Special Assistance for daughter

Hi everyone, I found this great site back in August when we booked our holiday to Florida, for Jan 08, taking my 15 yr old daughter who is special needs. I found some great advice, so I was glad I had booked with Virgin through Thompsons agents. The only thing that has gone wrong is Thompons took over 3 months to actually contact Virgin in order to release the seats, and I was not able to get the seating arrangements we needed, which was a set of three by the window, followed by 2 behind. I am annoyed at Thompsons as I was repeatedly on the phone with them asking when this was going to be arranged, but to no avail. Obviously the staff at Virgin knew nothing about this. So finally this week, 15 November they contact us to say seats are released but we can't get the seats we need. Much angst later(!) I'm advised to call Virgin special assistance myself to see what can be arranged. Talked to a lovely guy, told him why we needed these particular seats as my daughter can have episodes where she gets very panicky or over excited, and the two seats together with the 3 in front would make for easier travel for us all, and that I didn't wish to make another passenger sitting beside us, if we had to have a row of 3, feel uncomfy! Hope I am making sense here! Sadly there is nothing Virgin can do, they said if Thompsons had been on the ball better, we would have got our seats back in August no problem. So we have 2 rows of 3 one behind the other towards back of place which will have to be OK I guess. The only option he offered was upgrading to premium, which I wouldn't mind paying for, but the seats I believe are in groups of 2 and as we are a party of 5, it sort of puts us in same situation! Anyway, I was hoping on the off chance someone here may have any advice for us, or what are the chances of changing seats when we check in ( very low I know!!)

Anyway any help appreciated!

Lucinda

[honey lamb]

Hi Lucinda and welcome to V-flyer. Not all seats are pre-allocated and a percentage is held back so that families can sit together. If you check-in on-line 24 hours before the flight the other seats will be released and you may be able to get the seats you want/need. I would also contact Special Assistance again nearer the time.

Best of luck

Thanks for the reply!! That's good to know, as its going to be a long enough old day by the time we fly over from Belfast etc. Thanks for the advice!! One thing, if I could just ask. I was unable to choose my seats online which is one of the reasons I had been on at Thompsons to help us, and when I got through to Virgin special assistance yesterday, a pop up came up on my area saying that unable to allocate seats online, will be assigned at check-in. The Virgin assistance guy was able to do it from his end however. Would the same thing be likely if I try to check in the night before we travel, to change seats then? Many thanks!

Hi Lucinda

You probably found that when you went through to special assistance that you were asked lots of questions about your daughters condition and needs ? For them to make an accurate assesment of what is needed before during and after the flight ... I certainly did when I made this request for my elderly father.

You may find that condition/assistance dependant they may only allocate seats in a part of the cabin that they are happy with you sitting (maybe VS Crew could confirm this ?), this may be why you cannot self select your seats (there may also be many other reasons that this happens, unrelated to you), I was unable to change seating on my recent trip to Hong Kong with VS once I had requested special assistance.

My parents fly back and forth from the canary islands quite a lot with Iberia and because he requires special assistance they are unable to either request or self select seats, that said they are always given reasonable seating.

Also.... depending on the A/C if you upgrade to PE you could have 3 in the centre and 2 adjacent to the window ... just a thought.

Thanks for the info! Yes I was asked a lot of questions about Rebekah which is fine. They did ask did she have seizures etc (which isn't the case) so I can fully understand why they need to allocate seats that they would be happy to have us in. I looked at the seat plans, but as I am not 100% sure what type of aircraft we would be flying on, and the guy I talked to didn't seem to be able to correlate which aircraft with the plans I was looking at, I was sort of assuming that it was the PE with the sets of 2 seats. But if there was sets of 3 and a 2 that would be ok! Do I just call Virgin again to confirm what type of aircraft we will be on? Sorry for all these questions!!! LOL. I havn't even thought how I am going to keep my other daughter who is 3 occupied, not to mention my Hubby!!

Hi again
Because you have booked thru VH I think Im right in saying that you will only be able to do the upgrade with them rather than direct with VS.

Which route are you flying on ? We can probably narrow it down a bit from that.

As for your 3 year old daughter and Hubby. I would recommend leaving your 3 year old in charge of your hubby.. Im sure he will behave himself

Cheers

Mark

hi im crew maybe i could assist you where are you travelling to? that would give us an idea of the aircraft, although from what your saying of the seats you wanted it sounds like your on a jumbo, the 2's at the back are very popular just cause you get a bit more space and it's a 2. special assistance do allocate seat depending on the specific need, what this normally means is you get a seat near to a tiolet, and an exit like a bulkhead in the centre. in premium on a jumbo the seating goes 2 4 2 on an airbus though it goes 2 3 2

[ChuckC]

Originally posted by johnvscrew
hi im crew maybe i could assist you where are you travelling to? that would give us an idea of the aircraft, although from what your saying of the seats you wanted it sounds like your on a jumbo, the 2's at the back are very popular just cause you get a bit more space and it's a 2. special assistance do allocate seat depending on the specific need, what this normally means is you get a seat near to a tiolet, and an exit like a bulkhead in the centre. in premium on a jumbo the seating goes 2 4 2 on an airbus though it goes 2 3 2

John, I hope a lot of our fellow V-Flyers see your post. Thank you for taking the time to help.

Regards,
Chuck-

Luci, I'm assuming it's Orlando you are going to, in which case it will definitely be a 747. I'm MAN crew, and we get lots of passengers from Belfast on our flights, so if you are flying from Manchester, please message me. If you want a 3 in front, 2 behind allocation, then it's correct, the very back of the aircraft is where they are. I board on most flights, and we do get last minute seat changes for people with special requests. (trust me, it causes lots of aggro with passengers who have been moved!) I would go along with the other suggestions, call 24 hours before to see if any more seats have been released. I know you are connecting, but if possible check in at the Virgin desk very early, as they tend to be very helpful with special needs requests.

Luci, in all probability you'll be on a Gatwick configured 747. If that's the case, I'd recommend rows 22/23/24 (HJK or ABC). There are three economy rows towards the forward of the aircraft and offer a lot of privacy. If there isn't a full load, chances are the extra seat in the three won't be used and you may end up with an empty seat next to you.

The rows at the back of the aircraft have all the lavs there and you get people standing queueing there all the time. Not fun!

Hi all and thanks once again for all your help and advice! John, we are flying to Orlando from Gatwick, on 28th Jan. Thankfully we are now flying over the night before and staying at my hubbys flat (he works near Dulwich) so it will be a lot easier to get to the airport early and have a wee chat with the check in staff and see what is available for us. The thought of flying over with flybe on the morning was starting to worry me! I fly with them a few times a month going back and forth to see John, and while they are usually on time, it would be typical of me if that was the day a flight was delayed! Plus a 6.30am flight is never great with kids! I hate the thought of causing other passengers agro though Along with trying to make Rebekah as comfy as poss for the flight, not wanting to make a fellow traveller maybe feel unsettled was one of the reasons for initially hoping for a 3 and 2. Thank you all for the great welcome and advice again! You think 35 is too old to train for cabin crew!! lol.