Disappointed in Virgin

I love Virgin. I have flown with them many times and I have encouraged many people to fly with Virgin over the years. I have worked in, followed and studied aviation for many years. I understand the need for aircraft changes. I am in a group of three and we made specific seat selections when We booked our flights. Both our outbound and Return flights were originally the A330-200. One day I decided to visit the booking online to confirm my membership number was added by the Virgin Atlantic ticket agent. To my surprise, we no longer had the seats we selected, and the aircraft was now an A330-300. None of the seats we wanted or originally selected were available. Days later, after falling victim to such changes, I checked again on the return flight….again we were changed, and again, there were no desired seats available.
Today, I decided to check my parents’ BOOKING as they ARE also flying Virgin this year. And again, the aircraft type has Been changed. The problem With this one Is that the agent at Virgin booked my parents separately AND therefore their seats were no longer together. AS I said, I understand aircraft changes and the need for them, however I am massively disappointed by virgin for changing the seats and at no time sending an email indicating such. Certain seats would have been selected for specific reason, and it is clear that the reassignments were made without any consideration for previously selected seating.
Can anything be done to correct this situation? Currently for example, window seats were selected in one instance and no window seats are available so I can not make the changes myself. Any suggestions?

Sorry to hear of your plight.

Unfortunately VS, in common with most airlines, won’t proactively inform you of aircraft or seat changes. It is not deemed essential information that affects your flight and as such, if seat selection is important to you, it is up to you to check your booking as regularly as you see fit.

What to do now? If all the seats you want are already taken, there’s not a lot you can do right now. But keep checking MMB as people can and do cancel bookings or move seats. Make sure you check very frequently in the week or so before departure, as in some cabins on some routes seats allocated to but not needed by Virgin Holidays can become available. More seats may well open up when OLCI opens at T-24, and if all else fails ask at the airport as seats allocated to, but not needed by, parents with infants may be available.

Don’t give up hope, and get into the habit of checking MMB - whichever airline you fly with - to avoid disappointment in the future.

[honey lamb]

Like gumshoe, I too am sorry to hear of your plight but as he has said, it happens in all airlines.

A couple of years ago I booked flights with BA in CW to Santiago in Chile. As I had status with BA (although not with the top tiers) I was able to select and pay for seats way in advance of the flight and selected window seats where I didn't have to climb over the legs of the person in the aisle seat due to the weird configuration that BA use in CW. On checking my flight some time later I found I had been kicked out of my seat on the outbound and I had been allocated an aisle seat instead. Calls to BA initially were answered in the sub-continent where I was told it was "for operational reasons" but no further information was forthcoming. When I probed further I was asked if I wanted to make a complaint - which I had made clear from the get go - and was given another number. This good lady told me that because of the length of the flight there needed to be an extra captain on board and the seat was needed for his rest area. Fair enough. It was the first week of this service and was now the longest flight on the BA network. OK, could I cancel that booking and make another booking for that leg of the flight? Nope! If I cancelled one I cancelled both and ran the risk of losing the return seat in the interval of cancelling and re-booking - the return leg seat was not affected by the the presence of the extra captain. Could I be refunded for that change? Nope! It was still within the advance selecting window. After viewing my options I stuck with the BA change simply because there was no better alternative but it stuck in my craw that I had spent good money on a seat I hadn't wanted.

Hi there,

Interestingly, something must have changed at Virgin Holidays. I am due to fly in a couple weeks (UC) and just got an email from them stating an aircraft change. Maybe they're starting to listen to complaints?

Sign up for Expert Flyer who offer a seat alert service.

I love VS too but am rapidly becoming tired of any booking that involves a connection to DL. Every time there have been complications which are so straight forward I don't know how they actually happen.

A LHR LAX OAK flight has now become LHR LAX SLC OAK because of scheduled changes, and an 11am departure from OAK is now 6am. Thanks Virgin/DL.

Having other pax booked separately is a pain. I called VS five times to link two bookings (a simple process) and everytime the bookings were separated later.

Thanks for the responses. I booked the flights with VIrgin's office here in Barbados, and it was for a direct VS flight to LGW.I visited the office and was told the same thing. Aircraft changes are not critical information so they do not information customers.I personally find that to be poor customer service for any airline, but there's nothing that can be done now other than constantly checking the seats to see if anypne changes and opens a more desired seat

Easyjet email customers when there is a change of aircraft so they can go online and see if their seat selection has been affected and giving enough time to amend. This happened to my flight three days ago and I was given at least two months notice if not more. then reminded again two weeks before flying.