Porterhouse100

Any idea when VA started charging for PE seat selection? Reward flight, but seat selection terms and conditions don't mention any policy difference for reward tickets. 55 pounds per seat.

UKtravelbear

Last summer - https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/0...onomy-seating/

But I t’s only for specific front of the cabin PE seats not all.

Porterhouse100

Got it, thanks.

yellow_peril

I'm wondering how their seat fees will work with Skyteam frequent fliers, I presume a lot more people may become eligible for no charge preferred seating.

Tim_94

Me too!

Last year I booked a VS flight with a KL code in Economy and could pick preferred front section seats free of charge! I was expecting to do the same this year but it won't let me. So I can only assume it was good fortune last year, maybe a bug in the system.

I'm Flying Blue Gold (aka Skyteam Elite Plus) so hoping I'll be able to pick these preferred seats without charge soon, once Virgin is officially part of Skyteam.

adhiren

This is my first-time flying Premium in a while and last time it was all free, so I was shocked to find just to pick a seat I was going to have to pay. How does it work in my case where the only seats left are preferred ones? Will I get to choose one for free 24hrs before departure?

I am also upset that Flying Club Silver members are having to pay for this seating thing as well, so I don't really see the point of having Silver Status anymore- Virgin really haven't communicated this. I paid quite a lot of money for this ticket as well, so it is frustrating that now I can't choose a seat unless I pay £55

littlefish

Indeed. It looks as if currently Virgin (and most of the transatlantic airlines offering Premium Economy) are able to offer a fare some £250 to £400 more than it used to be pre-pandemic. BA/AA and VS especially so. With that baseline I've had to look very carefully at the economyplus offers (including delite and preferred on virgin); american still seems the best there but if delta offer seat choice to VS silver (Sky Team elite) then that may swing things.
But Virgin silver is useless even on their own flights as no PE seat selection and no economy 'preferred' selection as far at I can tell.
The funny thing is I am VS Gold and still seeing no real value in Premium Economy.

I'll see how SkyTeam plays out but, right now, I think I'd rather have Silver with BA/AA than VS/DL given the transatlantic offers and connections ... but most of all lounge access and seat selection.
Maybe, just maybe, I'll have a year of UA and Norse in Premium at lower price points, but UA Premium Economy / planes look truly hit and miss with only the 787-10 looking decent.

Leedsflyer

So VS has now joined skyteam and I'm FB Plat and am booking a PE seat, but still wants £55 for preferred seat selection even after putting in my FB number. For the return leg I've just selected a non preferred seat but on the outward leg, there is only one non preferred left (middle of middle section). So no point selecting that. Will I get allocated/be able to choose a preferred seat at checkin?

Leedsflyer

So I did a web chat with Virgin. Main points:
- one can select preferred seats at checkin for free but only if no non-preferred seats left.
- they claimed that for ST Elite Plus preferred seats are free, but it turns out this is only true for economy, not PE (don't know about UC -- I guess not). But I got lucky and the agent gave me a preferred seat for free in any case .

markbb99

As a DL Diamond I've never had an issue selecting the "preferred" premium select seats at the front of the cabin. I've never been able to do this on DL's website (with a DL issued ticket) but take the booking ref and log in on Virgin's site and select there for free.

I've no idea why Virgin charges a fee for these seats however (other than they can to squeeze more revenue)!

Tim_94

Just to be clear, you were able to access the "preferred" seats on a VS-operated flight for free when booked on a DL-coded ticket?

Last year, I flew VS-operated Economy on a KL coded ticket and was able to pick the "Preferred" seats at the front of Economy free of charge via the Virgin website - which sounds similar to your experience. However, I did the same thing last month (KL coded/VS operated) and had to pay for the same seats! So I wonder if they closed this loophole?

markbb99

Yep - I just did it again last week for two different flights.

Leedsflyer

See my earlier post (#9) -- FB Plats can only select preferred seats in economy, not in Premium (or probably UC); I would assume the same applies to DL upper tier members?