chobby100

I am flying from BOS to LHR in a little over a week for a last minute vacation. I booked a real cheap flight through Virgin Vacations (cheaper than Virgin Atlantic and anywhere else) for my girlfriend and I. This is after someone at Virgin Atlantic reservations had told me that the flight was wide open. Well, I booked the flights and found out that on the outbound we are seated in middle seats behind one another. Would like to have, at a minimum, two seats next two one another. An aisle seat and/or exit/bulkhead would be great. When I called to do so last night was told there were no more seats next to each other but that 20% of economy is un-booked until check-in. What do think my strategy should be? My thought was to have my girlfriend call next, then over the next few days try again with new agent, then try 24 hrs before or day before and if all else fails go to BOS super early, then go back to work and come back 2 or so hours prior to departure. Any thoughts on strategy? Any thoughts on earliest allowable time to check in to maximize chance for Exit / Bulkhead / Aisle / seated together?

thanks

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Check in at Boston opens around 4 hours prior to departure ( around 3pm-3:15pm) but when I was there in Jan 2002 a small queue had already formed by around 2:45pm


Regards
TBS

chobby100

Thank you TBS for that helpful info. Do you or RichardMannion or any others know if calling 24 hours or day of may have any effect? (ie does Virgin open up blocked seats earlier than check in?)

PS to previous story: When my girlfriend called last night to give her Delta Skymiles # the woman told her that 40% of the seats are not assigned on this flight. That % is a full 20% more than the previous phone rep told me. All of this begs the Q: are their people who have purchased seats on this flight, but do not have a seat assignment? Also, if they called to get one, would they be told that they can not get one until they check in?

RichardMannion

Hi,

Approx 40% of seats are available to be preassigned to passengers. However aircraft changes can occur! Just because you have pre-assigned a seat, it is not guaranteed. If a Gold Member or a V50 would like that seat, they stand a good chance of getting it.

I take tit hat both seats were booked ont he same booking. If not, phone VS and get them to link the PNR's so that they knwo you are travelling together. Getting there early does help.

I ahve been the first person to check-in before and have been told that no exit seats were available. Thats because my FC number was missing from my booking, a matter that was soon corrected and I got my seat.

So:-
- Get there early
- Join Virgin FC, a Red Level will not beat a Gold or Silver, but it will help in getting any 2 seats together.
- Phone VS back, and ask again. If they say that all the pre-bookable seats are gone, then say fine, but can you please add a note to our booking to say that we would like to be seated together.

Supply me your travel dates I can have a look on Galileo for general availability.

Thanks,
Richard

chobby100

Thank you so much for the quick response Richard. I just made sure the records were linked and our requests were in there. I also added my FC number, in addition to my Delta Skymiles # which I already had in to accrue the mileage, to our records. Still no availability to sit together.

Again thank you.

chobby100

oh yeah, i almost forgot:
Flight Summary

Thu, Jan 16 - Tue, Jan 21 Status: Confirmed
BOS-LON / LON-BOS Type: Air Travel
2 Passengers

Flight Details:
Virgin Atlantic 12 Class X
leaving on Thursday, 1/16/2003 at 1925 from Boston, MA to London-Heathrow
arriving on Friday, 1/17/2003 at 655

Virgin Atlantic 11 Class X
leaving on Tuesday, 1/21/2003 at 1430 from London-Heathrow to Boston, MA
arriving on Tuesday, 1/21/2003 at 1655

RichardMannion

Outbound
THU 16JAN03 BOSTON /LONDON *VS REMEMBER SNOOZZONE VS12 ALTERNATE SERVICE 1 BOS LHR 1925#0655 VS 12 J4 D4 Z4 W4 K4 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7#744*C

Return
TUE 21JAN03 LONDON /BOSTON *VS CHOOSE VIRGIN DIRECT TO BOS ALTERNATE SERVICE 1 LHR BOS 1430 1655 VS 11 J4 D4 Z4 W4 K4 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7#744*C

Well both flights are not close to capacity in any class, Upper and Premium is getting busy. If you only just bought X tickets, then I would say theres at least 70 spare seats on the flight in Y. As long as you turn up at least 3 hours before you should have no problems at all, there will be little upgrading on these flights

Thanks,
Richard

chobby100

As I suspected (after checking Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity) and seeing that cheapest fares are actually going down.

Again thanks for all of your help

Nottingham Nick

Richard

Galileo is not a system I am familiar with - is it some sort of industry only tool?

I have used ITN.com in the pastbut didn't find it particularly user friendly - maybe it was just me

I would like to check the status of our February bucket and spade trip to MIA before we check in. As usual- any advice gratefully received.

Nick

The _Banking_Scot

Hi Nottingham Nick,

There is this link also

http://flyaow.com/classavailability.htm


Regards
TBS

RichardMannion

Galileo
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/...leo/frame.html

From a fellow FlyerTalker!

It is an Industry tool, it does help if you knwo the codes as such for classes and fares, but if you get stuck I'll be able to assist, or i'm sure someone else will be able to!

So LGW MIA VS are the codes for Nick. Its a very old style interface but useful for viewing other routings and information.

Thanks,
Richard

Nottingham Nick

What can I say?
Two replies in a few minutes - Good old Flyertalk. Thanks Richard and thanks TBS.
I will have a go at both of them.

Nick

Meet me in the lounge

Wow! Love Galileo! How handy is that!!

Richard,
I know this may seem a dumb question but are the numbers showing on Galileo "F4 J3 Y6" etc, the amount of seats left available in each class?

Just wanted to clarify!
Top link!
Thanks.

RichardMannion

Hi,

No the numbers are not an indication of remaining seats a ssuch. It is to give an idea as such of availability for each class code.

You shouldn't be seeing F for a VS flight though!

Thanks,
Richard

chobby100

I'm sorry, RM, if I could ask, what does: Cabin class: J6 D5 Z4 W7 K7 Y7 B7 L7 M7 Q7 X7 N7 mean? I assume that the letters represent classes (and fare structure). Which letters for which classes? Also, is 7 the highest availability (meaning many open seats?) What about lower numbers? I assume 0 would mean none remaining, but what about numbers between 0 - 7? Is it a %?

Sorry for my ignorance, but this looks like a fantastic tool.

thanks