Seat Assignment

I can't check in online because of a reservation change which means I can't choose a seat. I was told that I have to have it done at the airport. Is there anyone on the phone lines that can do it???

Originally posted by rweintra
I can't check in online because of a reservation change which means I can't choose a seat. I was told that I have to have it done at the airport. Is there anyone on the phone lines that can do it???

If you call VS reservations they will be able to allocate you a seat are per if you are making a new booking.

Nobody at OLCI can then select that seat, if you get to check-in nice and early you should retain that seat.

Remember though that VS can change everyone's seating if an operational issue occurs that they need to deal with, regardless of OLCI or the seat that you are allocated when you book.

Originally posted by tallprawn
Nobody at OLCI can then select that seat, if you get to check-in nice and early you should retain that seat.

Funnily enough something that mystefies me. I reserved two seats for my in-laws who were flying back home to MCO yesterday.

We arrived at LGW 3 hours before flight and after queuing for about half an hour found the seats had already been reallocated. The Check-in lady had to dissapear for about 15 minutes before being able to allocate a different pair of seats.

I can understand them reallocating seats if you are late but this seemed to make a mockery of reserving the seats in advance.

Phil FM

Originally posted by FamilyMan
Funnily enough something that mystefies me. I reserved two seats for my in-laws who were flying back home to MCO yesterday.

We arrived at LGW 3 hours before flight and after queuing for about half an hour found the seats had already been reallocated. The Check-in lady had to dissapear for about 15 minutes before being able to allocate a different pair of seats.

I can understand them reallocating seats if you are late but this seemed to make a mockery of reserving the seats in advance.

Phil

Did you use OLCI or were you relying on having the seats allocated ?

Paul

Originally posted by pjh

Did you use OLCI or were you relying on having the seats allocated ?

No didn't use OLCI - on hindsight wish I had. But the seats had been allocated (selected online months ago and checked on Saturday) and therefore I would have thought should have not been reallocated.

Phil

Originally posted by FamilyMan

Originally posted by pjh

Did you use OLCI or were you relying on having the seats allocated ?

No didn't use OLCI - on hindsight wish I had. But the seats had been allocated (selected online months ago and checked on Saturday) and therefore I would have thought should have not been reallocated.

Phil

I've been using the preallocation option for as long as it's been available (albeit for b&s travel only) and I think on about 20% of the flights we've not been given the seats I'd had allocated, with perhaps one of those down to a change of aircraft type.

Paul

I had a similar problem. I was flying on VS8 on 11.17 but I changed the reservation to the 16th and they told me I wouldn't be able to check-in online and that I would have to have my seats assigned at the airport. I'm a little concerned about it myself as I'm proposing to my girlfriend while in London and it would be a real shame if we didn't get to sit together on the flight there. From what I've been told though I shouldn't have a problem if I show up early enough but Virgin customer service is less than encouraging on the phone when they say nothing can be guaranteed.

On my recent trip to St Lucia I checked in online and got my seats as reserved 11 months ago, additionally I did twilight check-in to get rid of the cases.

The evening before our return (22 hours before flight departure) I tired to once again check-in online as according the VA website, this facility was now available from St Lucia. Unfortunately the system would not let me check-in. As our hotel had 'check-in chill out', the VA staff came to the hotel in the morning (7 hours before flight departure) armed with our boarding passes - we discovered that we were allocated completely different seats than those we had reserved. The girl checking us in was very unhelpful and offhand, we were told this is what we had been allocated, and another family had been given our seats.

I know that no seat requests online are guaranteed, but I thought that the attitude of the VA staff was terrible, even with charter airlines you usually get some say in where you are sitting.