Does anyone understand seat assignment on Virgin?

[alkel2730]

Hi all,

As many of you know I had to resechdule my holiday due to Irma. When I called to move my flights I had problems as they said it was full but the chap went away, spoke to a manager and got us seats. He explained that he needed to get a manager to authorise as he'd 'oversold' the seats but reassured me this was fine and we had seats together in the front row of PE by the bassinets. He told me that I wouldn't be able to see the seats but not to worry as he'd sorted it.

It's making me super nervous I can't see the seats on my booking, even though he said that would happen. I'm worried as we are two toddlers and two adults so getting split up would be disastrous for us.
Does anyone know about this stuff - does what he said sound ok?

I'm going to give them a ring and check but just wanted to let all the people who are still sorting their flights out get sorted first as their needs are greater than mine and I didn't want to clog the telephone line up. So thought I'd ask here.

Thank you

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Alkel. You will be in Row 14 in PE which is the front 8 seats being 2, 4 and 2 across the aircraft.
These are never available to be selected, the same as the front two PE seats upstairs right hand side which I think are Row 20.
You should be fine but as I said you can't select them as they are for people in exactly your situation, that is very young children.

What's the rest of the seat map looking like?

Also don't worry as out UC flights home next Saturday have had the seat map frozen for UC for the last 6 months so we have no idea where we are sat. Not an issue for us but I understand your concerns.

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Alkel. You will be in Row 14 in PE which is the front 8 seats being 2, 4 and 2 across the aircraft.
These are never available to be selected, the same as the front two PE seats upstairs right hand side which I think are Row 20.
You should be fine but as I said you can't select them as they are for people in exactly your situation, that is very young children.

What's the rest of the seat map looking like?

Also don't worry as out UC flights home next Saturday have had the seat map frozen for UC for the last 6 months so we have no idea where we are sat. Not an issue for us but I understand your concerns.

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Thank you very much Mr TM that's in line with what he said. He said we were in the middle in a 3 (infant on lap). He said he put us there as we'd have more room with the kids and it would be easier at meal times and getting up to loo. So that's sounds right then you'd say? My son is 1 though so, too big for bassinet but he said not to worry as we didn't have to use it. The seat map is full. I think a lot of people are on it as its rescheduled. It's same coming home he said.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Alkel. Nice seats, galley right in front of you and also the loos to the left and right of you.
Plus as you know you beat UC off the plane if you are quick!

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Alkel. Nice seats, galley right in front of you and also the loos to the left and right of you.
Plus as you know you beat UC off the plane if you are quick!

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Perfect, thank you. Sounds fab! Not sure how quick I'll be with the little monkeys in tow but we will try!

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by alkel2730

Perfect, thank you. Sounds fab! Not sure how quick I'll be with the little monkeys in tow but we will try!

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One over each shoulder and run!
Have a great holiday, we certainly have. So nice having a youngster with us for two weeks.
This hurricane has been a hiccup but hey ho we are back in 6 weeks anyhow.

[BrightlyBob]

I'm with Mr T (m) here!

Virgin always blocks off all the bassinet seats from selection, which, at least on the 787 is the middle front seat of UC and all the front seats of both PE and Eco. There's a total of 8 bassinet seats, 4 in Economy, 3 in PE and just the 1 in UC.

When you know your flight is oversold the most important thing to do is be at the airport nice and early to checkin and drop off those bags. Where an airline finds itself oversold at the gate it calls for volunteers to agree flying later with promises of upgrades or cash, or both. If this fails to raise enough hands then the airline will then decide who should be refused boarding. All airlines vary, but they'll never refuse their "elite" frequent flyers (i.e. Silver, Gold, Platinum, those that actually fly with them, as opposed to those like me, who merely collect the miles, we remain fair game for refusals!). One of the most common methods of deciding who doesn't fly on an oversold plane is the last to checkin. You should be safe as almost all airlines prioritise bassinets, but I'd definitely want to ensure I arrived nice and early for this flight!

[alkel2730]

Thank you very much both. I shall make sure we are there early! What time does check in open do you know? This is manchester? Thank you

[BrightlyBob]

Shamefully, although I live a £10 taxi ride from MAN, I don't absolutely know for sure about Virgin, despite having flown transatlantic from the airport dozens of times, but the standard for transatlantic checkin is from 3 hours beforehand, to 1-hour beforehand.

If I'm only toting hand baggage (which I do as often as possible, but with your brood I'm sure you've plenty of hold luggage - the extra bags and weight of PE was really useful when we had young kids) and get priority security I get a taxi from home an hour beforehand without any troubles. I DONT advise you to try that in your circumstances though

[Nic18076]

Originally Posted by BrightlyBob

Shamefully, although I live a £10 taxi ride from MAN, I don't absolutely know for sure about Virgin, despite having flown transatlantic from the airport dozens of times, but the standard for transatlantic checkin is from 3 hours beforehand, to 1-hour beforehand.

If I'm only toting hand baggage (which I do as often as possible, but with your brood I'm sure you've plenty of hold luggage - the extra bags and weight of PE was really useful when we had young kids) and get priority security I get a taxi from home an hour beforehand without any troubles. I DONT advise you to try that in your circumstances though

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I think that 3 hours is what Thomas Cook told us on the most recent flight to and from Orlando.

However, on both flights the check in actually opened up 4 hours ahead of the flight and at that point there was already quite a queue. Coming back they specifically announced that they would begin checking in the 5:05pm flight at 1:05pm and the later 6:05pm flight at 2:05pm - which would have meant that if we had only queued from 2:05pm we would have been doubled up with the people from the slightly later flight (This actually happened on the way out because it seemed like they were checking in the two morning flights together. They then had to go down the queue and "weed out" those that were going on the early flight because the queue was very long and they were running short of time before their flight - a bit chaotic really!)

I personally would arrive at least 4 hours ahead of your flight if you want to be earlier in the queue - I think Virgin will be similar and may well open up 4 hours ahead. I know that this will be a nuisance is you have small children .