V-Flyer

I'm just curious as to how the whole pre requesting of seats works.
It seems like a complete lottery whether you actually get the seats you have chosen - for our flight on VS 75, 28th April, I've chosen 62/63 h and k for 4 adults, failing that I'd prefer a row of 4 in the little front sub-cabin.
As I understand it, those seats don't come available till physical checkin opens, so we'd have to be at MAN at 6am to stand a chance of them (unless they'd already been allocated), am I right so far?
I've read various things on other forums, even to the point of someone stating categorically that if you do olci exactly 24 hours before, you can effectively 'steal' someone elses chosen seats!
I don't see how that would be possible? Surely the whole of economy doesn't miraculously 'open up' for first come first served?[V]
people have also told me that even when they've done olci for the return flight AND been at downtown disney checkin on opening - they have still lost their chosen seats. Am I right in assuming that the flight would have to be full (with families) for that to happen?
Are there any 'tricks' for keeping your chosen seats or getting good ones?
I'm remembering my last VS flight to/from miami, we'd booked quite late and the seats I'd requested weren't very good, we got to heathrow before check in opened and they still wouldn't entertain changing our seats, the outbound wasn't too bad, although our party of 3 was in a middle row with a stranger sat next to us, the return was horrible - stuck right by the galley so the food choices ran out and it was very noisy.
I'm rambling now so if you've got this far thank you.[:I]

Hi,

The first problem comes because the pre-booking of seats are a request and not a guarantee, so its important to remember this, no seat is 'yours' but a lot of people of sites like the Dibb don't realise this.

Usually if you pre-request your seats, do OLCI, get to the airport fairly early you will get the seats you would like. However, for many reasons seats do change, and at various different points/times. The main usual problem that results in a complete move around is due to different config a/c operating the flight and the computer just moving everyone around. Occasionally due to families, other operational reasons you might get moved once you have done OLCI.

Just to clarify, at OLCI you cannot steel someone else's seat, only the other 40% of seats open up, and as mentioned in another thread, sometimes this will not even happen if some families have not yet got any seats allocated.

Where you sit on an a/c is a very important and touchy subject for a lot of people, but from my own personal experiences and a lot of read experiences, the majority of time everything is fine. Of course nothing ever runs perfectly all the time but I would keep checking your seats through the manage my booking section on the VS site, do OLCI and fingers crossed everything will be fine.

Neil

Thanks for that, is there a 'set' pattern of seats that they keep back, or does the computer just say no when a certain amount of seats are chosen? I know that they hold the exit and bulkhead seats but what about the front section, my sister had the middle row 22 or 23 for her family of four - she says they were nowhere near the front of the check in queue, hadn't pre requested online etc. I guess they just got lucky.
I'm wavering between wanting the extra bit of room at the back for a more comfortable journey, versus getting off quickly at mco by being at the front, all I want to do at the end of that flight is get off asap.
We will be at man at 6am on the day anyway, simply because I hate waiting, whether it's for check in or bag drop.
I've heard that even if you print off your boarding pass, they replace it at bag drop anyway?

Usually they block off everything from about row 32 or so forward IIRC, plus of course the exit rows/bulkheads). The front little section is always blocked off until airport check in. Obviously not knowing your family/circumstances, these sections are quite often keep for people with babies (especially the bulkheads) so there is a good chance it will be quite a noisy area, and its pretty close to the galley too.

Not sure about the boarding pass thing, I personally think it is a bit pointless if you have luggage to check in so have never used it myself.

I think also another reason why they replace the boarding pass is that from time to time there are problems with scanning the home-printed one at the gate