Seat selection - doesn't work?

[StevePER]

I haven't been flying much recently but have a trip coming up where I selected a seat online a couple of weeks ago (row 8). Today I went to do online check-in and found the system had moved me to row 28. So what was the point in pre-selecting a seat? I was able to move back to row 8 but what's the point in that?

Is it just me or does it do this to others as well?

 

[DGW]

I had the same issue with a flight to CBR this morning. I'd preselected 5D a couple of weeks ago and was all good, but when I logged in last night to print my BP found I had been moved to 13A. I queried it with the guys in the MEL lounge this morning and they had heard the same from a number of passengers before me so it must be a common issue. The team at the lounge seemed pretty frustrated that this was occurring with so many people and I was encouraged to email Virgin my feedback.

They were able to move me back to row 5 so I was happy in the end.

 

[777]

Same thing happened to me last week. Got bumped from 3C to 4F. I raised the issue with our friendly Virgin Australia rep here last week via email and he is looking into it. Hopefully he will be able to report back to us all here at some point.

 

[chris!]

It appears seat selection isn't working at all this morning. I have a booking that's 14 days out. Clicking "Add/Change Seats" (in Firefox, IE and Chrome) only takes me to the booking confirmation page. Happening to anyone else?

 

[chris!]

It appears seat selection isn't working at all this morning.

It's now working.

 

[jjsyd]

It appears seat selection isn't working at all this morning. I have a booking that's 14 days out. Clicking "Add/Change Seats" (in Firefox, IE and Chrome) only takes me to the booking confirmation page. Happening to anyone else?

I've had the same. For me it was when I was trying to look at the seat allocation which was automatically added for a booking I made outside of 14 days...more for curiouity than anthing as I had been given 3C!

 

[maninblack]

Tried to do a PE seat selection, first it keeps trying to sell me an extra legroom seat, then won't give me seat selection at all. Good grief Virgin is it that hard for you to make simple things work. Every other airline seems able. Another one for my 'amateur hour' list

The Virgin website is just appalling.

 

[notzac]

The Virgin website is just appalling.

Amen to that (but then, most airline websites are pretty bad - QF included)

 

[maninblack]

Virgin website is way worse than QF and far more dysfunctional

 

[greenfish]

Virgin website is way worse than QF and far more dysfunctional

Agreed, it is terrible. I've been booking Xmas trans-tasman flights over the past couple of days - tried both the NZ and DJ sites. The NZ web site is so much better, but I wanted the double SCs (had the offer), so needed to book DJ flight numbers.

As an example, it isn't possible to book more than 4 people on a codeshare flight - so I had to do two bookings. It isn't possible to make a single booking a mix of flexi and saver either (I can see why they this might be a deliberate restriction, but NZ allow you to mix seat, seat+bag, the works etc without any issues).

Having booked on the codeshare NZ flight via the DJ website, the seat selection doesn't work - no surprise there. However even ringing the Platinum number doesn't seem to allow for any sort of manual override of this - they've evidently linked together the two bookings, so here's hoping we'll all be sitting together. No advance allocation.

As an aside, the only reason we booked the NZ codeshare (in 1 direction) is for the IFE. Having gate to gate IFE for a 4 year old is worth a lot to me. No choice out of HLZ sadly.

Virgin, sort out your IT!

 

[medhead]

. It isn't possible to make a single booking a mix of flexi and saver either (I can see why they this might be a deliberate restriction, but NZ allow you to mix seat, seat+bag, the works etc without any issues).

Really? I just did a dummy booking and it would allow this.

 

[greenfish]

Really? I just did a dummy booking and it would allow this.

How? There is a single radio button when choosing the fare class.

I'm referring to mixing flexi and saver in a single segment, not booking flexi in one direction, saver the other.

 

[medhead]

How? There is a single radio button when choosing the fare class.

I'm referring to mixing flexi and saver in a single segment, not booking flexi in one direction, saver the other.

Well qantas doesn't allow that either, so hardly unique to Virgin. Besides NZ does any other airline allow it.

 

[greenfish]

Well qantas doesn't allow that either, so hardly unique to Virgin. Besides NZ does any other airline allow it.

My point is that NZ and DJ are selling the same product, so it would make sense for both to provide the same booking options. Only the double SC offer kept the booking with DJ instead of NZ - given I couldn't get the combo I wanted.

At the moment there are a number of inconsistencies in the code share products - particularly when booking on the DJ site. The 4 pax limit for a codeshare booking was particularly annoying.

Given NZ owns around 20% of DJ, maybe they could give / sell their website to DJ - the NZ site is streets ahead of the DJ site.

 

[maninblack]

Given NZ owns around 20% of DJ, maybe they could give / sell their website to DJ - the NZ site is streets ahead of the DJ site.

Streets ahead:?: It's whole cities ahead:!:

The Virgin/Velocity 'manage your booking' area is just appalling. Changes windows, actually changes website for no apparent reason, doesn't complete commands, doesn't log out properly, etcetera etcetera etcetara. Just so piss-poor.

 

[medhead]

My point is that NZ and DJ are selling the same product, so it would make sense for both to provide the same booking options. Only the double SC offer kept the booking with DJ instead of NZ - given I couldn't get the combo I wanted.

And my point is that is not relevant to the functionality of the website, especially in comparison to qantas. That is related to how virgin choose to sell their products.

 

[Sequel]

Add another to the "sort out you web siteS (not site) DJ" camp!

Booked PE, try to select a seat and get the error message that it can't be done for the flight and contact customer care. No biggie i thought, press OK, and then it gives me the option to select a seat!

Next, choose 1D, and it tries to slug me $30 for the blue zone!

Call to customer care, and then even the lady on the phone was trying to tell me that I was trying to select blue zone (too right I was, I'd just bought a PE ticket). They were starting to have me convinced that you still had to pay extra for 1D even on a PE ticket (note she wasn't trying to charge me).

Sent from my Nexus S using AustFreqFly

 

[medhead]

Well I've finally been hit by the seat selection bug. Booked a virgin flight yesterday afternoon, for travel tomorrow. Selected 4C, by the time I checked in today, I was in 3A a seat I specifically did not select when booking. I prefer an aisle, but I'm not sure if I should be happy or mad about this change.

 

[ARI]

Add another to the "sort out you web siteS (not site) DJ" camp!

Booked PE, try to select a seat and get the error message that it can't be done for the flight and contact customer care. No biggie i thought, press OK, and then it gives me the option to select a seat!

Next, choose 1D, and it tries to slug me $30 for the blue zone!

Call to customer care, and then even the lady on the phone was trying to tell me that I was trying to select blue zone (too right I was, I'd just bought a PE ticket). They were starting to have me convinced that you still had to pay extra for 1D even on a PE ticket (note she wasn't trying to charge me).

Sent from my Nexus S using AustFreqFly

My understanding is PE fare holders can only sit in the PE area which have more legroom than Bluezone area anyway.

It appears blue zone seating is only for standard economy passengers who want to purchase extra legroom.

PE fare doesn't mean we can demand whatever we want.

 

[maninblack]

The really pathetic thing is that they know their seat selection function has a number of glitches but they still have not fixed them