Virgin pre-book seats

[eeyoreangel1]

Has anyone used the on-line service that allows you to pre-book your seats?
It is available to you 336 days from your return date which we have worked out to be today, but when we put our details in it tells us that it cannot find our reservation!!
We have spoken to Virgin and they can find the reservation but they won't do it for us over the phone.
has anyone else encountered this problem?

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

What details are you putting in?
are you putting in the actual E ticket or the booking reference number?
is it a Virgin ref/booking number or a travel company number (that won't work)
If it is the booking ref or e ticket number, you also have to put the flight number and date of flight in as well

 

[VSL]

Also.. remember that the 'pre-book' thing is a request only.

 

[allie5]

Although mine HAS been working - I pre requested seats a few months ago (using my VH booking reference) but recently upgraded to PE for our return and now I cannot access my booking! Have contacted Virgin who sent back a useless email.

I wonder if their system is down??

 

[poohmadmum]

I've also been trying to pre-book my seats but all the booking reference numbers I insert come back with the same message that it cannot find my booking/reservation! Perhaps there is a problem with the system. I was going to try again in a few days failing which I will contact Virgin.

 

[Night-train]

Think it only works if Virgin Holidays have transferred the details to Virgin Atlantic. Call them and ask them to do so if that hasn't been done. I know when I tried (many times!) to access my booking unsuccessfully, this turned out to be the reason why!

 

[Red-Snapper]

I booked on line with VH then immediately went into the VA site, put in my booking ref and it worked !!

(had to allow cookies and lower my firewall though)

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Although mine HAS been working - I pre requested seats a few months ago (using my VH booking reference) but recently upgraded to PE for our return and now I cannot access my booking! Have contacted Virgin who sent back a useless email.

I wonder if their system is down??

No, my booking for November is there.
It could be that the booking ref has changed due to the chage to PE?

 

[eeyoreangel1]

The reference number we're putting in is the one at the top of our conformation invoice. We have come to the conclusion like yourselves that there must be a problem with the site. Because we've just tried it again and it still can't find our booking.

I feel once we've done that we will be another step nearer towards our holiday. Is that just us that feels this way.

 

[tartangirl]

We had this problem and it was the same as with Night-Train.

Although Virgin Atlantic allow you to pre-book your seats they need to wait for Virgin hoidays to pass the details. We phoned as it was <11 months from our return and Virgin holidays still hadn't passed the details to Virgin Atlantic.

I phoned and wrote and eventually they transferred the details and I could get my seats reserved.

I'd phone Virgin holidays and ask them to check they have passed the details to Virgin Atlantic - I am assuming it is a Virgin Holidays reference you have.

 

[widget]

Has anyone used the prebook facility and then got to the airport and found theyve been changed? Weve used it for our trip this December and really would hate to find weve been moved from the great seats ive chosen Why would they not honour this service? If they have a computer in their terminal surely they can see whose got which seats and offer out only those that are left?? Or is that too easy. Mind you, I would hate to be a family that dont have access to prebooking things and find that when I arrive the seats are all split so in that instance I would be glad that I could have someone elses seat - oh, im soooo fickle and er, did all this sound a bit selfish!! However, I would like to know what happened if anyone had their seat reservations changed and if they got them back.

 

[allie5]

Yes, but not in a bad way. I booked our seats online last year, BUT I also requested through special assistance, 2 bulkhead seats. This was put as a request on my booking. When we got to the airport (twilight check in) we were in fact all seated together...2 bulkhead and 3 directly adjacent. The 5 seats I had "pre booked" would then have been free for someone else.

It is VERY common not to get the seats you "pre book" and you should not see this as "pre booking" at all, you are merely REQUESTING a seat. No airline will ever guarantee you a seat as there are too many unknowns on the day. They will try to accomodate everyone, but at the end of the day, SOME people will be disappointed.

To give yourself the best chance of getting "good seats" then check in early (either online or twilight) and you will have more choice, even if your orginal requests have already been reallocated.

 

[Red-Snapper]

I would say over the years its about 60/40 in favour of actually getting the seats we pre-booked. Cant honsetly say we have ever moaned about it or not liked the seats we ended up in.

We did fall for the "free upgrade" to PE in first class seats downstairs once but wouldnt again.

 

[VSL]

We did fall for the "free upgrade" to PE in first class seats downstairs once but wouldnt again.

I don't understand! Please share

widget - I've also pre-booked online but it does say on the webpage that it's a request and can be changed (for the reasons that allie5 mentioned).

 

[rosiejo]

I would say over the years its about 60/40 in favour of actually getting the seats we pre-booked. Cant honsetly say we have ever moaned about it or not liked the seats we ended up in.

We did fall for the "free upgrade" to PE in first class seats downstairs once but wouldnt again.

What do you mean by fall for a free upgrade? What was wrong with the seats?

I had problems with online booking too - it accepted my booking ref but then everytime I selected a seat it said it was unavailable! In the end I called Virgin atlantic and they reserved the ones I'd been trying to book online without a problem.

 

[poohmadmum]

eeyoreangel1 : I actually rang Virgin Atlantic today and they booked seats for me and gave me their reservation number. I can now access the website and amend the seats etc. I would suggest you try this too.

 

[Red-Snapper]

To reply: Nothing was wrong with the seats ( they were actually very good) it is just that the service & privacy of the upstairs cabin is far better. We were told downstairs was better seats and with the same service but it wasnt - we should have pushed for the seats we originally pre booked.

I think now also the Gatwick flights have new style PE seats downstairs not the old style UC seats so even that benefit is gone.

Gone for 73 A and C in August

 

[eeyoreangel1]

Thanks for all the advice,tried twice ringing virgin but like many others only managed to speak to the indian helpline not that helpful!!!!!.In the end my other half rang virgin and spoke to an english person ,most helpful given a flight locator number,went on website able to pre-book seats at last once again thanks for all the good advice.