Seat selection issues [at time of booking] should be resolved

[JohnK]

Made a couple of economy bookings the other day and was offered seat choice. I did not choose seats preferring to wait for the lottery at check-in.

 

[serfty]

As an SG, I still always selected a seat, especially if a 737 exit was available at no additional cost.

Now as a WP, row 3 is mine.

 

[eastwest101]

So to summarize - Seat selection issues [at time of booking] should be resolved, except for passengers who did not book their own tickets and are ticketed through 3rd party travel agents, whom cannot manage their booking, hence cannot select seats online at all until early June (according to Velocity Frequent Flyer rep). People with corporate travel agent bookings that are non IBE bookings/were not booked on VA website can use tripcase and tripadvisor etc and see their bookings. As per this thread:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....yer/third-party-booking-va-flights-49334.html

For the people who are seeing Y seat online seat selection at the time of booking - is it all working properly now? And if so, for B737 flights, are we seeing WP offered Row 3 and SG offered rows 6 and beyond? And I am assuming that E190 is still a bit hit and miss?

 

[eastwest101]

So to summarize - Seat selection issues [at time of booking] should be resolved, except for passengers who did not book their own tickets and are ticketed through 3rd party travel agents, whom cannot manage their booking, hence cannot select seats online at all until early June ...

Well - just to prove me wrong it looks like VA have fixed the unable to manage bookings and do seat selection online for non-IBE bookings (my corporate travel agent), I was able to manage my booking and select seats online for flights on Monday without a problem.

And if anyone is wondering - as a Silver VFF on B737 Y flights I could see Row 5 and beyond as open for selection for me, I didn't select them as I am not that crazy about the front of Y myself but should have tried it as a test to see if the seat selection "stuck" at the airport or not.....

 

[serfty]

...

And if anyone is wondering - as a Silver VFF on B737 Y flights I could see Row 5 and beyond as open for selection for me, I didn't select them as I am not that crazy about the front of Y myself but should have tried it as a test to see if the seat selection "stuck" at the airport or not.....

That's strange.

Post booking I still can't select seating online, although I can with Web Check-in 48 hours beforehand.

 

[eastwest101]

That's strange.

Post booking I still can't select seating online, although I can with Web Check-in 48 hours beforehand.

Sorry - should have clarified - I was using web checkin and was within the T-48hr window (Sat afternoon for a mon afternoon departure) - I got to this point after I received an automatic email advising me of my future VA bookings and I clicked on the link where Web checkin was offered, it propted me for the PNR and then I could select seats on all flights that day. So to clarify - Web Checkin is working for me, at T-48hrs, for my 3rd party (corporate travel agent) booked flights, as an additional complication I have already flown some of the sectors two weeks ago (all on the same PNR) so that may explain what I am seeing. I still cannot Manage My booking using either the PNR or Velocity number on the VA web site, but at least if they have web checkin working correctly then I can do web checkin and select seats online, which is a step forward from having to call the VA call centre to allocate a seat or just play lottery when I check in at the airport.


Having said that - its the first time since Sabre was rolled out that I have been able to do this on the VA web site so maybe some progress is being made.

 

[Mondo]

Another benefit of QF bookings is that you can even review and change your seat any time after booking and even after you check in online you can still change your seat and simply print out a new boarding pass. VA only lets you chose your seat once at booking, and not again till at online check in (then you are locked in to that seat unless you ask for a change at the airport). If QF can do it, why can't VA?

 

[serfty]

More to the point, since VA bookings, even flexi, become non refundable/changeable once checked in, I simply don't check-in until I reach the airport ... so OLCI is a waste ...

 

[oz_mark]

If QF can do it, why can't VA?

More mature systems on the QF side. VA have taken a step backwards on the self service functionality, hopefully so they can move forward.

 

[attroxx]

I just tried to book J BNE-CBR return (E90 both ways) and got the "Online seat selection is unavailable. Seats will be assigned upon check in." message. Also, looking at J BNE-SYD (737 out, E90 in) for a different date, could select for the 737 but not the E90. No worries for the same dates/flights if Y is selected.

What's the deal with J seat selection on E90s - I've seen other people reporting it earlier in the thread but have I missed something since?

 

[Jurahn]

I got the same "Seat selection is unavailable for this flight .... etc" message when booking J on A332 flights PER-MEL and MEL-PER for later this year so was unable to select seats on either flight.

 

[eastwest101]

I got the same "Seat selection is unavailable for this flight .... etc" message when booking J on A332 flights PER-MEL and MEL-PER for later this year so was unable to select seats on either flight.

Not sure if you are trying to select a seat on an existing booking or if you are trying to select a seat in a new booking process. I just opened up a random VA A332 flight (VA369 next week) and booked a dummy J class flight and it looks like you can select J class seats on A332s at the time of booking, I went as far as the payment page but no further obviously. So it looks like it is possible to select a J class seat on A332 flights if you are booking it yourself at the time of booking, see screen capture here:

 

[Jurahn]

Not sure if you are trying to select a seat on an existing booking or if you are trying to select a seat in a new booking process. I just opened up a random VA A332 flight (VA369 next week) and booked a dummy J class flight and it looks like you can select J class seats on A332s at the time of booking, I went as far as the payment page but no further obviously. So it looks like it is possible to select a J class seat on A332 flights if you are booking it yourself at the time of booking, see screen capture here:

This was at the time of booking, these are the domestic legs of international return flights to LAX in J and I booked the flights myself through the VA website. I was able to select seats for the international legs without any problem, but not for the domestic legs. No seat map came up for either of the domestic flights, just the "Seat selection is not available..." message. This was about 4 weeks ago, and I have been following this thread with interest to see whether the problem has been fixed - but it appears not, if people are still receiving the same message at booking (as per attroxx's post). I'm not sure whether these flights being part of an international itinerary has anything to do with it - I'd be interested to know whether anyone else booking international flights with connecting domestic legs has had the same issue with J seat selection.

 

[eastwest101]

... I'm not sure whether these flights being part of an international itinerary has anything to do with it - I'd be interested to know whether anyone else booking international flights with connecting domestic legs has had the same issue with J seat selection.

I would imagine that a mixed international and domestic J itinerary is the problem, but as you say, would be good to confirm from other posters if anyone has been able to select any seats for a mixed international and domestic booking. Sounds like the international bookings and seat selection are OK on their own, as are domestic bookings and seat selection, but when you mix the two the VA web site falls over. This would not be at all surprising to me.

Have you sent a PM to Velocity Frequent Flyer ? I know its a VA website issue and not technically a VFF problem but they may be able to let you know if it is definately broken (or not).

 

[Fruitcake]

I just did a dummy J booking for ADL-SYD-LAX-BNE-ADL, and was able to make seat selections for all sectors and proceed to the payment page.

There were no E190s in the mix though, maybe someone else can try that.

 

[Jurahn]

I would imagine that a mixed international and domestic J itinerary is the problem, but as you say, would be good to confirm from other posters if anyone has been able to select any seats for a mixed international and domestic booking. Sounds like the international bookings and seat selection are OK on their own, as are domestic bookings and seat selection, but when you mix the two the VA web site falls over. This would not be at all surprising to me.

Have you sent a PM to Velocity Frequent Flyer ? I know its a VA website issue and not technically a VFF problem but they may be able to let you know if it is definately broken (or not).

I haven't PM'd VFF yet - given the avalanche of problems he/she was bombarded with on their return to the board, I was reluctant to add yet another to the pile!!! Especially for something which may have just been a "quirk" of some kind rather than a major issue such as double-charging etc. I did mention it in a post in the initial thread VFF started to say they were back on the board, but did not get a reply to the post, so I assume they were pretty flat out dealing with everything else and probably didn't even see the post.

Judging by Fruitcake's post, it seems the issue may now be fixed. I might wait to see whether anyone else still experiences the same problem before raising it with VFF. It's my first time flying J (and shelling out the hard-earned in order to do so!), so it was a quite disappointing not being able to select seats for those sectors when booking. I've been waiting for things to slow down a bit with the volume of calls to the GCC before ringing them to see if I can do seat selection ....

 

[bcworld]

I just did a dummy J booking for ADL-SYD-LAX-BNE-ADL, and was able to make seat selections for all sectors and proceed to the payment page.

There were no E190s in the mix though, maybe someone else can try that.

I made a booking the other day with 2 E190 sectors and was not offered seat selection for either of them...737 sectors, fine.

 

[eastwest101]

I haven't PM'd VFF yet - given the avalanche of problems he/she was bombarded with on their return to the board, I was reluctant to add yet another to the pile!!! Especially for something which may have just been a "quirk" of some kind rather than a major issue such as double-charging etc. I did mention it in a post in the initial thread VFF started to say they were back on the board, but did not get a reply to the post, so I assume they were pretty flat out dealing with everything else and probably didn't even see the post.

Judging by Fruitcake's post, it seems the issue may now be fixed. I might wait to see whether anyone else still experiences the same problem before raising it with VFF. It's my first time flying J (and shelling out the hard-earned in order to do so!), so it was a quite disappointing not being able to select seats for those sectors when booking. I've been waiting for things to slow down a bit with the volume of calls to the GCC before ringing them to see if I can do seat selection ....

Yes fair enough, no such thing and a "Bad" J class seat and at least you are able to select your MEL-LAX seats, would have been nice to be able to select PER-MEL seats though, will be interesting to see if you can select seats using online checkin at T-48 but I think its the mixed Dom/Interntl booking that is your problem, not necessarily the A332 aircraft...

 

[Jurahn]

Yes fair enough, no such thing and a "Bad" J class seat and at least you are able to select your MEL-LAX seats, would have been nice to be able to select PER-MEL seats though, will be interesting to see if you can select seats using online checkin at T-48 but I think its the mixed Dom/Interntl booking that is your problem, not necessarily the A332 aircraft...

Unfortunately selecting seats at T-48 isn't an option either - still no OLCI for flights that are part of an international itinerary, you have to check in at the airport, so looks like it will have to be a call to the GCC and then keep fingers crossed when I get to Perth airport to find out whether my seat request "sticks".

 

[93D]

I have a ejet flight on saturday night which was booked last night, was given the option to select seats, selected 5F got through the payment step and got the magical "seat selection not confirmed" however the ATR sectors on the same booking remained. Checked in online and was surprised to see 5F was allocated for me however when going to the next step would no longer accept 5F so I tried to every other seat forward of the exit but it just kept coming up with "the seat you have selected is no longer available" and the only seat I could select was 17F. However checking expertflyer 5F was available and every other seat I tried was no allocated or blocked. (ATR flights managed to keep the seat allocations all the way from booking to online checkin)