VS15 LGW - MCO

Hello all! This is my first post to this Forum and I hope the replies will be of general interest.

There are 5 of us in my family and we usually all fly Virgin at least twice a year. Normally, we get to LGW in plenty of time to check-in and have a leisurely breakfast before the flight. However, on Saturday, 3rd April, we are due to go on the above flight and there is a chance that we will only arrive quite close to the time check-in closes (probably 15 minutes to spare). It appears that this flight is sold out (no tickets available on the Virgin site) and my question is: what chance is there that we will be denied boarding due to overbooking? I have seen the agents going along the check-in queue in years past looking for volunteers, but can someone tell me if they are always succesful, or do they have to reroute the last people to check-in?

How can I find out if the flight is overbooked beforehand (yes, I know that many flights are deliberately overbooked) and how can I find out if the flight is so overbooked that they will be looking for volunteers?

Regards

I would be very very carful when choosing your check in time. Being closed to Easter your flight is likely to be very full.

When flights are that busy Virgin can and will close its check in at 60 mins before departure!!!!

After this time they will not accept you, then you would have to wait 24 hours until the next flight and beong easter the next few days may be full too.

There is only one flight that day to Orlando from LGW.

If you arrive after chack in closes which could be 60 mins before it will not be Virgin responsibilty to get you there.

GOOD LUCK

[Bazz]

Hi Ian, welcome to VirginFlyer,

If the flight is overbooked, and as you rightly point out this is common practice, I believe they will not be looking for volunteers until after check-in opens and they see how the flight is filling up. The reason for overbooking is to compensate for "no-shows", well until closer to boarding time, they won't have an idea what the number of "no-shows" may be.

I'm not sure in your situation if having a pre-assigned seat would help, I would have thought so. You may like to check this out or another member will post the answer.

Good luck!

quote:Originally posted by declansmith


There is only one flight that day to Orlando from LGW.

I think there is VS27 also that day. Anyway, I will be at check-in before it closes. I just want to know if my travel plans might be disrupted by VS15 being overbooked.

quote:Originally posted by Bazz
The reason for overbooking is to compensate for "no-shows", well until closer to boarding time, they won't have an idea what the number of "no-shows" may be.

Thanks. Yes, I hope that there are fewer 'no-shows' than on regular flights, due to it being a Saturday and being on a 'holiday' route there should be fewer business travellers with flexible tickets.

On the matter of pre-assigned seats, yes I do have those. But, I suspect that many 'no-shows' have pre-assigned seats, so Virgin cannot make the assumption that just because someone has got their seats pre-assigned then they will show up. I would expect that if the flight is full, except for my 5 seats, and another group arrives at check-in before me, then Virgin might simply assume we are 'no-shows', give our seats to them and then reroute us. Either way they will have to reroute someone, so it might as well be the last people to arrive at check-in.

I emphasise that I will still arrive at check-in before the due closing time.

Cheers.