How does seat assignment work?

I recently booked via the travel office at work an Economy round trip on VS001 & VS002

They pre-booked seats for me on both legs the outbound on VS001 was a middle 'D' seat. The return was a window 'K' seat.

I prefer window seat so a few days before the VS001 trip saw that some window seats had become available ont he Virgin website, so selected one. However I didn't complete Online checkin but used the Kiosk checkin at Heathrow. I found that I was assigned to a new seat - neither the originally booked, or that selected online.

Does OLCI have to be used to improve chances of actually getting a seat chosen via the web site?

Also on the return trip the Kiosk check-in at Newark couldn't complete the process. I was told this was becauise I wasn't assigned a seat.

I was then offered to delay my trip by one day for a free round trip in Economy to JFK or EWR. I might have been tempted but needed to be back, so was then offered an extra leg room seat for $50, which I took - 35K

Since the travel agent and pre-booked a seat for both and I hadn't changed the return seat I was surprised to be told there was no assignment. I checked in about 3 hours prior to departure, which was delayed due to the late arrival of the inbound service.

Since boarding at EWR is fvia the very front door I noticed that there were a lot of vacant UC seats, so looks like they were not upgrading, but offering to offload instead.

I think to ensure your seat request, you need to be checked in at least 13 hours before the flight, according to the VA website

To honour this request, Online Check In needs to be completed no later than 13 hours before your flight departs. Whilst we will always try our best to meet your requirements, please note that seat numbers are never guaranteed and are subject to operational changes

VS staff can change the seat assignment as they please, as can any airline. Generally so no odd seats are left and/or to seat people together. You say there were empty seats so it may have been for weight and balance.
The genreal rule to follow is don't assume you have the seat you asked for until every passenger is seated on board and noone complains!

[honey lamb]

Virgin Atlantic does not upgrade just because there are empty seats in UC unless the flight is seriously overbooked in the lower cabins and there is a need to accommodate passengers there. In any case, just because there were empty seats when you were boarding it does not necessarily mean that the cabin was not full. Although UC passengers are offered the facility of priority boarding some will prefer to wait in the Clubhouse for the final call. Regular UC passengers on the route from Newark will know that passengers are boarded from the very front door and may choose to wait until the rest of the plane is on board.

Penny_L is correct in saying that you must do OLCI at least 13 hours beforehand to have this request honoured but in any case seat assignments are merely requests and may be changed at any stage for operational reasons

Not that it would have affected your flights to NYC, but I don't believe that you can pre-assign seats online on the VS A330 aircraft. I suppose this could be because they could lay on the A330-300 or A330-600 with different configurations on the route - but I'm not sure. It happens a lot on the route to Boston that I took with Lobbers Jnr today.

My seat saga yesterday was:
At T-24 on Saturday, I logged on to OLCI, and found that the aircraft had been changed to a 747. The whole of Y in upstairs was available to book, so I bagged two seats. But it wouldn't let me complete OLCI (I later found out that this was because I had changed my Y ticket last week and my e-ticket no longer matched up with my booking - computers!). Of course, by the time I got to check-in, those seats were no longer available, and there were only exit rows (which they couldn't give me with a five year old in tow). A supervisor had to release 47 J and K. At the gate, I asked to change them again to an aisle and a middle, and although the plane was "full", I ended up with the bulkhead in Row 54, which are half decent seats.

Not that it would have affected your flights to NYC, but I don't believe that you can pre-assign seats online on the VS A330 aircraft. I suppose this could be because they could lay on the A330-300 or A330-600 with different configurations on the route - but I'm not sure. It happens a lot on the route to Boston that I took with Lobbers Jnr today.

VS is ordering only the A333 (there is no A330-600, you may be confusing that with a A346) and I see absolutely no reason why you won't be able to pre-assign seats online when the 333s come into service.

The A333 and A346 will initially not mix routes. It is possible they could be switched on LHR flights when those aircraft come later in 2011, just as you have found it possible that any route can have a type / config switch.

VS is ordering only the A333 (there is no A330-600, you may be confusing that with a A346) and I see absolutely no reason why you won't be able to pre-assign seats online when the 333s come into service.

Sorry, I mistyped. I meant that there is a difference between the configs of the A340-300 and A340-600, and particularly on the Boston route, there is an even chance of being on either one of these or the 747, which I thought would explain why it's not always possible to book a seat online until check-in.

Aircraft %
Airbus A340-300 38%
Boeing 747 Config 3 (LHR) 35%
Airbus A340-600 25%

The seats on routes such as BOS and DXB that are flown with mixed aircraft depending on loads etc can be assigned online, by a travel agent or by VS themselves but if the aircraft changes then the computer reallocates the seating to people who have reserved a seat.

What seems to have happened on this return flight was that it was overbooked in Y and as OLCI had not been completed ccarmock was earmarked to be bumped off (hence the offer to fly the next day with compensation).
VS then seems to have been able to juggle things around and even upsell the legroom seat for a bit of extra revenue.

My two pence!

"I noticed that there were a lot of vacant UC seats, so looks like they were not upgrading, but offering to offload instead."

The voluntary offload options isn't guaranteed until the flight closes for Check-In (or at times until boarding is complete). Upper Class out of EWR is always full - it rarely goes out with any seats left empty. If Virgin are looking for offloads you can be certain the J Class Cabin went out full that night you took VS2. Most passengers who travel UC board last.

Hope you had a good experience with us out of EWR y)

UC customers out of EWR definitely tend to board last so they don't have to sit there whilst 260 other people walk past them as the very front door is used for boarding and disembarkation on the A346 in EWR.

Thanks - good explanation. This was my 2nd flight out of EWR. Had I not needed to be back for Saturday I would have taken the free return flight offer actually.

Yes the service on VS002 on Friday night was excellent. We were late departing due to the incoming flight bein gdelayed leaving Heathrow, however that was more than made up for during the journey.

Durign the flight a passenger did faint in the centre seat section the cabin crew were excellent and managed to clear him a space and bring the oxygen cylinder etc. I saw this happen on a PE return from JNB earlier in the year and again the cabin crew were excellent.

Not sure how common fainting is - but that's twice this year so far I've seen it happen.