Problem Selecting Seats on Long Haul

[SeaWolf]

I'm having some trouble selecting seating on a long haul itinerary. I'm booked to fly PER-SYD-LAX-BNE-PER. I get that I won't be able to select seats on the PER-SYD and BNE-PER legs until two weeks out, but I'm given the option to select seats on SYD-LAX-BNE but can't seem to get it to work. I select the seats on the map etc. but when I go to lock it in the system spins its wheels for a moment then throws back an error about it being temporarily unavailable. At first I figured I'd just try back later, but its been about three weeks and I still get the same problem.
I feel like I'm missing something obvious. Is this a problem for everyone, or just me? Should I just call the call centre and ask them to set the seats for me?
I'm Gold on Velocity, if that makes any difference to the process.

 

[drewbles]

Call them. Their online system for international is absolutely woeful. It's a real annoyance with me (especially as i've moved all my LOTFAP travel to VA now. Fortunately the kids on the WP desk are exceptionally good!).

 

[EuroKick]

Not really related, but I'm having allot of trouble trying to find flights from SYD-HKG on the VA website. Could someone else have a go? It's constantly giving me an error, and this is happening on multiple computers.

 

[Justinf]

Happened to me as well. I had been pre-allocated row 10 in Y+ MEL-LAX-MEL and I didn't want the bulkhead row. I couldn't change it. It always came up as 'this is unavailable at this time, please try again later'. Well after trying again later for a whole month (not flying until November so there was no rush) in the end, I had to call the guest centre and they changed it for me on the spot.

 

[SeaWolf]

Thanks for the feed back, I'll give them a call and get it sorted out that way. Will be glad when they upgrade and integrate the whole thing.

 

[TimB]

Call them. Their online system for international is absolutely woeful. It's a real annoyance with me (especially as i've moved all my LOTFAP travel to VA now. Fortunately the kids on the WP desk are exceptionally good!).

I'm in the same situation.

Does your comment about the WP desk imply that the Velocity premium call centre can make this change without having to transfer you to the international longhaul call centre, like they do for booking changes?

 

[SeaWolf]

Well, I've called up and they were able to select me seats for the SYD-LAX-BNE sectors, but the PER-SYD and BNE-PER, no joy. I was told there's no way to do it, even within the two week window.

 

[maninblack]

Well, I've called up and they were able to select me seats for the SYD-LAX-BNE sectors, but the PER-SYD and BNE-PER, no joy. I was told there's no way to do it, even within the two week window.

Correct. Didn't want to disappoint you earlier with a smartarse post about how utterly and completely pathetic the whole system is and that you will not be able to get seat allocation for domestic legs on an international booking. Always good to find out for yourself We have been hearing the mumbo jumbo about Navigaire and Amadeus and Sabre for 6 months or more now. And that website, good grief, even access to basic information is a total schmozzle. I do not see how the senior executives at Virgin can tolerate this state of affairs for so long and not see that it is a serious set of issues.

 

[SeaWolf]

It is a bummer, and a little frustrating. I'm just hoping that when I check in my Gold status will give me some hope of still getting a decent seat.

I agree that they really need to focus on getting one, consistent, solid IT system across the whole enterprise. However, I work in IT and I know that it's far easier to say that sort of thing than to actually do it. It all sort of looks easy enough when you're standing on the outside, but once you start getting into the technical and political side of it the whole thing can become grossly complicated.

 

[Fruitcake]

Sabre is coming, and so is Christmas - but in line with SeaWolf's observations I bet there'd be a lot more whingeing about the impacts of trying to do it overnight if, for example checkin melted down or bookings were 'lost'. Ask anyone who is on the Queensland Health payroll, or stuck between Telstra's old and new billing systems what IT backend transitions can be like.

At the moment, my understanding is that for connecting flights VA is selling codeshare seats on DJ services. If you could find someone willing to extract a DJ booking reference from the VA codeshare booking, maybe you could get a seat assignment. In fact, when I was talking to the VA long haul call centre about seat assignment they offered to call short haul for me and help me do that. But I told them not to worry, I'm in Y+ anyway for my AKL-MEL leg so there's only eight seats to choose from and I don't have a significant enough preference between them to hang around on the phone for thirty minutes, especially if it proves to be impossible.

 

[aplmac]

My two-penneth: I'm flying a Velocity Rewards SYD-LHR-SYD in three weeks, booked through Velocity website last month, but pushed onto EY metal. Noticing that the flights were filling up, and not having any seat allocation in the system, I called the VFF 131875 number and after 45 mins on hold (I wonder if one can claim FF points for on-hold segments??!) the cheerful lady put in my requested seats and I see that they're now allocated on the system.