V-Flyer

As the title says does anyone know if the seat request system is about to be changed? I only ask as my step sister returned from MCO last week and was told by VS check in staff the system was going to change. Moving forward to today and there is a angry post on another website from someone who didn't get their requested seats, when he complained he was told it was only a request, however, VS were soon going to be charging.

Both incidents were at MCO, so is there any truth or it just a rumour at Orlando International ?|

-Steve

I don't know, but what I do know is that VS are very much in a muddle over the whole thing.

Several agents in the Swansea call centre have told me that the '90 days before' request system is permanent. However the Facebook team have contradicted this in the last 2 days or so by saying it isn't.

These mixed messages have been happening for some time.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if they did adopt this model. However, I always take what any GA/FA/CS people say with a large pinch of salt.

I hope they do not go the BA route £60 for a upper seat

But why wouldn't they?
They officially don't know if BA has been successful with their charges, but other airlines definitely have been.

I hope they don't but they need to nip this entitlement thing in the bud. A seat request is a request, that's it.

What would be changed too ?

If they charged £15 per person with roughly 6 million passengers last year, it would nearly wipe out this years loss of £93 million. :w

David :0

I'm flying in a few weeks time with Todzilla... now he's too big for the sky cot so although we tried to reserve the bulkhead seats they've allocated another row to us and we have to wait until check-in to find out if I've got a kid sitting on my lap for 9 hours. It's a cloud hanging over the whole flight.

I'd gladly pay for guaranteed (as opposed to reserved) seats.

David wrote:If they charged £15 per person with roughly 6 million passengers last year, it would nearly wipe out this years loss of £93 million. :w

David :0

But not everyone requests a seat so your calculation is well
off. And BA has a large number of exceptions to the pay policy as well and VS would undoubtedly too - Golds with free requests for example.

And tbh how many people are that bothered about sitting in a particular seat whether it is Economy, Premium or Upper? It it probably relatively few. Most people appear more concerned with being sat with their group rather than being in a particular seat.

Tonty, while I agree with you, and especially about seat requests as a whole, the point I was trying to make was, the new CEO has a huge deficit to claw back and being very simplistic about it, if it was made mandatory to pay for and select a seat for every passenger, there's any easy option to get back in the black without any more cuts to the service

It would be easy to sell a small price increase with the promise that if its not already booked you can select our seat and it will "stay" selected

Of course, as you've already said, not everyone wants to reserve their seat, but maybe in the great scheme of things another £15 would end the issue which is huge for some passengers.

I know there would have to be some seats held back for special needs etc, but surely a clear policy would be better than the mess that was mentioned at the beginning of this thread.


David

Fuzzy14 wrote:I'd gladly pay for guaranteed (as opposed to reserved) seats.

That's unlikely to happen I'm afraid.

BA's T&Cs make it clear that, even having paid up to £80 for a seat request, it's never guaranteed and is always subject to change due to that airline favourite, "operational reasons". In which case the seat request fee is refunded.

if it was made mandatory to pay for and select a seat for every passenger

That's not allowed. Non avoidable charges must be made part of the fare. So they would in effect just be pushing the ticket up £15.

To answer the question posed: does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?

I think the one thing Virgin has learnt from V-Flyer, Flyertalk et al is that people are very precious about where they sit.

The noise of complaints from travellers who didn't get their requested (requested, never guaranteed) seat is such that it is now a potential revenue stream. Because Virgin can now offer a solution with a virtually guaranteed seats at a price, just like BA, easyJet etc. The only caveat being aircraft change.

They can keep Golds happy by blocking the most popular seats (I'm sure regular flyers have their favourites! And I am sure Virgin know what those seats are!)

At the end of the day the opportunity to select your favourite seat at the time of making your booking is often very important (myself included) to a large number of customers. I get this free with BA due to my status, but prior to obtaining that status I was happy to pay, because as I always compare prices between VS and BA on shared routes the price including the seat reservation fee was often cheaper and I am sure that overall pricing will still be competitive when compared to other carriers. VS will be savvy enough to know where to price their product and I would suspect gold and silver will get the seat selection free anyway.

PaulS wrote:At the end of the day the opportunity to select your favourite seat at the time of making your booking is often very important (myself included) to a large number of customers.

I'd love to know how many people on average do request a seat when booking or at the earliest opportunity. I suspect it's far fewer than we think.

Reading the forums you'd think every passenger on every VS flight was at their computer at precisely T-90 waiting to pounce. But of course we're only a tiny minority and the fact that, in my experience, a lot of seats are still unselected a week before the flight suggests most people don't bother until check-in.

And my two most recent flights to Zurich with BA were both still wide open at T-24 when seat requests became free.

I would be more than happy to pay to reserve our seats,sitting together is very important to us.

I would be more than happy to pay a "nominal" charge for pre-selecting a seat.

I am not a regular like other esteemed v-flyers but I already have my favourite/preferred seats.

gumshoe wrote:

PaulS wrote:At the end of the day the opportunity to select your favourite seat at the time of making your booking is often very important (myself included) to a large number of customers.

I'd love to know how many people on average do request a seat when booking or at the earliest opportunity. I suspect it's far fewer than we think.

Reading the forums you'd think every passenger on every VS flight was at their computer at precisely T-90 waiting to pounce. But of course we're only a tiny minority and the fact that, in my experience, a lot of seats are still unselected a week before the flight suggests most people don't bother until check-in.

And my two most recent flights to Zurich with BA were both still wide open at T-24 when seat requests became free.

I agree with you and before I had the free option I would wait until T24 if I was travelling solo or flying in CE. However the difference between Zurich and many of VS routes is that they are B&S routes attracting many families that like to sit together. Even in the premium cabins I would suggest that VS has a higher proportion of leisure passengers. On my recent flights to Cancun I had 6 A & K on both flights and the first topic of conversation with the other UC passengers was "We wondered who had got those seats" and at least three other couples had been sat waiting for T90 to open.

I would personally be so happy if VS introduced an advance seat reservation policy. When I travel, I am one of those folk who likes to know I am going to sit next to my travel partner or with the group I'm travelling with.

I am flying with BA to Florida in a couple of months. I made the choice to pre-pay to request our seats and yes it has cost us a few ££'s more but that is my choice. However our travel companions are booked with VS and the stress they experienced at the 90day mark made me realise my outlay to prebook our seats was well worth it. They booked PE seats last October and wanted to experience the 'bubble'. No chance those seats were snapped up and all greyed out at the 90day+6hour mark

Pre-paid seating is a choice and is not guaranteed anyway but its an option for those who do care where they sit. Such policies could be interpreted as airlines squeezing more money out of us poor travellers but if the option is there, then folk have a choice. On a busy August flight to Florida that's why BA got my vote (they were cheaper anyway ): ).

Lastly, I loved the good old days when seats could be requested at the time of booking. That was the fairest system of all - first come first served

Hev60 wrote:Pre-paid seating is a choice and is not guaranteed anyway but its an option for those who do care where they sit. Such policies could be interpreted as airlines squeezing more money out of us poor travellers but if the option is there, then folk have a choice. On a busy August flight to Florida that's why BA got my vote (they were cheaper anyway ): ).

Lastly, I loved the good old days when seats could be requested at the time of booking. That was the fairest system of all - first come first served

you have hit the nail on the head plus as you say re the August flight, it may be "free" with some airlines, but its the final price to pay figure that counts

I would say that they almost certainly will and they almost certainly should. They need all the revenue they can get and as long as elites can pick freely, then I don't see the issue. I paid when I flew in CW with BA as I was very particular about the seat I wanted, so it worked for me.

If the fairest system is first com first served, then all seats should be allocated at checkin

If seat requests are not charged for then I too think that fairest is at the time of booking. That said, I think charging is inevitable.

ken54 wrote:If the fairest system is first com first served, then all seats should be allocated at checkin

v(

First come is when I and over my hard earned money and if that is T330 why should someone who has not 'funded' the airlines cash flow until the last minute have their seat choice over mine. Airlines need the early bookers to survive and this is effective way to lure customers by offering them their seat choice. Plus the chaos that would occur trying to allocate seats a check in would cost the industry thousands. Note the delays and disruptions when there is a last minute aircraft type change and check in are trying to re allocate seats and keep the passengers happy. Long queues and frayed tempers