Seat selection in new system?

[serfty]

Sat in 13C on Sunday, it's quite a good seat ... furthest back I have sat for a domestic 737 flight in a long time.

Only notable difference from row 3 was waiting for the 60 or so PAX in front of me to get their stuff together and head off before I could disembark.

 

[serfty]

...

Do you have a better suggestion to distinguish between Platinum and Gold :?:

I can! Allow SG access to seats forward of row seven with OLCI.

 

[MH_fan]

oh and the only person in all of row 3 and 4 and 5. Then all the rest squeezed in thereafter. Quite nice really - that was until a bunch of bogan friends from the back decided those rows might be a nice place to sit....

Similar thing happened on my SYD-PER flight very recently. This new system is terrible and will be a significant factor in what sways me between QF and VA.

 

[MH_fan]

I can! Allow SG access to seats forward of row seven with OLCI.

This is a very simple solution. Surely, if QF can manage a system where plats can have a chance at a shadow and allow status passengers to pick seats at OLCI, so can VA.

I'm trying to look for reasons to support VA once I hit WP with QF but these latest changes for SGs on VA is making it very hard...

 

[serfty]

I dunno what they can do at the moment, as an Air NZ Gold Elite (≡ WP) I should be able to get row 3 ... but I can't!

Maybe there a problem with the way SABRE was set up.

 

[JohnK]

My friend, those days are effectively over.

If you want those seats, you'd better try at online check-in, and hope that not many people have decided to similarly check in or have already selected those seats.

In my experience rows 3-6 are not available at T-48 or even at T-24. On 1 out of the past 4 flights i did not use OLCI and I was somehow pre-allocated 5C when I checked at ~T-6 hours. Could not go further forward.

Most people understand that there needs to be a gap between benefits provided for Platinum and Gold. But the solution is not to continue to block out rows 3-6 well into the OLCI period. If there are any Platinums on the flight at T-48 then give them a theoretical seat as per their profile and allow Golds and possibly Silvers to select from the remaining seats. Or better still give them theoretical seats as well based on their perceived customer value.

Seats in front of me are left vacant and for whatever reason I cannot get these at check-in either. In my 4 flights so far I have noticed people sitting in rows 3-6 that do not look like they could possibly have any status. Classic example was Shazza and Chezza sitting in row 4 on Sunday. FA's come out with cart and it was quite clear there were not many flexible airfares onboard. When FAs come back to start the paid service, Shazza tells the FA she has already paid for food and drink. Seriously? It was the was the way she said it and when asked for her name it was not on the list of flexible airfares. Shazza had obviously forgotten she was on Virgin and not Tiger/Jetstar.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

a bunch of bogan friends from the back decided those rows might be a nice place to sit....

Small sample I know, but I've now seen this "self-reallocation" of seating on 50% of my flights since migration. Before that, virtually never. If plats think golds should be further back, that's fine by me.....but you may wish to start yelling loudly at DJ (that's not a Freudian slip, it's recognition of where there're heading.....back to LCC) to enforce seating allocation. Next we'll see the polite plats sitting pretty in rows 3-6 and the "try-it-on" brigade sitting even prettier in J :shock:

 

[anat0l]

I dunno what they can do at the moment, as an Air NZ Gold Elite (≡ WP) I should be able to get row 3 ... but I can't!

Were you supposed to have that benefit (is it gazetted that way)?

Personally if I were a Velocity WP, I would not be too keen on Airpoints elites of any kind having access to row 3. Look after your own kind first.

 

[The Rok]

Maybe the way to do Priority Boarding is to do away with all seat selection altogether, as per FR, and then do true priority boarding, WP onto the plane, pick your seat, SG next, pick your seat, and so on and so forth...

 

[anat0l]

Maybe the way to do Priority Boarding is to do away with all seat selection altogether, as per FR, and then do true priority boarding, WP onto the plane, pick your seat, SG next, pick your seat, and so on and so forth...

That's nice... though that means you'll really have WPs fighting each other for the best seats.

Also, that would force many WPs to present themselves at the gate on time; they snooze for sure they will certainly lose, since they can no longer have a piece of cardboard that says, "Oy! I don't care that I was the last on board, that's my seat!"

 

[garoz]

Booked a flight last month before the new booking system came online for travel between Brisbane and Sydney in July and therefore it wouldn’t allow me later to select my seats online under the new system.
When I rang up to select my seats, I was given 2 seats in row 6 (we are both Velocity Gold). I asked for row 3 but was told row 6 was the best they could do. I was not aware that row 3 through to row ??? were now reserved for Platinum so thought it was strange that all these rows were booked out already. After searching online and finding this discussion, now I know why.
I don’t begrudge Platinum members getting first choice, but there has to be a better way than having a free for all at airport check in for unused Platinum seats.

 

[JohnK]

So the results of my experiment are getting worse.

After sitting in 13C on Friday night in a 22 row Embraer I got to SYD airport ~20 minutes ago to be given 8D for today's flight. :shock:

That is what I got at check-in and asked if that was the most forward aisle to be greeted with "Yes and my husband is also Gold and it is the same for him".

No more than 3 minutes later at premium entry in SYD I ask again questioning how a Gold can be allocated 13C and 8D while people with no status what so ever sit in rows 3,4,5,6 regularly? Told there is a window seat in row 4 and an aisle seat in row 5. So I opt for the aisle in row 5 and a few seconds later an aisle seat in row 3 magically appears.

Now I have 3D but I do not want to keep playing this game and I should not have to keep playing this game. Another 6 flights to go and then I think it is time for a break from Virgin....

 

[EuroKick]

Yep, flew from CBR-MEL-CBR. Row 16 and 15 was all I could get. Nothing up front apparently. Very suss.

 

[amagz]

I was in MEL lounge last week and speaking to one of the VA girls about the sabre switch. Got onto topic of seat allocations and she told me that the issues with golds not being able to access these seats is a bug in the system and they are working to fix it

 

[JohnK]

There is something strange going on with seat allocations and I hope it is a bug.

As I mentioned earlier I managed to somehow talk my way to 3D for today's flight. Once on board and about to take off there was row 4 window available, row 4 aisle, row 7 aisle, 8ABC and more and more seats further back.

Why would 8D be the best seat I was allocated when I checked in ~50 minutes before flight when all these spare seats further forward are available?

 

[medhead]

My running score remains on -1.5. Did fly ahead last Thursday and opted for 3B :shock: over 7 window or 14 aisle. I was pretty happy to get that 32 minutes before scheduled departure.

 

[robd]

Has anyone flown or going to be flying J on E90 been able to get a seat allocation during online booking? The option was "not available" when I did it today.

 

[serfty]

Has anyone flown or going to be flying J on E90 been able to get a seat allocation during online booking? The option was "not available" when I did it today.

Did not happen for me last weekend, but I rang after ticketing and was able to allocate 1A in a 6J config (E/F was showing 1x2).

 

[robd]

Did not happen for me last weekend, but I rang after ticketing and was able to allocate 1A in a 6J config (E/F was showing 1x2).

I'm on the same config. Jnr's going to crack it if we're not seated together. I'm so tired of phoning VA....

 

[serfty]

I'm on the same config. Jnr's going to crack it if we're not seated together. I'm so tired of phoning VA....

Yep, it's wait to be answered that kills ya ... I had the technique of going to the "Velocity" section which seems to reduce wait times ... last time after a 6 minute wait before "Velocity" answered, after indicating seat selection, I was transferred to elsewhere with another 12 minutes wait. :-|