PE is coming in line with other classes - as from today you can book 90 days in advance, but due to unknown aircraft following the refits, this cannot commence for flights earlier than 5 January.
Edited to keep the peace
Last edited by Ian6969 on 09 Oct 2012, 14:36, edited 1 time in total.
Okay, so your grievance is that certain pages on the VS website state the incorrect information. Yes, that is rubbish, and given the complete mess that is the VS website it in various forms, not all surprising, but the facts are that it is from the 5th January.
Yes, its a PITA, but really not the end of the world and the chances are you will get good seats and be more than happy. There is nothing you can do to change it, so why let it annoy you?
Yes, its a PITA, but really not the end of the world and the chances are you will get good seats and be more than happy. There is nothing you can do to change it, so why let it annoy you?
It's just disappointing. I'm not going to have internet access while I am away and as I have arthritis in both shoulders, it is more comfortable for me to be in a window seat rather than sitting with my arms folded in a middle seat.
OK, so if nothing can be done, nothing can be done. Will just be a reallllly long and fidgety flight for me but them's the breaks I guess.
OK, so if nothing can be done, nothing can be done. Will just be a reallllly long and fidgety flight for me but them's the breaks I guess.
Just to be clear, I'm not angry at anyone on this webiste, it's been an amazing source of information for me and some great characters to boot 
It just seems to me that if this was any other service, no one would put up with the total lack of good service, reading other threads over the months I've used this website, it does seem to me that people make excuses up for poor performance and just brush it aside with an "oh well, what do you expect, it's Virgin being their usual selves, poor IT etc"
It's been said loads of time before, requesting your seats IS an important part of your holiday, hell I was willing to pay an extra grand to make sure I could get a decent seat, so my mrs doesn't hurt her foot (had operation a few months ago). So I feel I'm fairly justified in my anger with VS at this time
It just seems to me that if this was any other service, no one would put up with the total lack of good service, reading other threads over the months I've used this website, it does seem to me that people make excuses up for poor performance and just brush it aside with an "oh well, what do you expect, it's Virgin being their usual selves, poor IT etc"
It's been said loads of time before, requesting your seats IS an important part of your holiday, hell I was willing to pay an extra grand to make sure I could get a decent seat, so my mrs doesn't hurt her foot (had operation a few months ago). So I feel I'm fairly justified in my anger with VS at this time
I certainly do not work for Virgin!!! We are flying PE from MCO to MAN in November, and I was also hoping to request seats today. I have been looking at the updates on here regarding the refurbishments and on the VA website re seat requests, and concluded a few days ago that I would be unable to request a seat prior to checking in.
Ian6969 wrote:Just to be clear, I'm not angry at anyone on this webiste, it's been an amazing source of information for me and some great characters to boot
It just seems to me that if this was any other service, no one would put up with the total lack of good service, reading other threads over the months I've used this website, it does seem to me that people make excuses up for poor performance and just brush it aside with an "oh well, what do you expect, it's Virgin being their usual selves, poor IT etc"
It's been said loads of time before, requesting your seats IS an important part of your holiday, hell I was willing to pay an extra grand to make sure I could get a decent seat, so my mrs doesn't hurt her foot (had operation a few months ago). So I feel I'm fairly justified in my anger with VS at this time
I am with you. The usual VS apologists come out the woodwork trotting "why does it matter? Well it matters because most of us are used to dealing with professional organisations in our professional lives and can see through this VS crap.
OTOH VS does not deserve the sticking up for VS that it gets around here. If you take your VS goggles off you have to admit that this is a bloody fiasco and while people would be upset.
It was like that when I got here, Sir!
Well I've caused a stink on the VS FB page lol and I now at least have an official response from them.
PE seats will not be available to request until 6th January and VS are changing the website to reflect this (they say it's because the refits are taking longer than planned - as if we on v-flyer didn't know that)
They are also aware of the problems accessing the website and their IT people (3 blind mice wasn't it?) are working to fix it
PE seats will not be available to request until 6th January and VS are changing the website to reflect this (they say it's because the refits are taking longer than planned - as if we on v-flyer didn't know that
)They are also aware of the problems accessing the website and their IT people (3 blind mice wasn't it?) are working to fix it
Silver Fox wrote:
I am with you. The usual VS apologists come out the woodwork trotting "why does it matter? Well it matters because most of us are used to dealing with professional organisations in our professional lives and can see through this VS crap.
OTOH VS does not deserve the sticking up for VS that it gets around here. If you take your VS goggles off you have to admit that this is a bloody fiasco and while people would be upset.
I'm no VS apologist, and I certainly haven't just come out of the woodwork. Look back over many posts and you will find most of here are very honest about Virgin, both it's positives and it's faults.
I understand it is frustrating, and I would love to be able to select my seats for our flight on Friday, but I can't, so moaning, ranting, working myself up over it won't achieve anything.
We flew in May, PE to MCO, couldn't reserve our seats until OLCI opened, and got two seats together in the bubble that was perfect. My flight before that was also PE to MCO, prior to the seat reservations being removed, we selected seats when we booked a full 10 months before, checked on a regular basis and at OLCI they had been moved. We eventually got sorted at the airport, but I know which situation was the least stressful for me.
The website upgrade is a joke, and they should be embarrassed beyond belief, I'm just extremely thankful that there are sites like VF that are able to provide accurate and useful information.
That is an insult to the work ethic of the three blind mice. They were driven to get their race run even after their tails were cut off ! There is no parallel to be drawn with Virgin-on-the-ridiculous-now.
It was like that when I got here, Sir!
I find this thread hilarious - talk of demanding refunds etc.
When you bought a ticket, you paid to be transported from A to B.
You did NOT pay to be transported from A to B in seat 21A or 79K.
If Virgin choose to put you in the middle of a row of four next to the toilet, they can. You have no recourse other than to grumble and take your business elsewhere next time.
The ability to request a specific seat is an extra that most other transatlantic airlines charge for and STILL don't guarantee you'll get.
Honestly, take a chill pill. Life's too short to worry about where you're going to sit for 8 hours. You've got a ticket so you've got a seat. Millions of people in this country would give their eye teeth just to be able to afford a plane ticket.
When you bought a ticket, you paid to be transported from A to B.
You did NOT pay to be transported from A to B in seat 21A or 79K.
If Virgin choose to put you in the middle of a row of four next to the toilet, they can. You have no recourse other than to grumble and take your business elsewhere next time.
The ability to request a specific seat is an extra that most other transatlantic airlines charge for and STILL don't guarantee you'll get.
Honestly, take a chill pill. Life's too short to worry about where you're going to sit for 8 hours. You've got a ticket so you've got a seat. Millions of people in this country would give their eye teeth just to be able to afford a plane ticket.
gumshoe wrote:I find this thread hilarious - talk of demanding refunds etc.
When you bought a ticket, you paid to be transported from A to B.
You did NOT pay to be transported from A to B in seat 21A or 79K.
If Virgin choose to put you in the middle of a row of four next to the toilet, they can. You have no recourse other than to grumble and take your business elsewhere next time.
The ability to request a specific seat is an extra that most other transatlantic airlines charge for and STILL don't guarantee you'll get.
Honestly, take a chill pill. Life's too short to worry about where you're going to sit for 8 hours. You've got a ticket so you've got a seat. Millions of people in this country would give their eye teeth just to be able to afford a plane ticket.
Well bully for you!!!
You may be right that I didn't pay for an actual seat number. BUT I did book my holiday under the assumption that I would at least be able to REQUEST a seat AND I was also informed for months that seating could be requested in my class from today, only to be told oh wait a minute, VS have made a boo boo (again).
You are right loads of people would give a lot to be in my position, but then again I HAVE given a lot. You know diddly squat about my position and what I have gone through to be able to afford this holiday, so I suggest you keep your comments to yourself !!
Gotta say I am with gumshoe on this one.... some of this thread is funny reading. Although, it is good to see the passion that some people put into their posts. y) y)
My two pennies worth on the matter; I can understand the frustration of uncertainty and indeed one of the factors that may very well draw business to VS is the ability to select your own seat WITHOUT CHARGE (whether it be 21A or 79K) However this would be by reputation only as they do clearly state that any seat requests are not binding on their part and may change due to operational reasons at the airport.. BA and a wheelbarrow full of other airlines charge for the ability to play that guessing game.
Sorry Ian I do not quite understand this from an earlier post you made
VS IT is plain shocking n( n( and if my co's IT dept were as badly lead as the VS team clearly is, they would be given their P45s and literally kicked out of the door by now. Whilst a mass website update is a complicated thing to run out.. it should not take this long unless they have been having some problems behind the scenes that we are not aware of - extremely possible.
Just as a by the way I am not a VS spokesman or employee, I fly with other airlines too and joined this site for a bit of fun and to share my experiences in the hopes of helping people lost in the sea of confusion that surrounds Crawley towers :w
My two pennies worth on the matter; I can understand the frustration of uncertainty and indeed one of the factors that may very well draw business to VS is the ability to select your own seat WITHOUT CHARGE (whether it be 21A or 79K) However this would be by reputation only as they do clearly state that any seat requests are not binding on their part and may change due to operational reasons at the airport.. BA and a wheelbarrow full of other airlines charge for the ability to play that guessing game.
Sorry Ian I do not quite understand this from an earlier post you made
Ian6969 wrote:I've already gone over budget for my holiday by about £1000 because VS caouldn't be arsed to communicate properly back in February/March, whenever they took seat requests offline.Was this the increased amount you paid from Eco to PE? Just to be clear you are not losing your PE seat due to a lost booking or other tech glitch, are you?
VS IT is plain shocking n( n( and if my co's IT dept were as badly lead as the VS team clearly is, they would be given their P45s and literally kicked out of the door by now. Whilst a mass website update is a complicated thing to run out.. it should not take this long unless they have been having some problems behind the scenes that we are not aware of - extremely possible.
Just as a by the way I am not a VS spokesman or employee, I fly with other airlines too and joined this site for a bit of fun and to share my experiences in the hopes of helping people lost in the sea of confusion that surrounds Crawley towers :w
Yes the £1000 was to upgrade.
and yes I can completely understand the counter argument regarding no seate are guaranteed etc. To be honest I wish they would just effing charge for the seats and I wouldn't be sitting here nearly killing my poor keyboard with anger.
The points I was making in my last post were aimed at how some people making light of others stress etc....
I'm not some "High Flyer" who can afford to travel in luxury 5 times a year..
I have to save bloody hard if I want any holiday at all. My Mrs and I decided last October to go for a "holiday of a lifetime" this year, we decided that we wouldn't do christmas last year, we have hardly left the house since then also. I requested seats back in January and it was only because I get so excited about going away that I kept an eye on our booking, that I found out about this fiasco. My Mrs had an operation on her foot at the begining of May and we talked long and hard about whether we could afford to upgrade, so that we could better her chances of a stress free and hopefully painless flight...My Mrs didn't even get a birthday present for her 40th earlier in the year, so we could afford the upgrade. So excuse me if you will my passion when it comes to this holiday.
Others may not care where they sit on a plane, I for one actually like whom I'm travelling with and wouldn't be too impressed if I have to spend 11 hours on the other side of the cabin....
and yes I can completely understand the counter argument regarding no seate are guaranteed etc. To be honest I wish they would just effing charge for the seats and I wouldn't be sitting here nearly killing my poor keyboard with anger.
The points I was making in my last post were aimed at how some people making light of others stress etc....
I'm not some "High Flyer" who can afford to travel in luxury 5 times a year..
I have to save bloody hard if I want any holiday at all. My Mrs and I decided last October to go for a "holiday of a lifetime" this year, we decided that we wouldn't do christmas last year, we have hardly left the house since then also. I requested seats back in January and it was only because I get so excited about going away that I kept an eye on our booking, that I found out about this fiasco. My Mrs had an operation on her foot at the begining of May and we talked long and hard about whether we could afford to upgrade, so that we could better her chances of a stress free and hopefully painless flight...My Mrs didn't even get a birthday present for her 40th earlier in the year, so we could afford the upgrade. So excuse me if you will my passion when it comes to this holiday.
Others may not care where they sit on a plane, I for one actually like whom I'm travelling with and wouldn't be too impressed if I have to spend 11 hours on the other side of the cabin....
Excused, passion is a good thing. Was a compliment.
Ahh cool they have not lost your booking or anything, that happened to me once upon a time. Turn up at the airport with the good old paper tickets only be accused at check in of having forged them?!?! Yeh long story and the computer did eventually find us - wasn't fun to start with though. n( n( (For note it was not VS)
Sorry to hear about your misses and I can understand wanting to be next to her as this is birthday, christmas and foot recovery celebration. I am fairly certain that is something that the special services might be able to help with in the circumstances of extra space being needed - front row seats perhaps
. Even if not, at the airport I have seen the desk agents go out of their way to sit families together, so do not panic I am sure VS will do their best to come through for you.
To comment on your last point, I have my favourite seats for a variety of aircraft, classes of travel and for many different reasons. I do also care where I sit, however when travelling solo I am usually the kind of person that will be bumped across or moved when a special request comes through, it happens.
My advice, if the seats are not released for pre selection for yourself ahead of check in, they will not be for anyone.. keep checking back and as soon as OLCI opens go wild. In theory most of the cabin should be selectable. If you miss out on getting two seats together then, not to worry, about 40% of the seats are held back for airport check in allocation. Arrive at the airport nice and early and explain the situation to the desk agent. Do not let VS IT ineptness spoil your vacation.
Good Luck Ian y) y)
Ahh cool they have not lost your booking or anything, that happened to me once upon a time. Turn up at the airport with the good old paper tickets only be accused at check in of having forged them?!?! Yeh long story and the computer did eventually find us - wasn't fun to start with though. n( n( (For note it was not VS)
Sorry to hear about your misses and I can understand wanting to be next to her as this is birthday, christmas and foot recovery celebration. I am fairly certain that is something that the special services might be able to help with in the circumstances of extra space being needed - front row seats perhaps
. Even if not, at the airport I have seen the desk agents go out of their way to sit families together, so do not panic I am sure VS will do their best to come through for you.To comment on your last point, I have my favourite seats for a variety of aircraft, classes of travel and for many different reasons. I do also care where I sit, however when travelling solo I am usually the kind of person that will be bumped across or moved when a special request comes through, it happens.
My advice, if the seats are not released for pre selection for yourself ahead of check in, they will not be for anyone.. keep checking back and as soon as OLCI opens go wild. In theory most of the cabin should be selectable. If you miss out on getting two seats together then, not to worry, about 40% of the seats are held back for airport check in allocation. Arrive at the airport nice and early and explain the situation to the desk agent. Do not let VS IT ineptness spoil your vacation.
Good Luck Ian y) y)
keep checking back and as soon as OLCI opens go wild
I have my booking open all day at work lol (well when the bloody site works for me).
If VS did a check on who has checked their booking the most times in history, I'm pretty sure mine will be in the top 10, we're talking at least 30/40 refreshes per day over the last 9 odd months :0
I don't mean to be rude, but I think you need to see a doctor, that is one seriously unhealthy addiction/habit you have B) 
Neil wrote:I don't mean to be rude, but I think you need to see a doctor, that is one seriously unhealthy addiction/habit you have B)
LOL
) My work colleagues hate it when I have a holiday booked. I have pictures of the hotel on my desk, a calendar that I tick off, I have an app on my phone counting down too. You could say I'm looking forward to my holiday
Enjoy it Ian and as Joey says, don't let the shockingly bad IT department at VS put you off - have a great trip.
But, get help for your addiction.....
But, get help for your addiction.....
Ian6969 - please, please, relax a bit. Seriously - you will make yourself ill and ruin the excitement you should have in the run-up to such a big holiday.
It is very rare for a couple on the same booking to be split up, even if you haven't selected seats in advance. That's why so many seats are held back until check in opens, to make sure there IS enough room to sit families together etc. VS will usually go out of their way to help passengers where they can and unless you rock up to the airport a minute before check-in closes I'd say you're 99% certain to be fine.
But my earlier caveat still applies. Seat requests, when they do work, are an added bonus, not a right.
It is very rare for a couple on the same booking to be split up, even if you haven't selected seats in advance. That's why so many seats are held back until check in opens, to make sure there IS enough room to sit families together etc. VS will usually go out of their way to help passengers where they can and unless you rock up to the airport a minute before check-in closes I'd say you're 99% certain to be fine.
But my earlier caveat still applies. Seat requests, when they do work, are an added bonus, not a right.
We all know that "seat requests are not guaranteed" but that is not the issue here. this is an example of a company that is absolutely clueless in its approach to refitting the fleet, and does not have the competency to handle it in a professional manner. Virgin can hide behind "seat requests are not guaranteed" if they choose as it is convenient in this case. People expect seat requests to be a lottery with irrops and LCC. Not an airline whose marketing team constantly spout how wunderful Virgin is.
United is an example of a company that has gone/is going through this exercise and handles it as best they can, and in my opinion better than Virgin. You have to watch your booking like a hawk close to departure and keep checking the seat map but I much prefer that approach than the OLCI lottery Virgin has adopted.
The bottom line is that Virgin are handling this in an amateur fashion from top to bottom.
United is an example of a company that has gone/is going through this exercise and handles it as best they can, and in my opinion better than Virgin. You have to watch your booking like a hawk close to departure and keep checking the seat map but I much prefer that approach than the OLCI lottery Virgin has adopted.
The bottom line is that Virgin are handling this in an amateur fashion from top to bottom.
It was like that when I got here, Sir!
Edited to keep the peace
Last edited by Ian6969 on 09 Oct 2012, 14:34, edited 1 time in total.
Ian6969 wrote:If this farce was with any other service that is paid for, people would be up in arms. Yes requested seats are a luxury not a given, but virgin should not promise something (not a one off, but over months) then just take that away without so much as an apology (IMO individually to the people who they have impacted).
But you haven't paid for it and Virgin never promised you anything, so they have nothing to apologise for.
You really need to get over this, change the record and move on.
Edited to keep the peace y)
Last edited by Ian6969 on 09 Oct 2012, 14:34, edited 1 time in total.
Some perspective issues here. Whilst i agree it's important, the flight is a very small % of your overall time on holiday. Regardless of the seat numbers you'll be in the best PE product across the pond, with state of the art IFE and food that wouldn't be out of place in business on many airlines.
I haven't read of anyone defending VS for this totally unacceptable situation with the 'upgraded system'. It's beyond a joke now with no end in sight. However most people seem to be able to keep the issue in perspective with the rest of their trips, or dare I say it their lives as a whole.
I haven't read of anyone defending VS for this totally unacceptable situation with the 'upgraded system'. It's beyond a joke now with no end in sight. However most people seem to be able to keep the issue in perspective with the rest of their trips, or dare I say it their lives as a whole.
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