Seating issue

Hi, newbie but hopefully this hasn't been asked before - checked around and can't see.

I was booked on to an A340-600 with seats 55A/C - 2 seats together on the left. Aircraft has now changed to a 747-400 and whilst Virgin have kept our seats the same we are now sat apart with someone in between us in 55B.

I was told on the phone that V save about 60% of seating for allocation on the day - something I was skeptical about so wanted to know what others think.

I understand we can politely ask the person in B to move however I have had issue in past with difficult customers refusing to move.

What can I do to give myself the best chance of seating together?

P.s. I do understand that specific seating isn't 100% guaranteed on their website due to changes.

Thanks.

[honey lamb]

Hi and welcome to V-Flyer

I presume you have tried to change your seats in the Manage my Booking section of the Virgin Atlantic website and have found yourself unable to do so? Virgin only allows 60% of seats to be requested and after that you must wait until OLCI opens 24 hours before the flight when the other 40% (with the exception of exit rows and bulkheads) are released. I would also suggest you check an hour or so before then as sometimes the seats are released at that stage. If that is the case, choose the ones that you want and then do OLCI as soon as possible after it opens and certainly no later than 13 hours before the flight

I cannot imagine why someone would refuse to move to either a window or an aisle from a middle seat ... when is your flight, if before Christmas changing, even during check-in, might be difficult, so the polite request route should work.

I guess the simple answer to your question is: keep checking your booking to see if better options arise, check in as soon as you can, get to the airport early and be nice to the bag-drop staff and see if you can get better seats at that point. Like slinky I'd be suprised if someone in a middle-seat wouldn't swap to an aisle or window. You could always behave in a way that made this inevitable.