Flight on the 27th July - VS075

I've got some friends who are on this flight to MCO. They have only just booked and have today phone Special Assistance as they both have disabilities but they need 4 seats as they have young children. They were told that the flight is completely full except for a few seats and that there are no bulkhead seats available. They said that all seats have been allocated including row 21 (they are flying in economy) and that there is no point in them getting to the airport early as they will not be able to get any different seats.

Is this the norm with Manchester. I know when we have flown from Gatwick, we always get there for when twilight check in opens and we have never had any problems being moved to the seats we want, we were told this is not a problem so long as the person who has been allocated the seat has not checked in.

Any ideas on what they can do, this is their first time to Orlando and their first experience with Virgin.

I'm a little surprised at the reaction from the man at Special Assistance to be honest, they said he wasn't helpful at all.

I do agree that it sounds unusual that the special assistance representative was not very helpful. I have never had any direct dealings with them but my advice woudl be to cal back and ask to speak with the manager or supervisor of the department and explain the situation and let them know about the previous call.

I also think its strange that all the bulkhead seats are allocated this far ahead of the flight.

Just to check - are the bulhead seats required for the young children as I do not think they specifically allocate these to special needs passengers although ISTBC!

Special assistance have been a bit unhelpful this week had problems too. Call back and speak to a different person or a manager. Just as Mark J has suggested.

The children aren't infants, but both parents have problems.

Is there anyway to check that the flight is really full.

As much as I believe my friend, I can't believe that all the seats have been allocated. I was under the impression that so many are released now for pre-booking and more are released at a later date. Before I get them to phone back, I'd like to be able to give them a bit more advice.

I normally do two things - first try making a booking on Virgin Atlantic's web site and see if there is availability.

Then you can try Expertflyer - there is a link to it on this site here and you will need the password from here!

Personally I dont find it that user friendly so if you get stuck Im sure someone will help.

And I think you are right in what you say - its not usual to have all the seats allocated before check in!

Hi Mystic Girl

Another free to use site is Seatcounter.com - this for the 27 July outbound this shows:

Virgin Atlantic 75 747-400 MAN/10:25a MCO/02:35p
BLMNQXY
7770777
(sorry - edited 3 times to get the numbers lined up and still not quite there!)

Meaning there are at least 7 seats available in economy. It's hard to tell as there mean only be 7 seats in economy but I'd say this flight still looks to have a lot of capacity.

It is very unusual for all the bulkhead seats to be allocated before check in in my experience.

Your friends can look up the seat map for their flight by using the manage your flights facility on the VS website, providing they have their 6 digit PNR number - and select their own seats, although my recollection is that the bulkhead seats always show as unavailable.


Regards
Pat

I would imagine its two things
1) its the start that weekend of the school holidays, that will have an effect on the amount of seats available
2) they have not released all the seats yet