Economy seating allocation

Can anybody tell me why Virgin ask you where you would like to sit when you book and then completely disregard it?

It's just that I booked my family (with young children) in a row of four and the agent gave us specific seat row and letters but then entered them incorrectly into the system. As a result one of us is sitting in the row behind the other three. When asked to correct this the response is that they can only make a request to the airport to seat us together. As this is the 3rd time this has happened to my family when flying with Virgin I wonder why I am less than optimisitic that they will sort it out before we fly.
v(
If this has happened to anyone else I would be grateful for any advice on how to resolve the issue. Many thanks.

[Neil]

Have you logged in to the manage my booking section on the VS site to see if you can change your seats yourself?

If that doesn't help, then do OLCI as close to 24hours before your flight as you can, as only 60% of seats are available for pre-allocation, the rest open up at OLCI stage. Then at the airport, there are still the bulkhead seats which are only allocated on the day. So you do have a few options to try.

The thing to remember is that these are not a guaranteed reservation, just a request which may be changed at any time due to operational reasons. Some carriers like BA don't allow any pre-selection before OLCI and all of the charters charge a fee for.

Neil

Thanks for all that. I guess I'll be hanging on for 1 second after OLCI opens. It shouldn't have been necessary though as whilst I accept that changes may be made to your preference for operational reasons this was a simple case of staff error during the booking. Let's hope that OLCI provides a solution. Cheers.

Once again, all seating is REQUESTED and not guaranteed.

Obviously on this occasion I can imagine your frustration, but there is no guarantee - even if you were all in a row - that you would actually still be sat in those seats.

Can you not log-in to your booking as has been previously suggested and see if you can change it yourself?

Got a related question ...

What if you *need* to sit next to your children - say if they have a disability / condition / issues that require close adult supervision? IE you need that guarantee of sitting together rather than just a maybe and 'it depends'.

Is this when the VS Special Assistance unit comes into play?

Thanks, Mandy

(Thinking of booking a flight out to LA for 2011 and just a bit anxious over this very issue!)

[Nottingham Nick]

You have answered your own question, Mandy.
That is exactly the sort of thing Special Assistance are there for, and they are very good at it. ^)

Nick

Thanks Nick.

I'l give it a shot when we book - once hubby has his holidays cleared by his partners!

Now going to see if I can find the FDA website ....

Special Assistance can indeed pre-assign seats due to disabilities / medical conditions etc.