V-Flyer

Expedia now allows you to view seat availability before purchasing flights. A link appears beneath each set of flight options for major airlines (codeshares dont work I think) but you need to have your seat map handy as its not formatted very well, it shows cabin seperations but includes the top deck UC seats in front of the nose cone seats. It also doesnt show the exit rows but its handy for seeing how full a flight is.

... only on Wintel boxes though... [V]

I don't trust it completely because I don't think you can pre-allocate your exact seat number at the time of booking, and this pinpointer seems to infer actual seat numbers have been pre-booked. You can only choose your seat number at the DIY check-in the day before the flight.

Originally posted by s0436
I don't trust it completely because I don't think you can pre-allocate your exact seat number at the time of booking, and this pinpointer seems to infer actual seat numbers have been pre-booked. You can only choose your seat number at the DIY check-in the day before the flight.

The expedia seat availability for my SFO flight matches the available seats on the VS website exactly. I can even see little 2K greyed out for me!

It ain't reliable...I looked at my flight yesterday and there were 30 free seats, now there is suddenly 34 free seats when I checked this morning.

Originally posted by s0436
It ain't reliable...I looked at my flight yesterday and there were 30 free seats, now there is suddenly 34 free seats when I checked this morning.

In this particular case this does not mean it is unreliable. Seats can be held for a short period while bookings are made (and released when the booking time outs) and cancellations have also been known to occur. Four additional seats is not unreasonable.

Of course there may well be other reasons why it is unreliable.

Phil (Buffy)

With respect, when I searched for my flight to HKG, stating specifically "Virgin", the Shanghai flight only was listed, not VS200.

So we can agree that its useful but may not be 100% accurate at time of booking dur to the nature of bookings etc!!:D

I use it a fair amount and it usually is a good guide; though, as Jonathan says, I wouldn't count on it 100%.

Don't forget that we now have ExpertFlyer.com available to paid VFlyer members as well. Anyone have experience with it?

Chuck-

Thanks anteo.

I can't seem to get the LJR-HKG-SYD flights to show seat availability though. You can see the individual legs if searched seperately, but not the whole trip.

Seems not to work for PE flights that I have tried. none of my upcoming PE flights show any seats on it despite availability. Useful for checking UC availability though, although made me slightly dissapointed as all looking fairly full for my upcoming flights so no G class upgrades likely [:(]

Its a useful tool though, I wish other sites did this, although as mentioned it may not be 100% accurate.