I smell a KING sized rat!

OK, so having requested our outbound seats at t-59 days 23 hrs on GLA - MCO on 12/7, went on today at T-59 days 13 hrs to do our return.

For the first, I eventually had to call the Flying Club, as we are travelling with an infant in his own seat (EC) but got the seats we wanted in the bubble.

Today, on the return flight, it seems that in the 10 1/2 hours this has been available for requesting, a total of 253 EC seats have been occupied - even deducting the 36 held back in total for bulkhead or exit rows, this still leaves 217 seats requested in 10 1/2 hrs.

I call absolute RUBBISH on this - no way in heck that has happened.

So what exactly are our glorious travel merlins playing at?

My best guess would be it's a large block of seats reserved for Virgin Holidays, who account for a lot of traffic on the MCO routes.

Your return's only a week or so before the schools go back in Scotland so I'd imagine demand is about as high as its going to get on that route.

My best guess would be it's a large block of seats reserved for Virgin Holidays, who account for a lot of traffic on the MCO routes.

Your return's only a week or so before the schools go back in Scotland so I'd imagine demand is about as high as its going to get on that route.

Does that me that a VH customer logging on would see those seats as being available, do you think?

No it will be internal only.

When we booked our holiday with Virgin this year and tried to pre select seats we were told that the service is not available anymore, despite what it says in the brochure. Can anyone else confirm this, or have I been mislead?

The seat request system is changing from June 25th. There are two main changes: you'll be able to select seats at time of booking rather than only at 60 days before the flight, and there'll be a new £25 charge for most economy passengers who want to select a seat before OLCI opens.

So if you've booked through Virgin Holidays, once you have your Virgin Atlantic booking reference you should, AFAIK, still be able to request seats via Manage My Booking but will have to pay if you're in economy and aren't a Flying Club Gold member.

My best guess would be it's a large block of seats reserved for Virgin Holidays, who account for a lot of traffic on the MCO routes.

Your return's only a week or so before the schools go back in Scotland so I'd imagine demand is about as high as its going to get on that route.

Hmmm - so folk who book direct with Virgin get second choice to those booking with VH?

And the return is over 2 weeks before Scottish schools go back, with no corresponding uplift in outbound.

Reckon there are more than normal being held by VA for some reason - just no way THAT many seats got booked THAT quickly.

[Neil]

Some seats will be held back, VS never said that ALL seats would be available for pax to choose from when pre-booking. Pre-booking allows pax to ensure they are sat with their full party in a seating config that works for them.

VH do have an agreement with VS for a certain amount of seats on their B&S route a/c - they supply a massive amount of pax to them so I see no other issue with that at all.

My best guess would be it's a large block of seats reserved for Virgin Holidays, who account for a lot of traffic on the MCO routes.

When I asked some years ago, VH block booked from 60 to 75% of the seats on the respective B&S route planes.

Does that me that a VH customer logging on would see those seats as being available, do you think?

Interestingly the answer is no. VH don't allocate seats to bookings until about 72 hours out. Even as a VH customer the only seats you will see via Manage Your Booking before then are those still available to VS.

Hmmm - so folk who book direct with Virgin get second choice to those booking with VH?

Indeed so, that is what booking at least 60% of the flight gets you!

This thread shows what I found out some years ago.

It is a tad out of date because it was about PE in the bubble but the basic allocation principle remains the same.

The key thing is to keep tabs on the seat plan from about 72 hours out when the unused VH seats get put back into the system.

Hope that helps.