How to secure front row Premium Economy seats

I understand these are blocked from pre-allocation in case of passengers travelling with infants who need to use the bassinets

My question is, if there are no such passengers, at what point can be selected? Online check in? Or do I have to get to the airport early to ask?

It's not normally possible until you get to the airport. The only exception to that I've seen is if PE is otherwise full and then they will allocate you one of those seats themselves anyway if you haven't already selected one.

As dmc says, it’s airport only.

I wish VS would make some of these seats available to Gold’s pre-check in. Maybe 21 A/C & H/K. They really don’t need 4 bassinet positions always blocked. Upper only has 1!

These can be assigned at check in, and if you ever happen to come across staff that are a bit hesitant to give them out (maybe you’re at the airport super early or something like that)… the way to deal with that is, ask them to bring up the flight manifest, filter the cabin to Premium then check if there’s any infants ticketed. If there isn’t, they can unblock the seat and you’re good to go. (I do this a lot with 1G).

As dmc says, it’s airport only.

I wish VS would make some of these seats available to Gold’s pre-check in. Maybe 21 A/C & H/K. They really don’t need 4 bassinet positions always blocked. Upper only has 1!

Agreed.. very rarely see any of them used to be honest. And on the odd occasion one of them has been, the parents haven't seem particularly impressed with the bassinet which seems to be tiny and at a bit of an awkward height, and end up just holding their infant anyway.