VA Economy X procedure?

[PERLHR]

Notice on upcoming flights, while in row 3A and 3b the aisle seat is occupied. Row 4 and 5 remain available as do the emergency exit seats but do Virgin just give them away closer to departure time? Was thinking of taking 4a and 4c with anticipation seat 4b remains vacant. Worth the risk or stay put?; PS it's a longish flight.BNE to PER.

 

[henrus]

Perth flights have been very full of late (I still think there is a lack of capacity on all airlines).

As a result if I was flying to Perth I’d book the exact seats I’d want to sit in plus not assume that there will be free ones next to me.

 

[Saab34]

Having a quick look, BNE-PER very full last few days and no economy x vacant seats at all.

Certainly don’t expect any spare seat trans con at the moment.

I wish Rex and Bonza would hurry up and launch ops across.

 

[flydoc]

Notice on upcoming flights, while in row 3A and 3b the aisle seat is occupied. Row 4 and 5 remain available as do the emergency exit seats but do Virgin just give them away closer to departure time? Was thinking of taking 4a and 4c with anticipation seat 4b remains vacant. Worth the risk or stay put?; PS it's a longish flight.BNE to PER.

Definitely select the seats you are prepared to stick with. VA do not appear to “give away” vacant exit row seats close to departure in the same way QF do. In my experience they stay empty on VA if no one is prepared to pay to sit there whereas QF (Dom) appear to have a different SOP and require at least 1 suitable pax in each exit row and will move people to achieve this if required.

 

[PERLHR]

Definitely select the seats you are prepared to stick with. VA do not appear to “give away” vacant exit row seats close to departure in the same way QF do. In my experience they stay empty on VA if no one is prepared to pay to sit there whereas QF (Dom) appear to have a different SOP and require at least 1 suitable pax in each exit row and will move people to achieve this if required.

Can't see any airline not having an operative on emergency exits. I could take the emergency exit seats and as Plat holder risk that the middle remains empty.

 

[Harrison_133]

Definitely select the seats you are prepared to stick with. VA do not appear to “give away” vacant exit row seats close to departure in the same way QF do.

They have a magic number they have to hit before giving them away for free, with some discretion given to Gold members. I think the number is 144, but it was 2 years ago the agent told me this so my memory is a bit foggy.

Can't see any airline not having an operative on emergency exits.

VA don’t actively fill the exits if people don’t pay. I’ve been on quite a few flights and been the only person sitting in the exit rows. Cabin crew also wouldn’t let people move because they “didn’t pay for Economy X.”

 

[PERLHR]

Stayed where we initially were Row 3 for both flights. All seats in row 3 occupied but certainly rows 4 and 5 were strategically picked and remained for these pax with empty middle seats. Also right up to departure on the BNE to PER sector all emergency seats were empty. Those were taken "up" shortly after boarding I believe. So someone must have got "no charge" "upgrades". Not bad for a 5 hour flight!