 24 hours before, you can take your pick - i.e. you can steal someone else's seats. It's crazy, but it's true.

Sorry to say, but that's definitely not correct!

Pre-reserved seats are not guaranteed, but people cannot "steal" them when OLCI opens up. You might be moved for operational reasons, or if special assitance take the seats for other passengers.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

Sorry to say, but that's definitely not correct!

Pre-reserved seats are not guaranteed, but people cannot "steal" them when OLCI opens up. You might be moved for operational reasons, or if special assitance take the seats for other passengers.

In theory you may be right, but all I can say is that we have not got our reserved seats more often than we have. This includes using on-line check-in, twilight check-in and normal check-in. As Deb says, perhaps we're somehow cursed!

We were once told at the twilight check-in desk that it was a useless system and that they wished it could be done away with as it causes more problems than solutions. I tend to agree.

Kev

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Just to balance this, I will report what I have seen, this was at Orlando.

I had PE that time and obtained the seats I wanted, as I was coming from a cruise I couldn't go to DTD to check in in the morning.

Next to where I was checking in there was a family checking in for Economy, I understood they, pre reserved seats before online under manage my booking.

They didn't go to DTD, but went to the airport ant this was about 12.30pm.

The dad complained that he didn't get the seats he booked, the check in clerk, said they had 'gone' at DTD that morning, a big argument continued with supervisors managers being called, the dad was very unhappy, his seats had gone, and they kept replying they were not guaranteed and he should have checked in at DTD if he wanted those seats.

 

[wideeyes]

we checked in at DTD and we were first in the queue when the check in desk opened and we did not get our requested seats.

 

[amberandolly]

This is from a crew member on the v-flyer site -

"if the flight is full or even overbooked, there is a pre-flight unit which looks after groups and families without pre-allocated seats, who assign some(if not all) of the 40% held back. If there are no 'free' or un-allocated seats on the aircraft when you check in online, it will not give you the option to change them. That said, you can still change them at the bag-drop when you hand in your luggage if there are seats available to move to, or failing that, once you get to the gate area, they may still be able to assist if your party is split up."

This was in response to someone's question about why the extra seats sometimes don't become available when olci opens - it all makes sense now. (and it means I was right in remembering our MIA flight, when the extra seats never materialised at olci).
Once the 60% pre allocations have all been used, the seat map is locked and you can't view your seats, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have lost them .
It's certainly not true that you can steal seats by doing online check in - all that happens is that any unallocated seats become available, not that the whole economy section suddenly opens up miraculously!
I will be doing olci and dtd (for the bag drop) for our return flight, even though at the moment there are plenty of available seats on the flight.

 

[Becx N Gav]

Our seat got 'stolen' about a week before we were due to fly (we'd booked them 8-9 months previously). We called VA and they wait til you check in, they will be able to seat you together (we'd booked two seats together and got moved to one on one side of the plane, the other on the other side of the plane). Got to check in at Heathrow, sorry those seats have gone there are no others together, wait til you get on the plane and a steward/ess will help you out. Got on the plane I asked a stewardess and she said she'd sort it out in a minute, never saw her again! In the end myself and hubby (fiance at the time, so different surnames on the booking!) asked the people we were sitting next to and one lady happily moved, thank goodness! I was getting quite upset as I didn't want to sit alone! So Virgin, no help, pretty useless (on this occasion), passengers, fab

 

[amberandolly]

Funnily enough, it was a Miami flight that gave us the only grief we've ever had on a VA flight. We were at heathrow at check in open, with no other passengers around, and they wouldn't even entertain giving us different seats.
I just hope we get our two rows of 2 in 4 weeks time from Manchester, I've had them requested since last june.