Arriving early ??

Has anyone booked on VS73, out of Manchester, pitched up early to checkin and then been able to switch to the earlier flight on the day? We're going to Orlando with friends. We're booked on VS75, and they are on the later 73 flight via a Delta codeshare. I was just wondering if they arrive early whether there's any chance of them switching to our flight. We'd be looking to do it for free or a nominal cost, because lets face it if the answer is that we can't do it or it's expensive, then we'll cope with "just" going to Florida on different planes. If anyone misses the early flight, maybe they could standby for the early flight as it would provide VA with extra space on the later flight to accommodate them.

We could also offer to be bumped back if the first flight is overfull and they want to offer us some compensation. We're on O codes, so clearly they will only shift us at no cost to us if it suits them. It's mid August so I strongly suspect the early plane will be full.

Is it feasible we could end up on the same plane just by asking and offering to move if it suits them? What's the protocol for asking, do we just mention it at checkin, and they go to the ticket desk and mention it.

Simply by the fact you'll be travelling in August I highly doubt there would be spare seats to switch to on the earlier flight. If there were I would also expect a transfer/admin fee of switching.

[buns]

The ability to switch flights as you suggest is one of the benefits of booking a fully flexible fare (such as Y in economy, W in PE and J in Upper).

I would hazard a guess that any possibility to chance will be far from a nominal costs if you are not already booked in one of these classes.

buns

Airlines will sometimes do this but only if it helps them with a problem on another flight. They generally don't do it out of kindness.

VS does not do 'standby' and if someone missed the early flight they aren't just automatically put on the later one - even if there is space available.

As to being bumped VS have an algorithm they follow. But they will ask for volunteers first. Given your friends would prefer to be on the earlier flight personally I would find it a little off to ask for compensation.

You could just try asking but what may be a complicating factor is that they booked via a DL codeshare (presumable on the DL website) rather than with VS and that could cause ticketting issues.

We were once asked if we were prepared to give up our PE seats on VS75 for UC seats on VS73 - as the wait was only a couple of hours we grabbed the opportunity!!

[Neil]

As others have said, the only way this will happen for free is if it suits Virgin, otherwise they will charge the costs to make the change, which will be far from nominal.

I guess the saying 'it can't harm to ask' is always true, and I would do this at the ticket desk before going to the check in desk. The only issue I see is the extra waiting around in MAN if, as I suspect, the answer is no.

Neil

I was once offered a free upgrade to get a later flight with Delta.
Would have arrived 2 hours later - but lead passenger in the group rejected the request. Ended up queuing for 2 hours for the desk to open to collect our rental van. I was not happy.

As to being bumped VS have an algorithm they follow. But they will ask for volunteers first. Given your friends would prefer to be on the earlier flight personally I would find it a little off to ask for compensation.

I appreciate that it would be wholly inappropriate for our friends to ask for anything for the inconvenience of catching the early flight. I wasn't suggesting they did, I was cheekily suggesting we might be compensated for being bumped backwards. When I orignally posted this over on the dibb, I put a smiley on the compensation comment, but it didn't c&p over here. I only mentioned compensation as know it's quite common for VA to make an offer of something to people when the airline want them to "volunteer" to get shunted to a later flight. In the circumstance where we volunteer to get bumped, I wouldn't expect anything.

All being on the early flight is the ideal outcome, but I expect almost impossible without crossing VA's palms with considerable silver or getting very lucky indeed. In this case being bumped suits us as much as it might suit them, to actually ask for anything would be cheeky, and I'd not do that, aside from asking to be sat near our friends.

I guess if the flight is overbooked and we pitch up and volunteer to be the first shunted back to VS73, that opens the door and gives them the option to shift us, and save what they'd have to compensate another pax. If the stars align, we might get lucky, but as it is I fully expect to travel seperately.
I can thank the forum for the knowledge that asking at the desk is likely to be better than checkin.

If you don't ask you don't get.
There is always a chance of the airline wanting to move people and if you made you willingness clear it might be you, or your friends.
It's unlikely but worth a try. Good luck.
Dick D