Originally Posted by
LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Thanks moondog. I sent you a PM, but I also decided to do a dummy booking PVG-HKG. That booking indeed brought up the seat map after entering the passenger details. So it looks like a glitch for flights ex TPE (any maybe other outstations?)
Interestingly, when selecting spring plus PVG-HKG it gives you front row VIP free of charge, but wants an extra USD7 for row 2. Wonder what would happen if you didn't pay for seat selection.
This is further evidence that they don't care a great deal about their English website (they're not alone), and their Chinese website dislikes foreign credit cards....so we're caught between a rock and a hard place.
I would never book plus/VIP without being able to select a seat because I've never been on a flight in which all of those seats were not occupied.
In the PM I just sent you, I raised the question that selecting the SpringPlus fare could be a prerequisite for gaining access to VIP seats (something I hadn't thought of previously).
More data points would be appreciated. I highly doubt that Spring will improve its website for our benefit, so we have to play the ball as it lies.
ETA: It appears that I have met my PM quota, so my message to you didn't go through. Following is the content I wanted to send:
I just tried two dummy bookings:
1. selecting the cheapest fare (I always choose this one or the next bucket up if I have a lot of luggage)
2. selecting SpringPlus
In the case of #1, I get a seat map showing plus seats for a $10 upcharge, but they are all taken. (This is the drill I'm used to.)
In the case of #2, there is no seat map prior to the credit card step, as you noted.
It never occurred to me that choosing the SpringPlus fare might be a prerequisite for selecting plus seats because, as mentioned above, I always see these seats on the seat map with prices when I go for the cheap fares.
Anyway, I noticed that the fare jumps to $130 after you add the taxes. Is $177 the round trip price for CA?