First Virgin Flight - Questions

Hi

I have booked our first ever flight with Virgin for a surprise trip to Vegas for my hubbys 50th Birthday in November. We fly out on VS043 and VS044 on the way back and I have a few questions if anyone can help please?

I have booked economy (N) due to keeping the costs of my secret fund down and currently online there are no extra legroom seats or the two seats together options availaible to book. Will either of these become available on the 24 hour online check in as we are unable to get to LGW for the twighlight check in? I am worried that if we dont pre-book seats online that we may end up at different ends of the plane [:#].

Is there any chance that there might be any PE upgrades available at a reduced price at LGW on the day as I would love to be able to spoil him/us a bit for his Birthday?

I have just recently joined the flying club and am trying to accrue as many miles as possible before we go. Is it possible to use them towards upgrading at the airport?

Thanks for reading and any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

Angie

[Neil]

Hi Angie and welcome to V-Flyer.

With regards to the extra legroom seats, these are something that are only sold at the airport, so cannot be bought at OLCI stage. There is a chance some of the 2's might become available at OLCI stage, but these are popular seats and some are now the extra leg rooms ones also, so again I wouldn't bank on it.

Quite often there are special upgrades available at the airport, but LAS is a very popular route for VS, and the premium cabins are usually full, so again, there is a chance but I wouldn't bank on it!

If you have enough miles, and there are reward seats available, then you can upgrade with miles at the airport. The problem you have is that you are booked in to the lowest economy fare code (N) and this is not upgradable with miles, so you would first have to upgrade your fare code and the use the miles. Another problem with this is the problem with their actually being space in PE anyway, as mentioned above.

I hope you don't think I am being negative, but the best way to fly PE would be to pay for it now, this way you know are 100% going to be in PE and then won't be disappointed if you were banking on an upgrade at the airport. Otherwise, be happy flying in Y and then if you can upgrade then that will be an added bonus.

Neil

Hey welcome to V-F.

VS only release a certain number of seats (IIRC around 45%) for use via the seat request system. Given that your flight is less than 3 months away it is entirely normal to see the majority of seats available via seat request to be taken. Therefore there are still another 55% of seats available and you will sit with your husband. In all my years of flying I have never been separated from a traveling companion even on overbooked MCO flights.

Extra legroom seats are only avialable at check in, none of these are available via the seat request system. They are available at twilight check in but the vast majority of passengers select to check in on the day so there are normally plenty left. I would advise arriving at the airport early to ensure you get an extra legroom seat as they are first come first served. The same is true of PE upgrades, if available they are first come first serve. VS are having a real push on their 'at airport upgrades' and normally there are a few spare seats in W.

One of the bucket code experts will be able to tell you if N is an upgradable fare, if it is and you have the correct miles you maybe able to upgrade prior to departure, assuming there are still W reward seats available.

Ewven if you do want to ask about an upgrade at the airport you should still do OLCI as soon as it opens for your flight to get the best chance of getting two seats together.

[Neil]

quote:Originally posted by willd
Hey welcome to V-F.

VS only release a certain number of seats (IIRC around 45%) for use via the seat request system. Given that your flight is less than 3 months away it is entirely normal to see the majority of seats available via seat request to be taken. Therefore there are still another 55% of seats available and you will sit with your husband. In all my years of flying I have never been separated from a traveling companion even on overbooked MCO flights.


Just to confirm, it is 60% of seats are available for pre-selection, the remaining 40% become available at OLCI stage, excluding exit row, bulkhead and extra leg room seats.

If a flight is full and there are a lot of groups or families who don't have any seats selected then the system will not release the remaining 40% of seats at OLCI stage and will just allocate the remaining 40% to those who haven't already got seats.

Agree with tonty though, def do OLCI, at worst just to bag your current seats next to each other.

With regards to earning miles, check out the Virgin partners section of the Virgin Atlantic website as you can now earn miles from a host of online shopping sites. Recommending friends is also a good way to earn bonuses, so if you know someone who is even thinking of flying VS get that email off to them - the link is under Miles More Friends on the Flying Club section of the website. You may have to register your number on the website to
gain access to the Flying Club section if you havn't already done so.

Thank you all so much for your replies and the warm welcome [:)]

I will take your kind advice and book two seats together and try OLCI 24 hours before to change seats if any better ones become available. We will also get to the airport as early as possible on the day and try and change the seats to extra legroom.

I'll also keep working away at those points and recommending as many people as possible.

Thank you all once again.

Angie X