Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - VS seat selection after November 2012

Does anybody have any inside information when seat selection may be available again for UC bookings for travel after November 2012?

No.

They are not saying anything. I guess that it is also complicated by the fact that the refurbs of the LGW fleet seem to be running a little late too.

No - I asked them last week and the agent (Gold line) said they did not know (and I believed her).

Is it not possible to call and reserve your seats or is everything on hold until the new system is in place?

Is it not possible to call and reserve your seats or is everything on hold until the new system is in place?


Everything is on hold.

There is no point in phoning as the agents simply can do anyting re seat REQUESTS.

Thank you for the replies.

I was more than a little irritated by the fact that it was only evident after the booking had been made and paid for. If I had known in advance I would have used BA on the same route.

It is even more irritating that they don't know when the system will be back on line. I suspect as November approaches more and more people will find themselves in the same position.

A total PITA!

A total PITA!


Think of it as 'retro' and going back to the times when you only got your seat at the airport!

It's a VERY minor inconveniece.

A PITA is getting to the airport and finding you've got there a day late or your passport is still on the kitchen table.

I respectfully disagree, travelling in a pair and not being able to secure seats together is a total pain.

I'm sure there'll be lots of space once the seat maps are activated, but it's still something to keep an eye on.

Or we could think of it as an airline that hasn't got a clue how to be an airline.

The weird thing is that requests AFTER 1 November are not possible. You could (just about) understand them withdrawing requests whilst they were developing a new system (although that in itself would seem pretty poor these days), but to withdraw them after a preset date that was announced many, many months in advance just seems odd -- if the new system comes online on 1 November then wouldn't you expect requests to be possible AFTER that date?! At the moment requests are unavailable for an indefinite period beginning X months in the future -- huh?

And why not devise a transition whereby requests from the current system can be imported into the new one when it goes live? That is such an elementary point that it makes you wonder what on earth they are doing.

I wonder what is going on... :confused: I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turns out to be paid seating a la BA (et al.)... :td:

The Virgin rep I talked to yesterday told me that it is going to be a T-24 hour seat selection. That's similar to BA (sans BA First). Not happy. I have a Nov 5 flight.

The Virgin rep I talked to yesterday told me that it is going to be a T-24 hour seat selection. That's similar to BA (sans BA First). Not happy. I have a Nov 5 flight.

Yes, that is a rumour that is doing the rounds at the moment. I will gladly pay to select seats ahead of time.

Just waiting for the VS apologists to chime in with "seat requests are not guaranteed" now.

I can see why they want to go down that route (easier for them) but trying to kid us all that it is an improvement for customers is hogwash.

Just waiting for the VS apologists to chime in with "seat requests are not guaranteed" now.
I agree with you about this -- it is exceptionally annoying.

There was a recent post on v-flyer that suggested that the reason for the hiatus is VS changing to Sabre.

Just waiting for the VS apologists to chime in with "seat requests are not guaranteed" now.

It's not apologism to state what is true ... but at VS, it seems to take forever to do something which to the passenger should appear to be the flipping of a switch ...

The Virgin rep I talked to yesterday told me that it is going to be a T-24 hour seat selection. That's similar to BA (sans BA First). Not happy.........

.........I will gladly pay to select seats ahead of time.......


That is if you're given the option to pay for pre-selection.

When BA first introduced their seating policy, you could only select seats at T-24, unless you were booked on a full fare, or held Silver or above status within BAEC, in which case you could select your seats at the time of booking. Everyone else had to wait until OLCI opened to scramble for the best of what was left.

It was only after a year or more, that they then introduced the option to pay for seat selection in advance.

That is if you're given the option to pay for pre-selection.

When BA first introduced their seating policy, you could only select seats at T-24, unless you were booked on a full fare, or held Silver or above status within BAEC, in which case you could select your seats at the time of booking. Everyone else had to wait until OLCI opened to scramble for the best of what was left.

It was only after a year or more, that they then introduced the option to pay for seat selection in advance.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I am not booking any more flights with Virgin until I see what happens when the dust settles.

Seat maps are live for 1st Nov!

So you can now preselect seats ? same as before?

VS007 on Nov. 7, 14k! Wooohoooo!





So you can now preselect seats ? same as before?

We've got LAX-LHR
LHR-JNB and they aren't available yet for seat selection... :(


VS007 on Nov. 7, 14k! Wooohoooo!

Seat maps are live for 1st Nov!

Thanks for updating us!

I just successfully booked my UC seats for my two flights in November. One already had 4 seats full; I was the first to choose a UC seat on the other.

Thanks! Got the two in the nose for 747 and two facing the wall on 346 !

It is now saying 90 days in advance for certain routes!

Which routes are those?

Yea!

Seat selection available (and done) for my LHR - LAX - LHR in late November!

Adey

It is not live for all routes. LGW-LAS is an example. This is what they say:


Seat assignment is now available from 90 days prior to departure

A selection of seats are now available for pre assignment. If you wish to request these seats before you fly please go to Manage my flights or contact your travel agent.

Please be aware if all the pre assignable seats have been taken, your seats will be allocated to you at Check-in. We regret our contact centre or your travel agent will be unable to assist, however it's worth visiting Manage my flights online at regular intervals because people do cancel and seats do become available.

Premium Economy seat reservations unavailable on our leisure fleet from 1 April 2012 until 8 October 2012

We are busy refurbishing all the aircraft that fly out of Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow; designing new seats and state of the art in-flight entertainment to make your flight more comfortable and more fun than ever before. The Premium Economy cabin on the lower deck will be larger but more exclusive and all the seat numbers are changing.

The upgrades to our fleet are almost completed and therefore you will be able to select your Premium Economy seats via Manage my flights or your travel agent from 8 October 2012.

I am an infrequent VS flyer, and to date never anything less than UC, so would appreciate some help with a seat pre-selection issue.

I am now deciding between VS and BA for PE/WT+ flights LHR-MIA-LHR in December. I am looking for a deep discounted fare and have no VS status. Will I be able to preselect in PE on VS ?

I am an infrequent VS flyer, and to date never anything less than UC, so would appreciate some help with a seat pre-selection issue.

I am now deciding between VS and BA for PE/WT+ flights LHR-MIA-LHR in December. I am looking for a deep discounted fare and have no VS status. Will I be able to preselect in PE on VS ?

See my post above yours.

See my post above yours.

Thanks but I assumed that MIA was not one of the leisure routes referred to and therefore did not think that your post necessarily answered the questkon.

Thanks but I assumed that MIA was not one of the leisure routes referred to and therefore did not think that your post necessarily answered the questkon.

Actually, I should have read your post more closely, if you are going from LHR then all should be well, it only affects Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow.

Haven't been able to do seat selection for an UC booking for SYD-HKG-LHR departing May next year nor the LHR-HKG-SYD return in June.

I assume this is one of the routes that VS haven't opened up advance seat selection:(

Haven't been able to do seat selection for an UC booking for SYD-HKG-LHR departing May next year nor the LHR-HKG-SYD return in June.

I assume this is one of the routes that VS haven't opened up advance seat selection:(


Your flights are more than 90 days away, so it could be that also or instead.


Adey

Your flights are more than 90 days away, so it could be that also or instead.


Adey

That's true but I thought at one time you could make a seat selection at the time of reservation.

My agent is going to speak to her friendly VS rep and see if anything can be done otherwise I've diarised to check the booking on the 90th day before the flight is due.

Yeah it's very irritating.

I'm by no means fully aware of the new policy but in the 'old days' (a few months back) it was possible to assign UC seats at time of booking. The system went through a change and for a period it wasn't possible (as far as I could tell) to assign any UC seats (at booking time or subsequently).

Then recently a few routes started allowing seat assignments from 90 days out (e.g. for me LHR/LAX).

I don't know if the policy is now all routes from 90 days out....

Adey

It seems to be 90 days out now.

It seems that that the amateurs at Virgin cannot get their act together,nor their story straight, their latest statement here (http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/travel-information/customer-service/latest-news.html#)about seat selection says:

"A selection of seats are now available for pre assignment. If you wish to request these seats before you fly please go to "Manage flights" or contact your travel agent. Premium Economy passengers travelling to or from Gatwick / Manchester or Glasgow will not be able to assign seats until 8th October, and this is for flights from 5th January 2013. Unfortunately these Premium seats do not become available until we have completed the aircraft upgrades that are currently in progress."

If you click on "Where's my seat?" in Manage Your Booking it still says:

"Premium Economy seat reservations unavailable on our leisure fleet from 1 April 2012 until 8 October 2012

We are busy refurbishing all the aircraft that fly out of Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow; designing new seats and state of the art in-flight entertainment to make your flight more comfortable and more fun than ever before. The Premium Economy cabin on the lower deck will be larger but more exclusive and all the seat numbers are changing.

The upgrades to our fleet are almost completed and therefore you will be able to select your Premium Economy seats via Manage my flights or your travel agent from 8 October 2012."

Virgin could do a better job of seat assignment / seat selection. I suppose it's the sort of thing that some people consider to be a first world problem - but it really does irritate me:

My status is VS Silver. I purchased a ticket several weeks ago but was unable to select a seat for the outbound flight. That's not a great feeling, so I tried a few times during the last few weeks, but wasn't able to make a selection. Fortunately I know the drill and I checked-in 24 hours before departure. I saw that Virgin had assigned me a middle seat towards the back end of the cabin. Naturally, I changed my seat to a better one - an aisle seat nearer the front. There were many available aisle and window seats.

Why did Virgin Atlantic assume that I would rather have a middle seat at the back of the plane than one of the available aisles? I'm pretty sure I've listed aisle as my seating preference. Is it beyond the wit of man to write a bit of code that assigns the best available seats on the basis of loyalty program status at check in? Do Virgin's seat assignment goblins treat VS Gold members with the same lack of care? I suppose I'll find out soon ...

Pretty soon I need to decide whether to fly Virgin or BA. I will only be able to maintain elite status on one or the other. Things like this are "first world problems" to be sure, but my choice of airline will come down to which set of first world problems I prefer to live with.

[/RANT OFF]

You don't have to wait, just call Flying Club and they'll make the seat assignment for you.


Virgin could do a better job of seat assignment / seat selection. I suppose it's the sort of thing that some people consider to be a first world problem - but it really does irritate me:

My status is VS Silver. I purchased a ticket several weeks ago but was unable to select a seat for the outbound flight. That's not a great feeling, so I tried a few times during the last few weeks, but wasn't able to make a selection. Fortunately I know the drill and I checked-in 24 hours before departure. I saw that Virgin had assigned me a middle seat towards the back end of the cabin. Naturally, I changed my seat to a better one - an aisle seat nearer the front. There were many available aisle and window seats.

Why did Virgin Atlantic assume that I would rather have a middle seat at the back of the plane than one of the available aisles? I'm pretty sure I've listed aisle as my seating preference. Is it beyond the wit of man to write a bit of code that assigns the best available seats on the basis of loyalty program status at check in? Do Virgin's seat assignment goblins treat VS Gold members with the same lack of care? I suppose I'll find out soon ...

Pretty soon I need to decide whether to fly Virgin or BA. I will only be able to maintain elite status on one or the other. Things like this are "first world problems" to be sure, but my choice of airline will come down to which set of first world problems I prefer to live with.

[/RANT OFF]

You don't have to wait, just call Flying Club and they'll make the seat assignment for you.

Thanks for the advice - I think I'll try that next time.

Today I just spent a fun time looking for my booking reference ... because Virgin's website can't find my flight based on my frequent flier number (despite this being part of the same itinerary that I started on Monday). So off I go to find my reference number .... Nope, Virgin's system still can't find me .... So off I go to look for the flight number ... Ahhhh .... Now Virgin sees it ... "Why didn't you say that you were that jib71 in the first place?"
More first world niggles. I know.

I did manage to make the seat selections at the 90 day point, which was just as well as the following day the system (at least for UC) went down again for about 10 days (you could view the seats but not make any changes).

Booked for MIA in August but reluctant to go through this hassle again, elected for F on BA. Seats selected at time of booking and all done and dusted.

Is it literally 90 days to the hour of your flight, or just that whole day? Anybody know the exact timing? there are 15 of us travelling to Vegas and want to try and make sure we all fly together. We are flying Economy and the "bubble" would be ideal - are these seats made available?

Thanks!!

Is it literally 90 days to the hour of your flight, or just that whole day? Anybody know the exact timing? there are 15 of us travelling to Vegas and want to try and make sure we all fly together. We are flying Economy and the "bubble" would be ideal - are these seats made available?

Thanks!!

The timing is usually several hours after the flight departure time. Work out the 90th day prior to departure and then try at sometime after the scheduled flight time.

I just went through the exercise and noted that even though the seat map opens up and I could select a seat, the system didn't finally accept my selection until at least 4hrs after the departure time. You just need to keep trying.

The timing is usually several hours after the flight departure time. Work out the 90th day prior to departure and then try at sometime after the scheduled flight time.

I just went through the exercise and noted that even though the seat map opens up and I could select a seat, the system didn't finally accept my selection until at least 4hrs after the departure time. You just need to keep trying.

Really useful, thanks!

Yes indeed - will remember to start checking at T-90 at 11:35, but won't worry to much if I can't do anything til half three.

Yes indeed - will remember to start checking at T-90 at 11:35, but won't worry to much if I can't do anything til half three.

BT just rang. They are digging up the road outside your exchange 90 days before your flight to LAS.. you're going to be offline for a couple of hours, but hopefully for no longer than two days.

BT just rang. They are digging up the road outside your exchange 90 days before your flight to LAS.. you're going to be offline for a couple of hours, but hopefully for no longer than two days.

You know the funny thing - BT actually ARE digging near me at the moment, and won't be done for another 5 weeks, ie the end of April..... aka T-90!!!

Now either you know where I live, or your comic timing is impeccable..... but I'm going to MIA - still, same country and all that ;)