Seat reservations after 1st November thread

Just picked up this thread, disappointing to say the least, I booked my holiday to Orlando departing nov 1st this year back in April 2010
At the time of booking we chose our seats which now seems to have disappeared, I agree with one of the previous comments and would now consider BA. In addition you would have though you would have had some form of communication relating to this change.

I have sent VS an email regarding this situation, we will see what their response is,

Another thought just occurred to me.

Maybe they will charge PE/Y customers to sit on the upper deck ex-LGW? (I note Concorde RIP's trip report in which a crew-member reportedly says the refits are due to be complete by November...)

Of course, maybe the hiatus is nothing to do with seating charges at all........

The maximum cost of a pre booked seat on BA is £60.00 per seat per leg and that is in Club World

Is £80 for the upper deck CW seats on the 747

We booked in March `12 , for November 21st `12.
The agent asked which seats we would like , so we booked specific seats due to partners limited mobility .
This Saturday we paid off the balance , and , as we had read on forums about the Nov 1st seating changes , we asked if our request would be honoured , but were told ;
" Due to V.A. changing to a B.A-style system , we will have to wait till OLCI @ 24 hrs to request our seats " !

[Nottingham Nick]

.......but were told ;
" Due to V.A. changing to a B.A-style system , we will have to wait till OLCI @ 24 hrs to request our seats " !

Were you told by someone at Virgin Atlantic that they were changing to a BA style system?

It has been speculated on, but if that is from the horse's mouth, it would be interesting to know exactly what was said. 8D

Nick

.......but were told ;
" Due to V.A. changing to a B.A-style system , we will have to wait till OLCI @ 24 hrs to request our seats " !

Were you told by someone at Virgin Atlantic that they were changing to a BA style system?

It has been speculated on, but if that is from the horse's mouth, it would be interesting to know exactly what was said. 8D

Nick

Me too!! v(

.......but were told ;
" Due to V.A. changing to a B.A-style system , we will have to wait till OLCI @ 24 hrs to request our seats " !

Were you told by someone at Virgin Atlantic that they were changing to a BA style system?

It has been speculated on, but if that is from the horse's mouth, it would be interesting to know exactly what was said. 8D

Nick

Me too!! v(

+1.. v( v( and probably many others as well.

I don't think there is any doubt about it is there? Why else would we have this farce.

I don't think there is any doubt about it is there? Why else would we have this farce.

Switching to a new computer system? Changing policy? There are multiple reasons why it could be, granted a charging system is a distinct possibility. Regardless, there's enough doubt yet.

We booked in March `12 , for November 21st `12.
The agent asked which seats we would like , so we booked specific seats due to partners limited mobility .
This Saturday we paid off the balance , and , as we had read on forums about the Nov 1st seating changes , we asked if our request would be honoured , but were told ;
" Due to V.A. changing to a B.A-style system , we will have to wait till OLCI @ 24 hrs to request our seats " !

This sounds like an agent from virgin holidays not VS.

Also if you have mobility issues within your party, special assistance should be able to get seats sorted out regardless of the current farce.

Assuming the rumours are correct about VS adopting a BA style system how are they going to sell it to passengers? Over the past couple of years when something has been changed (normally for the worse)the PR teams have put some sort of spin on it claiming "a great new look" or "improved service". Surely they cannot be stupid enough to try to sell this as a benefit v(

Hopefully they are just rumours and it won't come to this.

-Steve

we are booked with Kenwood Travel .
A virgin " prefered Partner "
we`ve just phoned the agent again , to double check if our seat booking would be honoured ..which she said NO , it wont , .. we have to contact Virgin Special assistance , direct , which I was going to do anyway now we have a Virgin Ref No.

[Darren Wheeler]

Just for your info, Special Assistance have no way to bypass the block and allocate seating.

So a partner travel agent stated, unprompted, that VS is moving to a paid seating system in November?

Assuming the rumours are correct about VS adopting a BA style system how are they going to sell it to passengers? Over the past couple of years when something has been changed (normally for the worse)the PR teams have put some sort of spin on it claiming "a great new look" or "improved service". Surely they cannot be stupid enough to try to sell this as a benefit v(

Hopefully they are just rumours and it won't come to this.

-Steve

I can picture the announcement. It'll probably go something like this, "Great news. VS now offers guaranteed seat reservations. For a small fee of £x, you can now reserve your seat when booking your flight or anytime before check in. *please note that we reserve the right to move you for operational reasons"

But this is all conjecture anyway and we can remain hopeful that it's really just an IT issue

Do VS use Sabre? If not, I could be a migration to Sabre that's behind this....I know VA are moving to Sabre soon, let's just hope that VA at least learned from the disaster that was VX's move.

Are VS really stupid enough to change to such a system though? That would just give customers one more reason not to fly with them. It may be a small and somewhat minor one, but it's still a unique selling point being able to select seats free of charge.

The VS brand isn't exactly in a great place right now, why risk deterring more passengers for a little more revenue, seems silly to me but perhaps there is something i'm missing. This huge delay itself, not being able to select seats at all, has got to be doing some damage (If I was a BA flyer trying VS for the first time I wouldn't be impressed!). My instincts tell me this is to do with something else...Something good!

Assuming the rumours are correct about VS adopting a BA style system how are they going to sell it to passengers? Over the past couple of years when something has been changed (normally for the worse)the PR teams have put some sort of spin on it claiming "a great new look" or "improved service". Surely they cannot be stupid enough to try to sell this as a benefit v(

Hopefully they are just rumours and it won't come to this.

-Steve

I can picture the announcement. It'll probably go something like this, "Great news. VS now offers guaranteed seat reservations. For a small fee of £x, you can now reserve your seat when booking your flight or anytime before check in. *please note that we reserve the right to move you for operational reasons"

But this is all conjecture anyway and we can remain hopeful that it's really just an IT issue

Sounds like something they will put! I like it, have you considered a job with there marketing...

In all honesty I think I would like a guaranteed seat so I would actually be happy to pay the price. As at least you can say we've got this seat. I like to pre book my seat just one less thing to rush and do at OLCI 24 hours before like everyone else.