Sky cots/infants and OLCI

Hi all

Great forum. I've been lurking for some time with interest.

I have flown VS multiple times in all classes. The big change for my next flight (13 April VS75 to MCO - Economy) is that we will have our (then) 10 month old with us.

The forum has been really helpful Re sky cots. I have rang and "booked" one both legs. In Manage My booking I have also selected seats, though obviously not the bulkhead at this time.

I have read that we can't do OLCI with an infant, however I can see infants as a restriction on the VS website.

I'm just wondering what the best approach is i.e. if we could do OLCI for the seats in the system already would it be easy to swap at the airport?

Cheers

Andy

Hi Andy, welcome to the site.

First off, nope I'm afraid junior will have to be checked in at the airport.

Secondly the sky-cots can only be secured in bulkhead seats, it was my understanding that when a sky-cot is requested the accompanying adults are automatically earmarked for the bulkhead seats. Again I thought MMB would stop you from switching seats at that stage, but hell, VS IT has never been overly efficient or reliable.

Only point in OLCI (if the system allows you to) for yourselves would be to aim for SEQ 1 Seating assignments will be changed at the airport depending on where there is bulkhead space on the plane for one of the cots. Tis a good thing - means you get bulkhead seats... prepare for the envious glares of any FF :w

Enjoy the flight 8D

Thanks for your help. I was surprised that the MMB let us select seats. I will try OLCI, shooting for SEQ1 and see what happens!

I will let you know.

Hi again all

Sorry to ask again on this but I wondered if anyone could clear up my confusion?

A friend has just booked VS flights via VH. He also has a little one requiring a sky cot. He was told by a VH agent (in store)that if he completes OLCI he won't have chance of sky cot/bulkhead seats as they can't/won't change at the airport.

The agent described it as "catch 22" i.e. if the flight is pretty full and he doesn't complete OLCI then he will likely end up with poor seats.

Just wondering if this is a change in policy, poor information from VH or something else?!

Thanks,

Andrew

! ! ! ! ! !

.....and there is the glare for taking the bulkhead seats

Poor info from VH, in fact a load of nonsense from VH n( n( .

Airport check-in can (and do) change seat allocations up until and including when you are sitting on the plane... and even then you could be asked to move

Part truth from VH is that you don't have the option of selecting skycot and bulkhead seats at OLCI, your friend will have to give VS a call before the flight and let them know they will be requiring use of the bassinet position. Will be done on a first come, first served basis so it's better sooner rather than later.

Lol LG, good to see I was right about that

Thanks!

I was hoping that was the case, for him and my coming trip.

We concluded (if correct) that it sounded like an odd policy as we know seats can be changed at the airport. Good to hear from the experts that it is duff information.

LovingGold - if it helps my friend reminded me that I used to say children under 7 should not be allowed on a public aircraft and should only fly if being airlifted from some form of crisis. ii)

Just returned from a great trip to Florida. For those of you that are interested our experience with sky cot seats played out as follows:

Outbound: I tried OLCI as soon as it opened. Twice in the first 30 minutes I got "technical issue" error messages with a suggestion to check-in at the airport. I tried again about an hour later and was successful. The system automatically allocated us bulkhead seats (A330 31H and K) happy days.

The sky cot itself was not like those I have seen previously. It was more of a seat than a cot but was leather, looked comfortable and included a head support. It could be rotated from flat to half upright. Our boy could also remain in the seat during turbulence as he was secured with a harness.

Inbound: Our boy got SEQ1 (I have saved the boarding pass!). This time the system allocated us the seats we had selected through MMB, the frontmost row available at that time. We dropped our bags using the Downtown Disney service and asked about sky cot seats. We were told that we would be paged at the gate if any became available. I didn't hold out much hope as I heard one agent say there were "none left on the 76" (VS76).

I enquired at the gate and was told none were available as people asked before me. I did ask how that could be the case with a SEQ1 check in number, the agent replied that bag drop time was the determining factor. He was helpful at switching our seats to the middle section with a spare seat next to us.

On board most of the bulkhead seats seemed to be taken by the infirm. No bother for us as we appreciate some may be more needy than us. That didn't seem to apply to a couple of the seats, I suspect that was more to do with seating a family together.

We settled in to the row behind the bulkhead. At this point a further seat change (we checked with the crew) via a trade as the guy in front could trade his two bulkhead seats for 3 seats (our 2 plus the spare) and thus bring two family members from the rear of the aircraft. So...a rather convoluted happy days. The little man slept for at least 7 of the 8 hours.

So we had two very different experiences. I guess some of that may be to do with the diligence of gate agents/bag drop/system. The guy we traded with told them flat he didn't want his bulkhead seat as his baby was too large for the cot.

Other points: No pre-boarding for those with children outbound but we did get pre boarding inbound. Not sure at the VS policy is?

I have not flown VS economy for a while and did note a big reduction in service from trips 2 years ago in that cabin. I probably would think nothing of it if I had not experienced such good service in the past. Examples - Food awful, No ice-creams, amenity kits only inbound, crew tried to be helpful but seemed to be flapping a bit, e.g. Manual safety demonstration required and no one seemed to know where the kit was, two crew did not know how to fit the sky cot. There was a definite feeling of get the service done so we can retire to the galley. Maybe it was due to the destination but the flight had a feel of a charter operator to it.

Overall no real complaints so please do not read this as such. I just can't help feeling that a few little things could get VS back too where it used to be. I know we were in economy but for such future trips I'm not sure I can say Virgin will be the first/only choice it used to be. For example we are going to New York in Sept to visit friends, previously I would just book on the VS website with a cursory check of no significant price difference for other carriers. I guess I'm saying that the differentiator VS had, that "feeling", has gone.

Many thanks for the update - always good to hear how things go

Inbound: Our boy got SEQ1 (I have saved the boarding pass!).

Well done! ^)

We settled in to the row behind the bulkhead. At this point a further seat change (we checked with the crew) via a trade as the guy in front could trade his two bulkhead seats for 3 seats (our 2 plus the spare) and thus bring two family members from the rear of the aircraft. So...a rather convoluted happy days. The little man slept for at least 7 of the 8 hours.

All sounded very amicable and worth a polite question!

I have not flown VS economy for a while and did note a big reduction in service from trips 2 years ago in that cabin. I probably would think nothing of it if I had not experienced such good service in the past. Examples - Food awful, No ice-creams, amenity kits only inbound, crew tried to be helpful but seemed to be flapping a bit, e.g. Manual safety demonstration required and no one seemed to know where the kit was, two crew did not know how to fit the sky cot. There was a definite feeling of get the service done so we can retire to the galley. Maybe it was due to the destination but the flight had a feel of a charter operator to it.

Often discussed on V-Flyer how the "magic" seems to be missing. Personally, I would choose VS over any carrier unless the price difference was too good to miss. But it is the little extras that make the flight shoot from good to great!

Glad your flights went well