Changing of Pre-Booked Seat Requests?!

Have just returned from MCO on VS28 (24th Nov) flew on GVROY Pretty Woman, up until two days before this was scheduled to be the plane we flew out on, GVROS English Rose. I had pre-booked seats 63HK for the return flight, the night before we were due to fly checked the booking on the net to find out that our plane had been changed along with our seats! We were now booked in seats 53 H&K, separated by a total stranger in seat 53J!! Tried to change the seat allocation online, but was only showing two single seats at opposite ends of the plane! I called up Virgin in the US from the hotel, who could not give an explanation of why the seats had been changed. I asked if I could have my seats i'd pre-allocated and she said NO someone else has requested these!! I asked what else she could do to ensure the wife and I are sitting together? She suggested I phone the Virgin in the UK to see if they could do anything further. So thats what I did...made an International Call from the hotel phone to the UK, to be put on hold for 11 Minutes and for the call to be answered by the US Virgin Call Centre!!! (I and the US had not realised that it was midnight back in the UK!). Was very mad by this stage (even madder in the morning when I found out that call to the UK had cost me $65!) and the US agent told me to simply check-in at the airport and hope they could do something for us!

Next morning we went to the Downton Disney Check-In at 8.00am when they are meant to open, to be greeted with a queue of 35 people!, and we all stand there until 8.30am when they decided to open! I was hoping for an exit seat as I knew they would be available at check-in so we could sit together, but when I got to the front of the line - guess what .... all gone! Do you have any seats together I asked the lady?? No was the answer - 'its a very full flight you know!'. I then produced my Seats request confirmation and asked why these seats had been given to someone else? What makes them more special than us? I asked! She then taps away, makes a phone call and gives us seats 45F& G, not great but at least we are sitting together!

Sorry if I have rambled on somewhat!! I had to get it off my chest! It was a real happy ending (not) to our magical holiday!

Is this a common occurance - or was I real unlucky?? I realise that pre-booked seats are not guaranteed - but surely if you have had them allocated for 100+ days, you at least deserve to sit together!!??

Does anyone know why and how someone else can take seats like this?

Thanks for taking the time to read my rants!

[Pete]

I suspect the important part of your message was 'the plane had changed' - if that's the case, then all bets are off, I'm afraid. That throws out the existing reservations (since they no longer match the seat layout), and the logic in re-allocating doesn't take into account all the factors you were considering when initially choosing your seats. As you already had H&K seats, those were the ones you were re-allocated - unfortunately not in the same row, so you didn't get the benefit of the two-seat config. The situation probably wouldn't have happened if (a) the plane hadn't changed, and (b) it hadn't been a very full flight.

It's a pity that not having the two seats together at the back of the plane spoilt your holiday. Perhaps if that's a cruicial part of your enjoyment of a trip you should consider Premium Economy, where the config is 2-2 on the 747s? Leaving such an important factor to chance would seem unwise in the future.

Pix

We had a similar incident coming back from Orlando to Manchester just after New Year. We had prebooked seats, in club orlando, onnly to be told that not only were we sitting apart but one of us was upstairs. What made it worse was we were early at the airport as well, about 4 hours until flight! You can imagine our reaction to this, they blamed a computer error, but in the end it turned out that since our surnames were not the same they had assumed that we were both travlling alone!
When they said that I just had to ask them how many single people, one male one female do they get travelling back from Orlando just after new year with pre booked seats together and paid for at the same time on the same credit card!
After about an hour of standing at checkin making our point they decided to rearrange the plane so we could sit together, ok not in our orignal pre booked seats but together! Oh and it took a call to flying club uk while I was in the airport as well.
To be honest if we didnt fly as much as we do with Virgin I doubt the staff at Orlando would have done anythign about it! they are the worst checkin staff I have come across!
Still alls well that ends well!!

We still love flying Virgin, got three trips planned with them next year already!

Michael

As I understand it, because CAA regulations require that families are kept together, VS treats all people on the same booking as a family unit and keeps them together regardless. So, for example, a single adult sharing a booking with their sister, brither-in-law a couple of nieces/nephews, will always be seated with the rest of the party and can't escape to peace and quiet at the back of the plane . It seems bizarre that the same rule wouldn't apply from the US.

I too had allocated seats for my family for Xmas day and had them prebooked months and months ago.

On checking online the other day I noticed that they had split our group of eight and scattered them all over the aircraft. Now this is no big deal for me as i'm flying in UC[:p] but the others were annoyed and blamed me[:(][xx(]

Anyhow, a quick call to FC support soon remedied the situation, however still not all together but just in two groups now and a couple of rows apart.

I guess it helped that Uncle Matt had a Gold Card[8D]

Well sunny MCO here we come, i'll be home for xmas[8D]

Matt

Having re-read th einfor on the VS site about the CAA regulations, airlines are required to make every effort to keep families together, not absolutely required to do so. I would imagine on a B&S route where there are lots of families with children and probably fewer people travelling alone, couples or groups of adults are more likely to find themselves having to be split up for operational reasons.