V-Flyer

Yesterday i was able to pre book my outbound and inbound seats for my honeymoon trip to Florida next year. I was very surprised to see when looking at the seating layouts that no seats had been requested.

The front two rows and back row were unavailable but this is for families with children or disabled people right ? Every other seat was there for the taking, is this normal ? After looking on here for reviews, i decided on 24 H&K. Plus, i understand that i still need to do OLCI to make sure those requests are met.

Anyways, now that i have finally picked my seats, i cant wait to go !

Hi Byeo

When booking a long time in advance, its not unusual to see an empty cabin. As you note correctly, bulkhead seats are always held back for families with babies who want to book a bassinet (skycot). They won't put people with a disability in exit rows for safety reasons.

I have not flown on an A330 yet (I invariably fly from LHR) but I guess that they use the L2 door (L=left) - just behind row 26. If that is the case the you are in a great position to get out very early and beat the queue at immigration.

If the A330s use the L1 door, you might want to choose row 19 A&C or H&K to be at the front when disembarking. (Someone who has flown on one will help out here).

I hope the wedding goes well and you have a fabulous honeymoon.

Cheers

Martin

They do use L2 for boarding etc on the A333.

I personally found Row 19 better than 23, with the rows further back in the cabin felt more cramped, but being closer to the front, near the very spacious bulk head row 18, I didn't get that feeling.

Neil

Just to confirm a health warning with your post:
Your seats aren't "pre booked" they are purely requested. They could change, best bet is to keep checking much nearer the time and do OLCI as soon as possible.

northernhenry wrote:Just to confirm a health warning with your post:
Your seats aren't "pre booked" they are purely requested. They could change, best bet is to keep checking much nearer the time and do OLCI as soon as possible.

Thanks, i did say in my post that i needed to do OLCI to make sure this request is met.

Hi, One thing I would add is, even if your booking is showing your seat numbers, you are not actually guaranteed those seats until you've checked in. Friends of mine experienced this on a recent trip to Vegas. We did on-line check-in as soon as it opened and it gave me loads of new seat options that weren't available when I originally booked, so I changed my seats. My friends didn't bother with on-line check-in and arrived at the desk at usual time. They did not get their chosen seats, even though the seat numbers were allocated on their reservation. Just something to think about.

The need to do OLCI to keep your pre-requested seats is a fairly new 'innovation' by VS, but they do now tell you on the website that you must do OLCI at least two hours before departure, or risk losing the requests.

http://virginatlantic.custhelp.com/app/ ... /related/1

They always say however that pre-requested seats are NEVER guaranteed - as many V-Flyers will attest to. v(

Nick

Is it correct to say that even if the olci is not an option for you - the seats will be held until 2 hours before departure. So physical checkin say three hours before departure and you should still be ok (given that they are never for certain)?

If the post I linked to is adhered to, then that is correct for everywhere but LHR, where the cutoff point is 13 hours.

I still don't trust the phantom seat shifters who seem to inhabit the VS IT system though. 8D

Nick

I agree - look what happened earlier this year with the pe seat map issues!

Just picking up on this thread - can someone confirm how far in advance I'll be able to request my seats? Booked to go to Vegas next July and as we are a family party with kids we'd like to be at least fairly close to each other! I know there's no guarantee but we'd like to be able to - and can anyone give me an idiot's guide as to how to go about this please! Thanks in advance

tigersue66 wrote:Just picking up on this thread - can someone confirm how far in advance I'll be able to request my seats? Booked to go to Vegas next July and as we are a family party with kids we'd like to be at least fairly close to each other! I know there's no guarantee but we'd like to be able to - and can anyone give me an idiot's guide as to how to go about this please! Thanks in advance

Assuming you are travelling in PE due to the refits the allocated aircraft won't be known until 24 hrs before the flight so seats will be requestable at OLCI.

If you are in economy you should be able to do it now via 'manage my bookings'

Thanks - sadly it'll be economy, we've needed a second mortgage to pay for it as it is