Seat selection at checkin

Since Virgin decided to adopt no frills airline practices without offering no frills airline prices in return by charging effectively 50 quid per person for return flight seat selection I decided to avoid them out of principle.

However I do like Virgin and wondered how the new seat selection regime is working in practice. If most people are not opting to pay for selection and instead having seats assigned at checkin does this mean that the seat availability at 24 hours prior is actually quite good and there is a decent chance of a good seat?

Has anyone recent experience of picking seats for free at checkin? I am currently favouring indirect flights with another airline that doesn't charge but if seat selection at 24 hours is good perhaps I might stick with VS!

[Neil]

The new system isn't up and running really yet, it's due to 'go live' 25th June.
There are still a lot if pax who are able to select for free in advance as they booked before the new rules were announced.

Have to agree. Have started using other airlines as this is important to families. I expect this from charter airlines but not scheduled long haul. Please reconsider !!

BA have been doing it for ages and they are by no means a no-frills or charter airline. And given that their profits keep rising, it clearly isn't doing them any harm.

So I suspect it's here to stay I'm afraid.

So I figured I'd take the risk.

Only it seems Virgin want a staggering £704 return for Economy to BOS in September or October!?

BA want £527 (£487 if I book via Iberia rather than BA, but we'll keep the comparison like for like) for flights on the same dates or £400 in October.. I've never flown with BA long-haul, is the product really £200-£300 inferior to VS?

BA Premium Economy is only slightly more than Economy in Virgin. What gives?!

[Neil]

No, BA economy is not inferior to the VS offering - in fact I think most Y products are pretty standard nowadays on the main carriers.
If you are just looking to get from A to B cheapest then it makes sense to book BA on this occasion, if there are other factors like miles/TP's earning etc then it might be worth waiting for the next sale and seeing what VS come up with then.

It is very annoying how buying tickets for flights is such a lottery.

£517 yesterday.

£704 today.

£539 this evening. I pity anyone who bought them this morning.

Same dates, same flights.

Very bizarre.

Revenue management is a black art, even for those employed to do it!

There is only rule for us, the end-user consumer... if you see a ticket price you are happy with, then book it.

...and don't go back and check what the price fluctuates to afterwards!

My wife and I have managed to pre-book FOC as our Vegas trip falls into that booked pre change/travel post change category. For the two of us, had we had to pay, we would have probably chanced it and just got to airport earlier. Travelling with a family though could be a bit of a lottery.......................or will it !!! Bearing in mind (and this is based on information I got from a VA employee).. all seats are not available to pre-book, the airline know the party sizes who have already booked and if any of them are families with young children, children MUST be sat with adults on the flights.... in short, if you are flying as a family with young kids, dont waste money prebooking, they will (as certain as you can be with airline) have enough seats next to each other to accommodate you.

AS far as I know it only has to be one adult with child(ren). This happened to a family seated next to us a few years ago. WE were in the middle four row in economy and one of the children was disabled, I actually sat next to said child and offered to change with the other parent seated behind.

Revenue management is a black art, even for those employed to do it!

There is only rule for us, the end-user consumer... if you see a ticket price you are happy with, then book it.

...and don't go back and check what the price fluctuates to afterwards!

If you are going to be doing the same or similar flight in the future it may be worth checking as you may want to do things differently next year.
Dick D

[Neil]

My wife and I have managed to pre-book FOC as our Vegas trip falls into that booked pre change/travel post change category. For the two of us, had we had to pay, we would have probably chanced it and just got to airport earlier. Travelling with a family though could be a bit of a lottery.......................or will it !!! Bearing in mind (and this is based on information I got from a VA employee).. all seats are not available to pre-book, the airline know the party sizes who have already booked and if any of them are families with young children, children MUST be sat with adults on the flights.... in short, if you are flying as a family with young kids, dont waste money prebooking, they will (as certain as you can be with airline) have enough seats next to each other to accommodate you.

Yes, not all seats will be available for pre-booking.
Anyone that doesn't pay to prebook will be able to select seats at OLCI, so no need to wait until the airport.
For a lot of people it also isn't just about sitting together, it's about being near the front/back/window etc.