VA booking ref if booked with VH

[miked1e]

So a little rant... and probably longer story to get to my point! Not totally unexpected by the way!

Anyway, I was hoping someone in the know about the subject will be able to help!

We booked with VH back at the beginning of April for next April. Our first trip with DS (he will be 22 months). We booked him a seat as didn't fancy him sitting on our knees for 9+ hours.

We were patiently waiting till 10th May (331 days before out outbound flight) for the VA booking ref to be allocated and the 'select seats' option to become available on VH 'manage your booking'.

The 10th came and nothing happened. I used online chat at around 0900hrs and asked the question... the response... the flight hasn't been allocated yet. Once it does, your ref will appear. Should be done by 1400hrs so please check back sir.

1400hrs... still no ref... I give it till just after 1500hrs and decide to use online chat again... the response... sorry sir, but still no ref and the flight may not even be allocated today and can take several days.

So I get home after long day of work, and I check again around 1900hrs. Still nothing. Check the VA website and I can book the flight I had booked direct with VA... so the flight was loaded onto the system... but no ref with VH. I go through the booking process and see that seats had already been booked (upper deck completely full ).

So I phone VA who after a few minutes find me on the system and give me my ref to go on and book seats. However, by this time our 'preferred' seat option had already been and gone! Which we were looking forward to using the upper deck again (Dibbers row) and being able to use the storage units at the side of economy for toys etc for DS. So disappointed as not able to get what we wanted this time round!

Anyway... brings me to my question as still nothing has appeared on VH and can't get onto live chat... is the VA booking ref for outbound flight, the same as will be for the inbound flight? 331 days from our inbound flight tomorrow and looking to book seats.

BTW... still nothing on VH Manage My Booking!

Thanks in advance... and sorry for the long winded story, rant...

[Peko]

Yes, the Virgin Atlantic Booking ref should be the same for the return, if both flights are on the same ticket.

[DisneyDaffodil]

The same thing happened to us for our trip this October. We booked a fly/drive with VH March 2017, waited patiently for 330 day mark to book seats and couldn't. Spent 3 weeks phoning both VH and VA and using live chat, going around in circles. Basically, they were considering whether to combine flights on our travel days, so one flight out and in instead of two.

Eventually, we were changed on our inbound to later flight (better as we have longer at Disney) and outbound was unchanged. However, by this time all seats upstairs were booked. We wanted to try Dibber's Row too. I was not pleased either 😐

I did book the 2 seats towards the back downstairs for inbound but have decided to wait for 72 hours out for booking outbound. I don't feel it is worth paying more to Virgin under the circumstances. We booked early but feel we were disadvantaged because Virgin obviously allowed the people who booked with VA at 330 days to book seats on booking while we were unable to book until much later

[DisneyPCLI]

Ahh that’s a shame, I booked a fly drive and on my 331 day logged into my booking (VH) and VA flight number was already showing - this was about 7-8am in the morning if I remember
I feel your pain and frustration

[zdickens]

I think it’s just luck of the draw, I’ve has the same problem with other companies trying to get the flight locator number.

[miked1e]

Still nothing showing on my VH booking haha. Booked seats for both ways now... not in the bubble mind