Seat selection: disparity between Virgin & Etihad

[Ausbt]

Hi all, I'm flying VA29 (J) & VA7011 (Y) SYD-AUH-LHR. Virgin's itinerary has me in a different seat to that I've selected at Etihad Airways - Book flights and holidays and the latter, being an exit, is my preference. Any idea who will win out? Will VA SYD check-in automatically issue me into the less-preferable seat? I imagine I'm going to have to argue my point. The Platinum Helpdesk could not assist me.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Hi all, I'm flying VA29 (J) & VA7011 (Y) SYD-AUH-LHR. Virgin's itinerary has me in a different seat to that I've selected at Etihad Airways - Book flights and holidays and the latter, being an exit, is my preference. Any idea who will win out? Will VA SYD check-in automatically issue me into the less-preferable seat? I imagine I'm going to have to argue my point. The Platinum Helpdesk could not assist me.

If you book through VA I believe you'll have an EY seat automatically assigned (either window or aisle, depending on preference). If you change the seat at the EY end, the change won't be reflected on the VA itinerary but that will be your assigned seat.

So in short: your preferred seat selected through the EY website should win out!

 

[cssaus]

I'm doing a similar itinerary later this year in Business Class.

VA were able to provide a seat request but I had to call up EY to get seat allocation on the VA7011 sector. What is interesting is that if I access my booking using the EY booking reference number on the EY site it shows I'm booked in Economy Class! Certainly the seating I have been assigned are business class seats.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

I'm doing a similar itinerary later this year in Business Class.

VA were able to provide a seat request but I had to call up EY to get seat allocation on the VA7011 sector. What is interesting is that if I access my booking using the EY booking reference number on the EY site it shows I'm booked in Economy Class! Certainly the seating I have been assigned are business class seats.

Noticed the same thing – and it even changed! Went from J to Y and back to J. Seat selection remained the same, and of course, actually ended up in J.

 

[Ausbt]

Well I'm doing the AUH-LHR leg in Y, so that exit row is of primary importance to me. At check-in just now, VA had the non-exit row seat booked, so inconsistent with Etihad's itinarery. They initially advised me to attempt a change in the Etihad lounge, but then when printing the BPs it came out as the exit row so happy with that. The check-in staff were actually surprised, so makes you wonder. They were as helpful as they could be, though.