Is there a race for seats 24hrs before departure?

Hi Everyone,
My first time on the forum and first flight with Virgin Atlantic.
I have a couple questions regarding booking your seats within 24hrs of departure.
(If there is a post that already covers this then please direct me there, thank you)

Q1. Do the (free to reserve) seats become available exactly 24hrs before departure or at midnight the day before?

Q2. Because nearly half of the seats have been booked already on our flight (we fly to Cancun fron Gatwick next week) we've been told there might be a race to get the seats we want. With 2x Adults 2x Children we were hoping to book a block of 4x seats in the centre section. (Sorry for the build up, but here comes the question... From the 'My Bookings' page, do we select our seats first or do we check-in and then select our seats? Remembering that we've been told every second counts.

Your advice would be appreciated.

A GoodEgg

Olci opens 24h before departure, that's when you can request your seats.

I'm not sure what order it happens in when you check in but I would be on there as soon as it opens just to try and get the block of seats you want.
Hope you get the bock you want...good luck.
D

Hi

Seats are released 24 hours before your flight.

Flying Club Red members can select 72 before departure, it's free to join! Just sign up and link your flying club numbers to your booking http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/th ... ating.html

Luke

There is a race, but you could still get moved (Race is usually for the paying Economy seats with extra leg room)
Worth doing some searches on seatguru, etc. to see what are classed as good seats & what are bad.

Hi
Seats are released 24 hours before your flight.
Flying Club Red members can select 72 before departure, it's free to join! Just sign up and link your flying club numbers to your booking http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/th ... ating.html

Luke

Nice to know (I'm a Virgin-virgin, so this is all new to me), took your good advice and signed up. Although the way those centre row seats are going it looks like I'm going to have to stump up for paid-for booked seats anyway. :(

Hi, Seats are released 24 hours before your flight.
Flying Club Red members can select 72 before departure, it's free to join! Just sign up and link your flying club numbers to your booking http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/th ... ating.html

Luke

Thanks for the tip (I'm kind of new to the whole Virgin Atlantic "experience"), duly followed. Although I suspect that I'm going to have to pony up some money given how fast the quad-seats on my flight are disappearing.

(Apologies if this is a double post - been having problems with the computer today)

There is a race, but you could still get moved (Race is usually for the paying Economy seats with extra leg room)
Worth doing some searches on seatguru, etc. to see what are classed as good seats & what are bad.

Why would there be a race for the extra leg room seats? Do they become free at T-24?

Its always a gamble but remember they will have one child with one adult even if you are separated. You will have to pay for the extra legroom seating and you cannot reserve those they will be allocated at checkin.

You will have to pay for the extra legroom seating and you cannot reserve those they will be allocated at checkin.

Eh? Extra legroom and exit seats are available to allocate and pay for as soon as you have booked your flight, at least they were last time I used the system to book an exit seat. You select the seat you want and it comes up and takes £35 or £40 or whatever from you.

At no point are extra legroom or exit seats free of charge (only exception might be with babies - not sure what the case is with bassinets). In fact if you are on a flight and extra legroom seats are available when you get onboard you are only allowed to sit in them if you pay the extra.

Might be a daft question - certainly a new-flyers one - but when do you know then the seat reservations are open? If I've registered a Flying Club card against a booking am I going to get a "you can now select your seats" email at the appropriate time? If so, then I'm impressed...

VS seem to be pretty good at tracking these things, with the "time until to fly" countdown clock when I log into the website.

Apologies for going a wee bitty off-topic.

I don't think you will get an e-mail or any communication just make sure you log in to your booking at T- 71:59 and select your seats.