No one taking advantage of new seat booking policy !

Flying to JFK on Virgin next Aug and very surprised to see that we are the only ones so far to take advantage of Virgins new seat Pre allocation . Booked fab ELR seats the day this became possible , but we r the only ones so far to book ANY type of economy seat on that flight !! or are the taken seats just not showing up on map ? That doesnt make sense though cause we could change position if we wanted to. Maybe too early. Just odd. Has anyone booked and paid for seats on other routes next spring, summer and found very few bought seats other than theirs ?

Reading V-Flyer (and other forums) does tend to lead one to believe that there's some mass panic to reserve seats as soon as is humanly possible.

From my experience though, the reality is on most flights a handful of people get in there early, followed by a trickle up until maybe 2 weeks before departure when it ramps up - but even at T-24 when OLCI opens there's still plenty of choice.

Most people just aren't bothered - we're the exception not the rule!

This doesn't surprise me, I'd personally never pay for an economy seat reservation.

Even PE, if they charged, is barely worth the bother (perhaps if it was all PE upper deck, but Virgin Holidays would probably get all the good seats, and recent flights indicate that they keep the extra legroom in PE for virgin employees, "people with disabilities" they said at checkin, first time I've heard them called THAT...)

I think Club on BA might be worth considering, but not at the price they currently are, doing a little 4 day run to vegas to get silver with BA just to bypass that...

Most people just aren't bothered - we're the exception not the rule!

Indeed. If you believed the rantings on the VS facebook page there is a mass exodus to BA and Thompson over the seat reservation charge - totally ignoring the fact they also charge!

A few months ago some intimated that I was a liar for saying so

Thanks for the feed back .we r indeed the first ones to book ELR on the flight . I dont have a bother with it personally, up untill three years ago we usually only flew BA and they have been charging for seat reservations for years, do no big deal for us

I was surprised that when reserving an upper class seat, I had to go through the payment page for £0.

I wasn't. If BA can get away with charging to reserve a seat in WT+ and CW, the cynic in me fears it can only be a matter of time before VS do the same with PE & UC. The infrastructure's clearly already in place so someone just has to press go.

I wasn't. If BA can get away with charging to reserve a seat in WT+ and CW, the cynic in me fears it can only be a matter of time before VS do the same with PE & UC. The infrastructure's clearly already in place so someone just has to press go.

Totally agree, at the end of the day everybody needs to make money and if VS need to return to a stable profit this will help massively. Hopefully not as expensive as BA though!

I have to say I'm very pleased with the new system. As an FC Gold I can book exit row seats in advance at no charge, which I couldn't do before. I was also very happy to get the PE exit row seats 28A & C on VS19 on Monday. I have always found in the past that they were very hard to get.

As others note here however, its just us fanatics here who really care about this stuff, most people just turn up and take the seats they are given! Each to his own.

I have to say I'm very pleased with the new system. As an FC Gold I can book exit row seats in advance at no charge, which I couldn't do before. I was also very happy to get the PE exit row seats 28A & C on VS19 on Monday. I have always found in the past that they were very hard to get.

As others note here however, its just us fanatics here who really care about this stuff, most people just turn up and take the seats they are given! Each to his own.

I just booked a PE seat for my aunty and was able to reserve the exit row seat too. Is this a glitch as she is not FC gold!?

Don't think so, as PE exit row seats are free anyway.

Don't think so, as PE exit row seats are free anyway.

Well, as someone who was actively seeking them last time in PE (I have a sore knee, might be arthritis as the doc says now) I checked at t-whatever it was. None there. At OLCI, none free.

I thought someone else had got them, but the two in front of us were empty and what I think might have been a pilot, jumped across when the seat belt signs came on (he was fed an UC meal, had champagne and another pilot came down to talk to him a few times). (I'm FC Silver btw).

So on return I asked at manual checkin at Vegas. They said they were kept for special assistance passengers. They were full before takeoff with, as far as I can tell, Virgin staffers (as said previously in this thread, must be a euphemism for them). 14 A/C, other side of 14H/K was full both times way over the way back.

I remember flying upper deck years ago and got the lovely exit row seats up there, without request one time (I didn't pay a sale fare for the seats that time, so that may have made a difference, the fare code). Obviously those seats don't exist. Would have been the position 75 H/J/K now occupy.

So must be a wonderful OLCI glitch for you.

As an aside, the Virgin staffers fully reclined (even with the legroom they had). The person in front of me therefore fully reclined, and I got the tiny legroom you get when you are awake and don't want to watch movie through your chin, and had my legs hanging in the corridor until I got annoyed with the pain.

Was a pretty horrible flight, and have sworn will never fly PE again. I'll consider economy over this, and actually prefer low cost carriers which don't have recline (that and alcohol isn't a problem for them).

I know there's debates about this stuff, but the reality of this is I was in actual pain and there might well be danger of me being arrested if I fly a class with that sort of recline again.

Not sure of how confortable economy is with someone elses seat reclined, the two flights I did, I got the extra legroom seat for free and the other was a bit empty.

[mitchja]

I'm also FC AG here and I've also managed to grab that PE exit row (only on the LHR 744's) for both my flights in a couple of weeks on the VS 5 & 6 when the new system came on line last month (no charge either).

The A seat next to me is now also occupied on the out-bound flight but it's still showing as empty and selectable on the return flight. Interestingly though, if you look at Expertflyer seat maps (GDS data), the seat next to me on the return flight is showing as occupied.

I think that row is sometimes held back for any J downgrades depending on the destination.

What is the policy now, I'm not up to speed? Have UC seats booked for April, how far in advance can I book seats, I've lost track!!!

What is the policy now, I'm not up to speed? Have UC seats booked for April, how far in advance can I book seats, I've lost track!!!

Now!!!

Wowee!!!!!!