Removal of pre booked seats

As I mentioned in my original post, I was aware that the seats weren't guaranteed.

The thing I have found most frustrating is:-

1)A linked booking is nothing of the sort. When I spoke with Virgin a few weeks ago I knew, and they knew, there were 4 different booking refs. It was at their suggestion that they link them. Not being privvy to the the workload of the Customer Care staff I would not know that either they were too busy to link them or linking them has no effect. Unfortunately, I believed what I was told.

2)The mindset that once something like this happens it is all 'out of our hands' as 60% are held back until the day. If Mr & Mrs Blair and their kids were to book this flight now, do you really think that they would get the 'No, you have to wait to you get to the airport to book your seats'.

There will always be exceptions. In this situation I am not saying that I was too late to book the seats. If so, I would quite understand.

Talking of Customer Care / expectation management, I tried to speak to a ******* ***** today. When I called, she said she was in the middle of an urgent issue and could she call back in 30 mins. I said 'No problem'. I am still waiting !

KeithS

{Edited by Decker to remove staff name per forum regs}

[Neil]

Originally posted by milehigh
Whoooooah, Lots of interesting yet biting remarks going on here people !! lets take a chill pill,

Milehigh - The reason people get wound up about topics like this when you get staff and people with insider knowledge giving off an attitude that is not good, many people on here, both regular flyers and the not so regular flyers have agreed that at times the VS frontline customer service is not up to standard and irrespective of the problem when you get the comments from Lipstick & Monkey saying how us pax should understand how difficult it is for them and that and how we dont understand this or that, its not right, whatever issues staff have to deal with internally it should not affect the Customer Service, but as i mentioned previously what worries me more is that fact that certain staff have this attitude and think like this, what happened to the old "the customer is always right" training.

Neil:)

Well Neil, I think you win the long sentence award!

Originally posted by sailor99
Well Neil, I think you win the long sentence award!

FWIW, so do I [:p] But I do wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment expressed. [y]

[Neil]

)

Originally posted by sailor99
Well Neil, I think you win the long sentence award!

[:I] oopps - sorry about that, My English teacher at school always said I was never very good at punctuation (got 2 A's for English though!!:D)

My problem is once I get going on something I am passionate about I just don't stop! Think maybe need to introduce a grammar/punctuation checker for v-flyer too[?]

Attitude 23, I was only trying to let you guys in onthe fact that it is not as easy for Tour Operators etc and that surely there might be a little human compassion. We arent machines and sometimes how customersreact makes us frustrated because we really cant do anymore.
I am not getting at the customer! If anything I am getting at the product. As a company andI ma sure others in my position would agree we get no favours from VS or ay other airline it is a long hard slog.
Don't forget as a Customer I get equally frustrated witht he systemand really do see it from both sides. We are in the middle.
If (and I personally do) agents made it clear to customers that these seats are a request only do you think that would help?
Infact there have been ocassions when I have advised clients not to bother with seat requests and take advantage of Twilight Check in or just get to the check in really really early.

This situation was very specific to a CO booking and whoever booked it on the system has had a problem with it. It is a bit odd that the bookings weren't done as one but it happens sometimes sectors need to be broken down etc to get the availability.

The long and short of my stance is that I get as frustrated withthe system as much as passengers and I do actually take a lot of time to try and explain how the system works especially regarding fares and costs.

I fully sympathise with spiceke. A similar problem occured on our return from MCO last February when travelling with our children aged 6, 3, and 2. OLCI was down, our bookings were all 'linked' but upon arrival at the airport my seat had been taken which would have left two children sat on a row by themselves. There was no change in aircraft and the reason my seat had been given away was that someone had checked in earlier and asked for it. At first the agent insisted nothing could be done and it took the best part of an hour to resovle the situation. Not ideal with three tired, hungry and bored children waiting. A change in aircraft I would understand, but if someone gets to check in before you and likes the look of your seat????

Originally posted by wood07
I fully sympathise with spiceke. A similar problem occured on our return from MCO last February when travelling with our children aged 6, 3, and 2. OLCI was down, our bookings were all 'linked' but upon arrival at the airport my seat had been taken which would have left two children sat on a row by themselves.

I was always under the impression that for safety reasons children of that age had to be seated next to the accompanying adult(s) even if that meant moving other pax to accommodate

Jon B

Originally posted by Jon B

I was always under the impression that for safety reasons children of that age had to be seated next to the accompanying adult(s) even if that meant moving other pax to accommodate

Jon B

That's the impression I had, but at first I was told nothing could be done once pax had checked in. They even offered to fly us home the next day! The supervisor was adamant at first and so was I. Our discussions were friendly but it took almost an hour from getting to the desk to coming away with boarding passes.

From the VS FAQs (pre-assigned seating)

Q Can I choose seats which are not together?
A CAA regulations mandate that carriers make every effort possible to seat families together. If you are travelling with a child, we can only allow you to choose seats which are grouped together

Cheers

Michael

Originally posted by wood07

Originally posted by Jon B

I was always under the impression that for safety reasons children of that age had to be seated next to the accompanying adult(s) even if that meant moving other pax to accommodate

Jon B

That's the impression I had, but at first I was told nothing could be done once pax had checked in. They even offered to fly us home the next day! The supervisor was adamant at first and so was I. Our discussions were friendly but it took almost an hour from getting to the desk to coming away with boarding passes.

I've seen the situation - not on VS but UA and not in the UK - where a passenger with his 6 / 7 year old was assured at the check in desk that the seats were together only to find on the aircraft that they ...errr... weren't. I was asked to, and did, move so they could be seated together (a tale recounted on another thread as I admit I wasn't happy about the way I was instruct...sorry...asked).

Check in were obviously happy to overlook "rules" in this case and ship the problem to the cabin crew.

Paul

Hello.

I know this thread seems to be going on forever, however I would just like to add a comment. As a Office worker (I hope you can all get the hint there!) I would really just like to add that after spending the best part of 9 years booking seats for you guys, that you are advised that seats are subject to operational or schedule changes and the seats are not guaranteed. In a ideal world we would not have these op/schd changes, however as we all know we do not live in a ideal world. Sometimes it does happen. It is unfortunate, but it happens. The previous comments are correct in saying that the op/schd changes are done by a computer and not manually and having four seperate booking with a note in all bookings linking them together is not going to help when the op/schd change is actioned by the computer. You would be shocked if you knew the level of verbal abuse directed in a certain direction when seats are changed. Would you prefer it to be like easyjet and have your seats allocated at checkin? Would you prefer to pay gbp5.00 per seat to allocate seats numbers and still have these changed as they are again subject to op/schd changes as per Monarch?

As for the commemts regarding families being seated together - if a family of four (2kids/2adults) are seperated to 2 rows of 2, then one adult will be seated with each child.

I am sorry if the reply is repeating what others have said, but I have been reading this forum for few months now during my lunch (not a lot to do in Crawley for an Hour) and this is my first post so be kind to me.

Thanks

[Decker]

Greeting OW and welcome to the forum. Nice to have another Ops bod around.

[Scrooge]

First of all welcome to the insane asylum,it's good to have you here.

While we know that we are told by the person taking our booking by that point (at least in my case) the brain goes into auto mode just dreaming about the flight and getting away from work for a week so it pretty much goes over our (my) head,though of course I know about the seating situation.

The OP's situation was a little different though in that VS didn't do what it said it was going to do.

Anyways,welcome again,enjoy the site.

Well seeing as this thread has managed to stay pretty much on topic and I know somewhere in the FAQS it says thats not allowed...

Originally posted by Office Worker


I am sorry if the reply is repeating what others have said, but I have been reading this forum for few months now during my lunch (not a lot to do in Crawley for an Hour) and this is my first post so be kind to me.

Thanks

Why don't you pop over and see my nan,I know she would love to meet you,just tell here your a friend of mine

Hi Office Worker and welcome. Its good to have you on board and great to have another perspective on things;)

Hope you will stick around and look forward to your input. We are not toooo bad, honestly:D

Iain

Office Worker

Welcome...

A quick on topic question related to the OP. Before the actual day of the flight would "the computer" attempt an assignment of seats that changed the selections that people had made before the flight ? If so, why ? I know that operational change (different aircraft) may be a reason, but any others ?

Thanks

Paul

OW, thanks for your post.

I do feel however the being better than Easyjet & Monarch isn't where Virgin should be aiming. The competition is BA,CX,UA,EK etc. UA even offer seat selection before you book. As stated by many people on this thread already, most people understand that changes can and do happen as a result of change of aircraft for example, or maybe a group of children on a school trip who need to all sit together.

Does anyone on here have a feel for what % of the time seats are changed on VS, and how that compares to BA etc? Personally I've never had my seats changed on any airline. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe it's just that I only notice the bad stories on here, such as this thread, and the ones where the reserved seats don't change go unnoticed.

However, I've seen comments in other threads on this site where people have been moved from, for example, pretty much the front of the Y cabin, to the back of the cabin, and when the aircraft has only changed from a config 1 to a config 2 346 or vice versa. This simply shouldn't happen, as ISTBC, but the seats which are available for pre booking seem to be the same on the two configs (in Y). To be honest, even if it changed from a 346 to a 343, if I had a seat reserved near the front of the Y cabin, I'd expect to be near the front of the Y cabin on the new aircraft. Not saying a want a particular seat, but the system should try and keep people in roughly in the area they originally booked (window/aisle/front/back). If it can't do this, then the service shouldn't be offered and people should just be asked to state preferences.

Thr above may sound a little demanding, but I beleive that if you can't deliver on something at least 95% of the time then it shouldn't be offered.

Originally posted by Office Worker

In a ideal world we would not have these op/schd changes, however as we all know we do not live in a ideal world. Sometimes it does happen. It is unfortunate, but it happens. The previous comments are correct in saying that the op/schd changes are done by a computer and not manually and having four seperate booking with a note in all bookings linking them together is not going to help when the op/schd change is actioned by the computer.

Changes for operational reasons I can understand. But where someone beats you to check in then requests and is given your pre-assigned seat that defeats the object of seat requests or 'linking' bookings to keep families together.

I really cant get over what a rumpus this is causing and how where you sit is so important.

By the way Welcome OW

We had our pre-assigned seats changed at MCO.

I e-mailed customer services, really to find out how I could avoid this next time. OLCI was recommended.

The explanation given for the change, was a change in aircraft, but I thought the MAN/LGW planes were the same.

Apart from op-ups, has anybody had their seats changed after OLCI??

Monkey,

When you travel with children, despite the airline efforts to sit you together, they can't always do this. We have been given seats all over the plane with two children under 6 (not VS) even though it was clear on the booking we were a family of 4. It's then left to the cabin crew to sort it out. We weren't last minute checking in, but I think nearly every one else had checked in before us.

You'd think people wouldn't mind moving, but some can be very possessional about the seat they have been given.

On the above flight, I was allocated the middle of three seats, my son on the opposite aisle. My fellow passengers were a couple, and were most put out to be asked to sit together so I could be next to my son, albeit with an ailse between us.

Travelling with the kids is hard enough, wihtout having to worry that you won't be sitting next to them on the plane!

Originally posted by Monkey
I really cant get over what a rumpus this is causing and how where you sit is so important.

I don't mind where I sit as long as I can sit with or be within reach of my children. Imagine a six and a three year old having to sit alone through heavy turbulence without a parent next to them to offer reassurance.

I have no children of an age that requires them to be close to me on an aircraft - the youngest is 27 and married with 2 kids of her own (and in a totally unbiased way I can say that they are both lovely, well-behaved angels).

What I don't get about this post is the frequent reference to 'the computer did the move' or 'it was computer generated'. Surely computers do what they are told, or has this suddenly become a world where the tail wags the dog [?]

[Neil]

Originally posted by Treelo

What I don't get about this post is the frequent reference to 'the computer did the move' or 'it was computer generated'. Surely computers do what they are told, or has this suddenly become a world where the tail wags the dog [?]

Very good point Treelo [^] - whilst it is not the fault of the customer service staff if the computer moves people due to an a/c change etc, it is still surely the fault of VS who have programmed the system to do this [V] - which still goes back to the point that it is not the pax fault and they are the ones who have to suffer

Oh and Monkey, it is a big issue where you sit, for me the flight is the start of my hols and I want to be sat with the person I am travelling with not some stranger, I wouldn't get a sunbed on one part of the beach whilst t'other half was 25metres further away sat next to someone else[8D]. Call me sloppy but I like to be with t'other half as much as poss, espec on my jolly hols [:I]

Neil:)

I do appreciate that you want to sit together but my point wasnt as clearly made as it could have been. I meant specific seats.

Which leads me to ask if you were given the choice of A) sitting together or B)Sitting where you requested. ie middle of 4 or not an aisle.