Booted from seat at gate - Does it happen often?

[Anna]

The row 3 experiences sound similar to a recent experience of mine. I was on govt travel so I didn't make the booking. When it arrived, first I had to ring up to get the VFF number added - that took about 15 minutes on its own as the CSA didn't seem to have ever heard of adding a VFF number to a booking. Then for some reason I could not allocate myself a seat so I had to ring up again. I got myself 3C and colleague 3A. That was showing up fine on the booking until the time came for online checkin. The seat allocation disappeared and for the next unexplained problem I couldn't do OLCI either. I didn't have time to ring up yet again. By the time we got to the airport the only seats left together were down the back. I have no idea who ended up in 3A/C. The whole thing was ridiculous.

Then to cap it all off, on just about one of the busiest days of the year, the Friday before Xmas, Virgin sent me an email seeking my feedback. I didn't even get to open it until Xmas Eve only to get the response "sorry, the time for giving feedback has closed". Clearly they don't want people being able to give feedback. 3 days to respond in the week before Xmas is just ludicrous.

 

[straitman]

Happened to me today again. Shafted from 1A to 5A. Wtf? I asked why - got told weight balance issues with this aircraft, seriously?

Sometimes you have to believe the explanation given. In this case it appears to be quite plausible.

 

[Sojourner]

Everyone on the same PNR should be defaulted to the same row/group of seats. If this does not happen for some reason, people who have taken out the time to preselect their seats early should not be booted for the convenience of having a family seated together - unless there is a child involved.

If it is too inconvenient for you to preselect your seats, then don't your inconvenience affect me. If it was a situation with children needing to be seated with their parent/guardian though, I'd be happy to move.

 

[Sojourner]

I was booted out of row 3 (with my partner) last week within T-24.

Rang Virgin (20 mins on hold...!) and thankfully got their AU call centre.

They said they couldn't do anything about it as it had passed onto airport control. I said not good enough and to try harder. 15 mins later and I had row 3 back with a lot of moaning and groaning from the rep. Was fed the line 'you were probably moved by the airport for a family or something'.

Seems like this is turning into a real ongoing problem for VA. Pretty annoying I wasted about an hour of my life fixing.

PS the flight was about 50% full.

50% flight full... and yet they felt they needed to boot a platinum status passenger from a bulkhead row 3 seat? Reeks of doing favours for mates.

 

[aaflyer]

When AA tried to dump us off a plane I too stood my ground. Some super high status flyer tried to steal our two First Class seats that we had bought. That SHSF found out the meaning of No Thanks as that plane was full.

I have displaced Concierge Key members on flights before. I did not pull a 'Don't You Know Who I Am' either. I simply stated (After my flight had been cancelled and we had all been de-planed) that I was connecting to another flight to Australia and if I didn't make the flight leaving now, i'd leave. I handed my Qantas Platinum card over, and she picked up the phone, made a call and said 'I have a Oneworld Emerald here that has to make a connection to Australia tonight, can you offload mr xx_ please'. I was then put on the flight.

The Concierge Key member jumped up and down and yelled quite loudly about 'how dare you remove me' and almost said 'don't you know who I am?'. The agent managed the situation and he didn't make the flight. The glare I got as I was boarding was like an ice shard!

 

[drron]

I have displaced Concierge Key members on flights before. I did not pull a 'Don't You Know Who I Am' either. I simply stated (After my flight had been cancelled and we had all been de-planed) that I was connecting to another flight to Australia and if I didn't make the flight leaving now, i'd leave. I handed my Qantas Platinum card over, and she picked up the phone, made a call and said 'I have a Oneworld Emerald here that has to make a connection to Australia tonight, can you offload mr xx_ please'. I was then put on the flight.

The Concierge Key member jumped up and down and yelled quite loudly about 'how dare you remove me' and almost said 'don't you know who I am?'. The agent managed the situation and he didn't make the flight. The glare I got as I was boarding was like an ice shard!

They react very well don't they.The performance from an EXP when I as a mere plat and mrsdrron got the upgrades he thought he was entitled to was a delight to watch.

 

[Anna]

got told weight balance issues with this aircraft, seriously?

Off topic, but I tried to make a cruise booking recently. A party of 3 in 2 cabins, 2 in 1 cabin and 1 in the other. P&O computer said no. Tried again pretending it was a party of 4, 2 in each cabin. Computer said yes. Rang up to ask why 4 was ok but 3 not (at the same total price), and was told that P&O restrict single occupancy of cabins due to weight and balance issues with the cruise ship.

Has to be cough given that (a) they can estimate weight from the total number of pax regardless of how many in each cabin and (b) they don't know whether you are in your cabin or not at any given moment, unlike takeoff and landing on a plane where everyone must be seated.

 

[Bolthead]

Off topic, but I tried to make a cruise booking recently. A party of 3 in 2 cabins, 2 in 1 cabin and 1 in the other. P&O computer said no. Tried again pretending it was a party of 4, 2 in each cabin. Computer said yes. Rang up to ask why 4 was ok but 3 not (at the same total price), and was told that P&O restrict single occupancy of cabins due to weight and balance issues with the cruise ship.

Has to be cough given that (a) they can estimate weight from the total number of pax regardless of how many in each cabin and (b) they don't know whether you are in your cabin or not at any given moment, unlike takeoff and landing on a plane where everyone must be seated.

It's not April 1st by any chance. What a joke. It sounds like the P&O staff are smoking something illegal.

 

[PLANT]

What is a concierge key member?

 

[get me outta here]

What an idiotic thing to say. What happens when most people go to one side of the ship to see a special view, does it topple?

Off topic, but I tried to make a cruise booking recently. A party of 3 in 2 cabins, 2 in 1 cabin and 1 in the other. P&O computer said no. Tried again pretending it was a party of 4, 2 in each cabin. Computer said yes. Rang up to ask why 4 was ok but 3 not (at the same total price), and was told that P&O restrict single occupancy of cabins due to weight and balance issues with the cruise ship.

Has to be cough given that (a) they can estimate weight from the total number of pax regardless of how many in each cabin and (b) they don't know whether you are in your cabin or not at any given moment, unlike takeoff and landing on a plane where everyone must be seated.

 

[amaroo]

What is a concierge key member?

Super-duper AA invite/spend elite.

 

[serfty]

What is a concierge key member?

QF equivalent is a cross between CL & WP1.

 

[TomVexille]

What is a concierge key member?

Super-duper AA invite/spend elite.

Like George Clooney

 

[blackcat20]

Like George Clooney

You beat me to it!

 

[TomVexille]

You beat me to it!

For those wondering. He actually is.

 

[Groundfeeder]

the QF CSM was most apologetic and gave us wine including bottles to take home.

Same for me at CNS QP where Chief Dragon asked me to move from 1A to exit row and provided a nice red to convince me.

 

[aaflyer]

They react very well don't they.The performance from an EXP when I as a mere plat and mrsdrron got the upgrades he thought he was entitled to was a delight to watch.

I've had a lot of EXP stories too. The sense of entitlement in the USA is just unbelievable.

 

[triple7]

My experience has been that Virgin ground staff NEVER apologise for anything. They just refer you to their complaints department.

 

[JohnCarrWestwood]

I haven't yet been seat-bumped at the gate by VA but I have learned the hard way that selecting seats in advance on VA is often futile as they will delete what you have chosen and then your selected seat gets stolen by someone else when OLCI opens, and you're left with the detritus, seat-choice wise.

.

I fly almost excl Qantas but I always take a screen shot of my seat bookings..which I pay for ...

 

[hossein_au]

Would be interested in your observation of how people were spaced out. Were people in the rows in front of you? Generally they'll bunch people around the centre of gravity, which, as a non pilot or aircraft operations person, I assume is around the wings. Were most people bunched in around the wings?



I'd expect that on an ATR for sure, an F100 is a not really what I'd expect.

From aerodynamics and aircraft design points of view it is better to have a nose-heavy craft, rather than tail-heavy or even completely neutral balance.