Changes to VA seat plan ?

[BCons]

heard from VA booking desk yday they couldn’t assign seats to an upcoming booking because there were changes to the seat plan coming up.

was told it wouldn’t be in J, so that leads me to think VA might be getting rid of those 2 rows of Eco X and squeezing in another row of Y ?

That could be one reason for VA to announce that Plats buying lower-level Y fares can now use them for their complimentary J upgrades…

 

[Mattg]

I suspect you may be reading too much into it. Ripping out seats and changing the cabin layout requires a large capital investment that airlines just can't afford right now.

What route are you travelling on, could there just be an aircraft swap?

 

[BCons]

Well, 737-8 is all they fly and they're all the same as far as I know. Maybe new A/C coming from US have a different config ? Dunno, anyway our booking was in J for HBA MEL PER rtn, but the service desk said the pause on seat allocation applied to all bookings, even tho the seat plan change didnt apply to J. Ergo it applies to Y, so what could they be doing there ?

Y seating shudnt be difficult to alter, since those seats run on an adjustable track. Could VA be following many LCC's who dont seem to care about misplaced overhead light/air outlets when they steal an inch each row and conjure up a new row 31 ?

 

[antycbr]

Well, 737-8 is all they fly and they're all the same as far as I know. Maybe new A/C coming from US have a different config ? Dunno, anyway our booking was in J for HBA MEL PER rtn, but the service desk said the pause on seat allocation applied to all bookings, even tho the seat plan change didnt apply to J. Ergo it applies to Y, so what could they be doing there ?

Y seating shudnt be difficult to alter, since those seats run on an adjustable track. Could VA be following many LCC's who dont seem to care about misplaced overhead light/air outlets when they steal an inch each row and conjure up a new row 31 ?

There's still a 737-700 or two right?

The aircraft coming from the US are ex-VA aircraft anyway so they should be in what I call the Borghetti/Scurrah configuration.

Even moving Y seats about on aircraft seems an expensive exercise right now.

 

[AIRwin]

There's still a 737-700 or two right?

VH-VBY (which happened to be DJ's 50th aircraft) and VH-VBZ

 

[Mattg]

Yes there are also 737-700s. But that wouldn't make a difference to J seating, so I was wondering if the aircraft could have been swapped with a VARA A320 or Fokker 100.

Our fleet - flying with us | Virgin Australia

We pride ourselves in being your airline of choice, so we have taken every step to ensure we operate one of the world’s most advanced and modern fleet of aircraft.

www.virginaustralia.com

Or perhaps there's some other issue going on here which the call centre doesn't understand or didn't explain well.

 

[ozstamps]

.
Let's hope not.

I feel sure to many Plats, this one especially, row #3 is near the primary Bennie in the system.

Just cancelled a couple of late August Row 3 bookings today due to ongoing lockdown here.

But something to look forward to in the no WiFi new world. At least you have space to open a laptop and do an hour or two work. Jam anther row up there, and the ripples will be real.

The good ship T2 is sinking - mostly due to COVID, but that is the reality, and re-arranging the deck chairs now is just crazy.

 

[Mattg]

The good ship T2 is sinking - mostly due to COVID, but that is the reality, and re-arranging the deck chairs now is just crazy.

It is not in any way confirmed at this point that VA is making any changes to its seating configuration. I haven't see any evidence of this.

 

[BCons]

Yes there are also 737-700s. But that wouldn't make a difference to J seating, so I was wondering if the aircraft could have been swapped with a VARA A320 or Fokker 100.

Our fleet - flying with us | Virgin Australia

We pride ourselves in being your airline of choice, so we have taken every step to ensure we operate one of the world’s most advanced and modern fleet of aircraft.

www.virginaustralia.com

Or perhaps there's some other issue going on here which the call centre doesn't understand or didn't explain well.

Matt - think I was being given an explanation on the QT on why Nobody can pick a seat, not just us. With the credits I have right now I'm not going near another booking, not even a dummy one to test this, but perhaps others reading can check if they can seat-select to EC to WA..

With so few flts in EC Aust right now it wud be unusual for WA regional fleet (none of wch has J and is presumably ticking along on near normal scheds) to be subbed while there are 737s and crews twiddling thumbs in the East. I will abide by my earlier comment (that Eco X will go and an extra row will appear) until proven otherwise..

Ryanair for instance (and its a bad instance) hv 33 rows of Y in 73-800's. QF have 3 rows of J and still go out to row 30. Right now VA hv 30 with only 2 rows of J.

Others comment that its an xxy $$ exercise to reconfigure seating - but moving seat rows on the adjustable, notched track that is common right thru the plane requires some care for spacing, but not much else ?

 

[MooTime]

QF have 3 rows of J and still go out to row 30. Right now VA hv 30 with only 2 rows of J.

But VA have the 3 Economy X rows, just J rows, so same 30 rows seems right.
the Economy X rows cancel out the extra row J. (without knowing exact dimensions).

 

[Bagpuss]

heard from VA booking desk yday they couldn’t assign seats to an upcoming booking because there were changes to the seat plan coming up.

was told it wouldn’t be in J, so that leads me to think VA might be getting rid of those 2 rows of Eco X and squeezing in another row of Y ?

That could be one reason for VA to announce that Plats buying lower-level Y fares can now use them for their complimentary J upgrades…

It probably a design change so it looks in line with the new website they seem to be rolling out, which I think it aweful ... But each to their own.

Eco X is very popular and they wont be removing it ... Especially now Qantas has followed suit.

 

[jakeseven7]

heard from VA booking desk yday they couldn’t assign seats to an upcoming booking because there were changes to the seat plan coming up.

was told it wouldn’t be in J, so that leads me to think VA might be getting rid of those 2 rows of Eco X and squeezing in another row of Y ?

That could be one reason for VA to announce that Plats buying lower-level Y fares can now use them for their complimentary J upgrades…

99.99% they aren’t removing it they don’t have the money for this sort of thing right now. Although it wasn’t pulling in much money for VA1 - in a media interview PS said hardly anyone paid for it, VFF’s liked it. I expect they will keep it.

 

[MooTime]

99.99% they aren’t removing it they don’t have the money for this sort of thing right now. Although it wasn’t pulling in much money for VA1 - in a media interview PS said hardly anyone paid for it, VFF’s liked it. I expect they will keep it.

They have had a couple specials on the Economy X seats since the bankruptcy......10% or 20% off to encourage usage, umm revenue from them.

I love the extra tidbit of space & I know Plats love it, of course as it's free.

 

[Mattg]

They have had a couple specials on the Economy X seats since the bankruptcy......10% or 20% off to encourage usage, umm revenue from them.

I love the extra tidbit of space & I know Plats love it, of course as it's free.

At this point it's arguably one of the main benefits of Platinum status and a key differentiator against Qantas. VA would be crazy to get rid of it.

 

[MooTime]

At this point it's arguably one of the main benefits of Platinum status and a key differentiator against Qantas. VA would be crazy to get rid of it.

True true.

I've never snagged the QF front row (not J) & love the 3 rows of extra space X gives. Only ever been Bronze until recent charity Gold status so no surprise.

I'll climb to VA Plat early next year via the recent DSC offer & the X seats are a big swinger for me. Again no direct revenue to VA for the X seats from me from then on, ha!

 

[oz_mark]

If anything, it may mean the mooted restructure of economy fares is about to land, and perhaps your fare choices affect your seat choices....

 

[Mattg]

If anything, it may mean the mooted restructure of economy fares is about to land, and perhaps your fare choices affect your seat choices....

With Rex now more or less out of the way, perhaps they also no longer feel they need to give a checked baggage allowance on the cheapest fare category?

(pure speculation on my part)

 

[jakeseven7]

With Rex now more or less out of the way, perhaps they also no longer feel they need to give a checked baggage allowance on the cheapest fare category?

(pure speculation on my part)

That was one of the options on their market research via the VA2 community board I’m on.

Also they had things like paying for selected add ons like priority boarding, lounge access etc.

 

[henrus]

Also they had things like paying for selected add ons like priority boarding, lounge access etc.

I'm confused, aren't those things already available?

From what I understood you can buy lounge access (at the door and maybe even during booking) and priority boarding is included with Economy X. Fares with no checked baggage are something I could get behind but in return, they need to start being really strict on carry on baggage size/weight to stop people from brining the kitchen sink onboard instead of checking it.

 

[ozstamps]

so that leads me to think VA might be getting rid of those 2 rows of Eco X and squeezing in another row of Y ?

That could be one reason for VA to announce that Plats buying lower-level Y fares can now use them for their complimentary J upgrades…

I think if they WERE planning to reduce space in row 3 etc, they'd allow Plats to use upgrades on ANY buyable fare bucket ... as indeed they did for much of this year anyway, and they extended that offer due to the low take-up it seems.

We certainly used them even for Happy Hour fares.

We only get 4 a year, and even IF they did, this would still leave a lot of annoyed Plats and aspirational Plats going forward … there is little else to aspire to these days!