Should I pay to reserve seats on Virgin?

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by munmun

Yup you are right, free seats in PE mainly middles and no rewards that I can see

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Thank you so much for checking.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by EllieP

I thought with children under 12 they would seat you together? Also with flying club do you all need to be members or as lead passenger can you book everyone’s seats on your booking?

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can be in front, behind or next to, even across the isle

we paid the money, booked upstairs in the bubble

[alkel2730]

Originally Posted by matt987106

can be in front, behind or next to, even across the isle

we paid the money, booked upstairs in the bubble

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Hmm yes not cool. Think I'm going to book too. Even if we just book one way then the other a bit later on. I've got a bit of a cash flow issue until I get paid as we had to pay in full for flights. Oh silly me for not thinking! I was so focussed on securing the flights as they were the only miles flights in May with economy both ways I totally gave no thought to seats! Oops.

[mandco]

you can prebook your seats at any time so if the end of the month is better you can do it then. You can also book outbound & inbound at separate times or even for only 1 flight. You could even just keep an eye on the seating plan and if it looks like its filling up book then.

They will try and seat you together or at least 1 adult with 1 child but that could mean in the same row, over the aisle or sat behind you which in your case may mean a row of 3 and then dh sat behind or over the aisle rather then a row of 4 seats. So a lot of people esp if they are 4's do pre book just for reassurance that they are actually together.

Most flights we have been seated together however we did have one flight where due to technical issues and a plane change they split us all up including my then 6 & 8 yr olds into single seats all over the plane nowhere near each other but as we did early checkin they managed to rearrange us. Unfortunately alot of families ended up being split up on that flight but that is pretty unusual.

If you wait till 72 hours before you can do it for free but depends on whats left based on your dates flying out I don't think you'll have too much trouble getting seats together coming home is 1/2 term week so might be a bit more busy.

Last time I prebooked seats in the bubble coming home as I really wanted to try it and also make sure we were all sat together on the night flight. There wasn't any availability for the bubble outbound so left it and booked seats for free at 72hrs when I had no trouble getting 6 seats together

Unless you want the bubble or other specific seats the 2's at the back usually get prebooked I don't think there is any rush

[evergreen]

the amount of times we have been split up as a family now we have the option to virtually guarantee seats I wouldn't fly without booking

[Island mamma]

I think with kids that young they will almost certainly seat you together even though they say they won't guarantee to. It reflects baby on airlines to be seen to be separating very young children from parents and they will consider their PR. Also, like a lot of people there's not much I would complain about, but I would complain about being sat next to somebody's toddler on a long flight if a parent wasn't also beside them. Albeit I would put it in such a way as to offer to swap seats with the parent to allow them to be beside their child, but I'd be pretty insistent that they take me up on the offer.

[alkel2730]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and opinions. It's tough to know what to do...it's a lot of extra money on what is a very budget trip but equally we can't be split up, the kids are not old enough.

[loola30]

Are you fussed where you sit in economy? I usually keep an eye on the seat map and as long as there’s lots of availability just leave it until 72hrs before. When I booked for our April flights last year there was sooo much availability at 72 hours, particularly the 4 middle seats. Just keep an eye on the availability and play it by ear would be my advice. Little point paying the extra whilst there’s lots of availability in my opinion.

[mandco]

Originally Posted by alkel2730

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and opinions. It's tough to know what to do...it's a lot of extra money on what is a very budget trip but equally we can't be split up, the kids are not old enough.

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like the pp said no point in spending money you don't have to yet unless there are seats you really want. I would just keep checking the seating plan and see how many other seats have been booked. If there is decent availability wait as long as possible if its filling up book

Also I would opt for a row of 4 over the 2's at the back you can put the kids in the middle and its easier to keep them contained

[alkel2730]

Thanks both. This is the first time my son has had a seat so working out the best configuration is hard. I stupidly thought it was 2-4-2! Oops. I'll keep my eye on it I think like you said and discuss it with DH as I've not mentioned it. We're budgeting hard for this trip and I think if I spring another £240 on it he won't be happy! I'm waiting to hear back from a job on Monday though so if I get that I'll book it haha! This is a sneaky extra trip before my daughter goes to school next year. Thanks again allill keep watching it.