VS15 12/4/11

! Hi all,

My brother-in-law is due to fly to MCO tomorrow on the VS15. He was not allowed to check in on-line and to make it worse his seat selection has gone for the third time. His wife and children have been spread all over the plane (they are flying in Y). To top it all off, after a phone call to Virgin, he has been told to drive to Gatwick tonight, check-in and then drive home and come back for the flight tomorrow. v(

It sounds to me as if the flight has been completely overbooked. Can any shed any light on any other reasons there might be?

Many thanks,

Kaz

Is he on the TSA Watch List? You cannot use OLCI if you are.

Flight looks very busy

J0 D0 R0 Z0 W0 S0 K0 Y2 B0 L0 M0 Q0 X0 N0 O0

Slightly more space on the 27

J0 D0 R0 Z0 W0 S0 K0 Y3 B1 L1 M0 Q0 X0 N0 O0

but not a lot

David

Not very helpful I know but isn't this typical of MCO routes at the start of UK Easter school hols?
But I can't see VS ground staff not sitting a family together. There must be singles and couples who could be moved?
Good luck anyway - weather in Florida looks amazing at the moment.

They have rung Virgin again and were told their seats had been split and there was nothing they could do. They have to drive to Gatwick this evening and then go home. Haven't heard from him yet. The children had three seats in a row and yet they moved my nephew out of the centre seat and put ?? inbetween the two other boys.

It is actually a safety issue.
What would happen if the aircraft requires emergency evacuation?
Would parents leave without first finding their children?

I seem to remember this is covered by regulation...

Edit: No - it's a guideline rather than regulation.

Family Groups
CAA guidelines ask airlines to develop procedures for the seat allocation of family groups, particularly when a group includes children. It is probable that family group members would seek each other out should an emergency evacuation be required, an action that could adversely affect the passenger flow rates towards emergency exits and might seriously affect the outcome of an evacuation.

Additionally, children and infants should be seated where they can be adequately supervised by an accompanying adult in the event of turbulence or a decompression in the cabin.

Airlines procedures should take into account the following factors:

Children, accompanied by adults, should ideally be seated in the same seat row as the adult. In wide-bodied aircraft, children and accompanying adults should not be separated by more than one aisle. Where this is not possible, children should be separated by no more than one seat row from accompanying adults.

Seat allocation procedures for family groups and suitable seating arrangements for large parties of children should reflect the above criteria.

Whenever small numbers of infants and children are travelling together, the airline should make every effort to ensure that they are allocated seats where they can be readily supervised by the responsible accompanying adult in both normal and abnormal conditions.

UPDATE,

Jimmy, the family and their friends trekked to Gatwick last night and have the seats sorted for today. Haven't been able to get the details as he had to work when he returned home as he has just bought into a company that installs basement rooms and this was the last thing he needed to do.

Thanks everyone,

hope it all works out for him, as Craig says the weather here right now is awesome. we have had 3 record highs in the last 8 days