Seat selection in new system?

[JohnK]

I would have thought a fair and obvious system would be:

T-14 days - WP can select 3-5, SG can select 6 and back etc
T-48 hours when OCLI opens - WP and SG can both select rows 3 and back
At the airport - anyone can ask for whatever they want.

I find it very hard to believe there are 24 WPs/WP guests on each flight.

There are nowhere near 24 Platinums on any Virgin flight.

In theory everyone is supposed to have a theoretical seat at T-48 hours so if there aren't any Platinums on the flight why not let Golds choose row 3? Also while we are at it why not allow further seat selection once checked in online?

 

[anat0l]

Earlier today no seats at all available to purchase, now seats available to purchase but I can't choose my seat. This is with a $2200 business fare which I really want to send Virgin's way.

I know it doesn't help your problem, but is there such a thing as an inferior J seat?

If I were you and you really want the fare, just buy it. If necessary, call VA to select your seat. Otherwise, with a J fare in hand I hardly see how you could be shafted.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Second issue, looking for flights, holy heck.......> $300 OOL-CBR, no cheapies at all, all day! Showing cheap flight availability on Webjet so check back again and all fares (including the cheapies) available and between $101 and $130 each! WTf (again).........

I'm currently having a drink.....which BTW, I think the VA webmaster must be doing as well!

I have seen something like your second issue, I was looking for BNE-SYD and found that nothing was available from 8:00am to 12:00pm, I thought Virgin wouldn't have sold out that many seats 2 weeks from travel. I checked back a few days ago to find that the prices and flights are back to a normal level, I might have booked Tiger if I was ready to book.

I don't mind row 3 being available for Platinums only but I hope that Row 3 isn't left empty when the flight is boarding and you were one of those golds who couldn't select a row 3 seat during check in, that is enough to annoy you and book with the opposition on your next travel.

Its like Qantas saying no upgrades available and then you get on board to find the business cabin almost empty.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I might have booked Tiger if I was ready to book.

Hey Bundy Bear.................can I have the above-mentioned quote framed and hung on your office wall? :mrgreen:

 

[JohnK]

Which is row 10 for advanced seat selection, is it not?

I don't know but I do know that at T-80 QF Golds can get to first row of economy if no one is there already.

How about Virgin stop playing catch up with benefits?

 

[Comoman]

, I might have booked Tiger if I was ready to book.

Man that's desperation....

 

[theintelligent1]

I can understand the logic behind the change.....but not fully on board with the implementation......

As a gold with VA & QF....this used to be a major win for VA.....not the case now.....another reason to stop splitting my travel.....

 

[serfty]

...

In theory everyone is supposed to have a theoretical seat at T-48 hours so if there aren't any Platinums on the flight why not let Golds choose row 3? Also while we are at it why not allow further seat selection once checked in online?

"Theoretical seating" for Qantas is part of an Altea/Amadeus facility as employed by QF.

VA have moved to SABRE which is a different GDS to Amadeus so any reference in context to "Theoretical seats" may not be relevant.

 

[tuapekastar]

So is the consenus that you need to select seats at booking time, otherwise wait till OLCI? If so, that's a little primitive IMHO.

This is what happened when I made a flexi booking last week and used comp plat upgrades:

Made the flexi booking (return flights), option offered online to select a seat, but did not as I was knew I was going to upgrade to J.

Agent processed the upgrade and asked what seats I wanted, and I told her and figured all was OK, thanked her an hung up.

The travel Itinerary email from the original flexi booking came through. It had attached an etkt receipt for tuapekastar and a travel reservation <date> for tuapekastar document.

Relevant info included:

Travel Itinerary mail - Flight and pax details, Confirmed economy, eticket number nnnnnnnnnnn, seating N/A N/A. Clicking the ticket number took me to viirtuallythere which said (and still does) economy, fare basis LZDA. Clicking another link also took me to VT, and it reflected economy class etc.
etkt receipt - Flight and pax details, PNR, Class/Seat Economy & check in required, Fare family Flexi
Travel Reservation Doc - Flight and pax details, Class economy, seat = check in required, Vlocity number, and TWO etkt numbers (the one above and another higher one)

Then about seven hours later a 'new' Travel Itinerary mail came through (I was expecting this after the upgrade). Relevant details included:

Travel Itinerary mail - Flight and pax details, Confirmed business, eticket number nnnnnnnnnnn (same as in original mail), seating N/A N/A. Clicking the ticket number took me to viirtuallythere which still said (and still does) economy, fare basis LZDA. Clicking another link in the same mail also took me to VT, but it reflected business class etc.
etkt receipt - Flight and pax details, PNR, Class/Seat Economy & check in required, Fare basis LZDA (instead of Fare family Flexi) as in first etkt receipt. Curiouser and curiouser.
Travel Reservation Doc - Flight and pax details, Class business, seat = check in required, Velocity number, and now THREE etkt numbers (the two previous ones and another higher one).

So things seem all over the shop, something of a dog's breakfast. And expert flyer indicates only 1A (not my pick) allocated in J and a smattering in Y. On the return none in J and a smattering in Y.

Despite having 2 x etkt receipts indicating economy I'm happy enough that I'm in J (plugging the pnr into virtuallythere indicates this), looks like i don't have seats for whatever reason. No big deal, will ring and see if they can help, otherwise at OLCI, and i should hopefully get something approximating what I'm after. But as per my opening line, a rather retrograde step if you cannot select seats at any time other then when booking or checking in. I am more than 14 days out, maybe at T-14d things would change? But I doubt it.

 

[awilcockson]

Well this is ridiculous, booking a flight to OOL-SYD return for myself, my wife and 2 kids.

I did a dummy booking without entering anyone's VA FF numbers other than my own, and was able to select row 3 for everyone.

Did the actual booking 2 minutes later and put in everyone's number, best I could allocate was row 17!!!!!

And now the platinum desk is closed? Good work Virgin, combined with 15 minutes just trying to log into my velocity account I'm sad to say that you just can't compete with QF.

 

[tuapekastar]

Well this is ridiculous, booking a flight to OOL-SYD return for myself, my wife and 2 kids.

I did a dummy booking without entering anyone's VA FF numbers other than my own, and was able to select row 3 for everyone.

Did the actual booking 2 minutes later and put in everyone's number, best I could allocate was row 17!!!!!

And now the platinum desk is closed? Good work Virgin, combined with 15 minutes just trying to log into my velocity account I'm sad to say that you just can't compete with QF.

They do need to pull their finger out quickly. I understand that switching to a new rez system is a huge job, but I've been part of implementations that I reckon would be bigger than that, and they have been planned and rehearsed multiple times, and while they've had a few issues, nothing quite like this.

 

[anat0l]

Well this is ridiculous, booking a flight to OOL-SYD return for myself, my wife and 2 kids.

I did a dummy booking without entering anyone's VA FF numbers other than my own, and was able to select row 3 for everyone.

Did the actual booking 2 minutes later and put in everyone's number, best I could allocate was row 17!!!!!

And now the platinum desk is closed? Good work Virgin, combined with 15 minutes just trying to log into my velocity account I'm sad to say that you just can't compete with QF.

I tried a random dummy booking for SYD/PER (over one way on a 737, on the way back on a 330/737 connection), didn't put in my Velocity FF (of which I am a Gold), but I could only select seats from the exit rows and back (and a few rows in front of the exit rows on the 330).

However, I was able to trick the system into allocating me a normally-chargeable exit row for free. Bit of an intermittent thing, though.

Tried the same thing with SYD/MEL with 3 pax (including me) - same thing - won't let me select row 3. Go back to pax info, add my Gold FF number, and now I can select row 7 and back for myself and my no-status guests. Select seats in rows 7 and 10, go back to pax info, remove my FF number, then back to seat selection. My seat selections remain, but there are crosses over my selected seats - so I keep my allocation, but now I can't change my seat without losing my "Gold standard" selection and unable to get it back.

So maybe all your issues here have been solved...



Kind of suggests a funny way to give your friends your seat selection benefit if you're not travelling with them: get them to book, but at the pax info page, put in your name and FF number. Select good seat at seat selection, click back to the pax info page, replace details with the true traveller details, and the seat selection still sticks....

 

[medhead]

Well this is ridiculous, booking a flight to OOL-SYD return for myself, my wife and 2 kids.

I did a dummy booking without entering anyone's VA FF numbers other than my own, and was able to select row 3 for everyone.

Did the actual booking 2 minutes later and put in everyone's number, best I could allocate was row 17!!!!!

And now the platinum desk is closed? Good work Virgin, combined with 15 minutes just trying to log into my velocity account I'm sad to say that you just can't compete with QF.

The work around is to remove your wife VFF number then select seats. You add the number back in later.

 

[anat0l]

The work around is to remove your wife VFF number then select seats. You add the number back in later.

I thought the interesting part of awilcockson's recount was that when he entered no numbers at all, he could still select row 3. Basically, that could've been any 4 Red members / non FF members.

But from my quick testing of recent, it may have been fixed, or a fluke.

 

[Comoman]

So to sumarise - I am correct in saying once you have made your booking you can no longer change your seat selection until check in? IE the previous ability to amend seat selection has been removed? If so is a large step backwards.

My Perth - Syd flight next week I still am unable to select a seat upon booking so I'm holding off. Don't want an 737 swop again. To still charge the same on 737 as A330 in business transcontinental is pretty poor IMO.

Edit - found this:

You can now select your seat at the time of booking free of charge, or at the time of check-in. Following a booking, you can make a seat selection by calling the Guest Contact Centre.
On flights marketed and operated by Virgin Australia you can also select your preferred seat from reserved zones, which are determined by your Velocity membership level and the fare class booked.

 

[eastwest101]

I can understand the logic behind the change.....but not fully on board with the implementation......

As a gold with VA & QF....this used to be a major win for VA.....not the case now.....another reason to stop splitting my travel.....

I agree with your comments about the logic vs implementation completely. But as 777 says - given the choice between incompetence and malicious intent - its usually incompetence.

But that is an excellent reason to keep status in both QF and VA as the next big screw-up or "enhancement" could either be QF or VA - there is no way of predicting it - and then you sure don't want to start again from square 1 building status.

 

[awilcockson]

The work around is to remove your wife VFF number then select seats. You add the number back in later.

Yeah I wish I'd thought of that at the time.

 

[awilcockson]

I thought the interesting part of awilcockson's recount was that when he entered no numbers at all, he could still select row 3. Basically, that could've been any 4 Red members / non FF members.

Nope, on the dummy booking it had automagically entered my plat number, hence the ability to select row 3.

Absolutely stupid that having a plat and 1 or more reds on the booking means that you can only select row 17 back!!!!

 

[awilcockson]

Called the platinum number this morning and they put us in row 3 for both flights.

Send a complaint via their feedback page pointing out the bug, and had a phone call a couple of hours later apologising and saying their web team is looking at fixing the "bug".

I also asked if the plan was for us to be able to select seats online at any point after making a booking, as advertised, and the lady said she would find out and get back to me. Stay tuned.

 

[JohnK]

"Theoretical seating" for Qantas is part of an Altea/Amadeus facility as employed by QF.

VA have moved to SABRE which is a different GDS to Amadeus so any reference in context to "Theoretical seats" may not be relevant.

Don't be too sure about that one.

Interesting data point for todays flight. Old booking, converted across to new system and I did not pre-allocate seat at any point in time.

Used web check-in ~2 hours ago (at T-7 hours) and lo and behold I am already allocated a seat in 4C! :shock: Oh and 7D was available for selection.

I may do the same for Mondays flight to see what happens....