How do I select seats on Virgin booked using Krisflyer miles?

[ramboflyer]

I've just booked 2 domestic flights (HBA - CNS) for my wife and I on Virgin using Krisflyer miles but get the message to book the seats with Virgin. The booking reference is Singapore Airines and not recognised in Virgin. Short of ringing Virgin and trying to do it without one of their booking references is there another way? Obviously I want to seat us together and try to book extra legroom as well.

 

[asterix]

I've just booked 2 domestic flights (HBA - CNS) for my wife and I on Virgin using Krisflyer miles but get the message to book the seats with Virgin. The booking reference is Singapore Airines and not recognised in Virgin. Short of ringing Virgin and trying to do it without one of their booking references is there another way? Obviously I want to seat us together and try to book extra legroom as well.

Watching this thread as I have the same issue with SYD-CNS flights.

 

[Scr77]

Is the Virgin reference shown on the booking or ticket anywhere? Sometimes you can do things like look up the booking on another star alliance member and find the partner reference number. But regardless, calling virgin will be much quicker than calling Singapore or Qantas.

 

[asterix]

I had the same issue with only having the Singapore Airlines booking reference number. I just gave Virgin a call and they were able to provide me with the Virgin Australia booking reference number based on the ticket number that was listed on the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer redemption.

 

[pyusha]

How does the award chart look like for SQ redemption on VA?

 

[ramboflyer]

How does the award chart look like for SQ redemption on VA?

On my flights from Hobart to Cairns in August there was plenty of availability on the day we wanted. Only 11,000 miles each passenger. Not sure if we got the 30% sale fares but I was pleasantly surprised at both the availability and number of points used.

Post automatically merged: Mar 21, 2022

I had the same issue with only having the Singapore Airlines booking reference number. I just gave Virgin a call and they were able to provide me with the Virgin Australia booking reference number based on the ticket number that was listed on the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer redemption.

Thanks, I just rang Virgin and got the booking reference no problem. Also got through straight away! I was originally reluctant because of possible long wait times.

 

[ramboflyer]

I wasnt able to book the seats myself on Virgin site and had to contact by phone. Virgin put me through to Velocity and got the seats. Again very short wait time.

 

[ramboflyer]

I wasnt able to book the seats myself on Virgin site and had to contact by phone. Virgin put me through to Velocity and got the seats. Again very short wait time.

I booked normal unpaid seats yesterday with Velocity and at the time thought about extra legroom on the longer leg but decided not to based on $46 a seat. Overnight I changed my mind and called back this morning. The guy I spoke to said I'd have to contact Singapore Airlines at the airport on the day of departure. I told him that SA doesn't have a presence at HBA airport and even if they did they wouldn't be there for a domestic check-in. He insisted that Velocity could not allocate seats because the booking was done by a 3rd party (SA). I told him that just yesterday I called Velocity and reserved seats but he was unmoved! You couldn't make this stuff up. I'm going to leave it a couple of days and try again.

I also just spent about 2 hours trying to book paid seats on Jetstar on the return trip which was booked using Qantas points with mixed legs of Qantas/Jetstar. Got most of the way online before bombing out. Got onto live chat and secured the 2 exit row seats but couldn't pay that way so had to phone through and then talk to an automated system.

Things weren't always this hard were they?

 

[Oubline]

I've just booked 2 domestic flights (HBA - CNS) for my wife and I on Virgin using Krisflyer miles but get the message to book the seats with Virgin. The booking reference is Singapore Airines and not recognised in Virgin. Short of ringing Virgin and trying to do it without one of their booking references is there another way? Obviously I want to seat us together and try to book extra legroom as well.

I have had two MEL-CNS redemptions booked in the same way, and the only thing that worked was contacting Singapore Airlines and asking them for the Virgin booking reference. They provided it easily once the phone was answered.

From there you can use the Virgin reference and handle the seat requests as you would have if booked straight through Virgin.

 

[ramboflyer]

I have had two MEL-CNS redemptions booked in the same way, and the only thing that worked was contacting Singapore Airlines and asking them for the Virgin booking reference. They provided it easily once the phone was answered.

From there you can use the Virgin reference and handle the seat requests as you would have if booked straight through Virgin.

I did that except I got the Virgin reference from Virgin after giving them the ticket number from the Singapore Airlines reward booking (see above). Going through Virgin I was unable to book the seats myself.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Whatever was working here no longer does. Have just had three unsuccessful calls to Virgin with each agent insisting they can't give me the VA booking reference number for VA domestic flights booked via SQ. Each cut me off the moment I started giving the SQ ticket number as they said they can only look up VA's 795 code, and when I suggested I give them the name, date and flight number they insisted that wasn't possible either.

I thought it was an issue of HUACA but after three times and the same wall, I give up.

 

[mrfreeze]

I have found Tripcase shows my VA booking reference for trips I have booked on SQ and when I have used VA points to book a flight on SQ, the SQ booking reference was shown.

On paid SQ bookings I can select seats on SQ metal but not on VA metal.
I can not remember if I could select seats on VA metal when redeeming points, but I know I did select seats on the SQ flights BNE-SIN and SIN-BKK

 

[ramboflyer]

I've still got a good stash of Krisflyer miles but as we are unlikely to fly overseas again I think I will just convert them to Velocity points before they expire. I'll lose on the conversion but will use less Velocity points for bookings and will avoid all the problems with flight numbers and seat selection.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I couldn’t shake my irritation about this off as I knew it just doesn’t make sense that VA can’t look up pax on their own flights. Tried again this morning and though it took some fairly direct pushback on the suggestion that VA didn’t have visibility over its own flights, the agent begrudgingly took the pax name down and - lo and behold - was able to pull up the reservation, assign seats and give me the VA Reference Number (and I note further seat changes in the app are possible). The agent had a marked change in tone when she came back, which I reciprocated. Silly it took four calls for this, but it’s done.

 

[ramboflyer]

I couldn’t shake my irritation about this off as I knew it just doesn’t make sense that VA can’t look up pax on their own flights. Tried again this morning and though it took some fairly direct pushback on the suggestion that VA didn’t have visibility over its own flights, the agent begrudgingly took the pax name down and - lo and behold - was able to pull up the reservation, assign seats and give me the VA Reference Number (and I note further seat changes in the app are possible). The agent had a marked change in tone when she came back, which I reciprocated. Silly it took four calls for this, but it’s done.

Probably only one of the few times you won't get sent a "We value your feedback" request!