Arrived in LA on Sunday morning. Flew Flexi BNE to LAX to FLL, all on one Virgin Australia ticket. The internal LAX to FLL was on Virgin America. Arriving in LAX I needed a VX boarding pass.
I dropped my bag off at the transfer counter and then went to check in. They gave me a boarding pass and said I was standby. I started to explode so they told me to talk to someone in the Loft.
Now the Loft (their lounge) cannot assign a seat all the time, they have someone at the service desk which is in the gate area do it. I was told it would be assigned at boarding, and I would be called, so to hang around the service desk.
I went earlier than boarding and started to get huffy and they gave me what I wanted. But the issue is:
All up it really makes me wonder why I don't just arrange flights with the cheapest carrier in the US and forget the VA partnerships as they don't seem to do anything for me.
I dropped my bag off at the transfer counter and then went to check in. They gave me a boarding pass and said I was standby. I started to explode so they told me to talk to someone in the Loft.
Now the Loft (their lounge) cannot assign a seat all the time, they have someone at the service desk which is in the gate area do it. I was told it would be assigned at boarding, and I would be called, so to hang around the service desk.
I went earlier than boarding and started to get huffy and they gave me what I wanted. But the issue is:
- It isn't really Standby, although some VX people will tell you it is. The Loft said the seat was there, just not sure which one. So don't panic unless like me you don't want a middle seat;
- There is something wrong with the VA-VX seat assignment integration. One lady told me it was a temporary IT problem. So watch out for it, as sitting in the middle for a 5 hour fight just after you got off a 13 hour flight is not pleasant;
- Another lady told me that the Americans can check in online and select seats well in advance, and since us VA people arrive last minute from their perspective they do a late shuffle of seats;
- Platinum means nothing on VX unless you argue! So good luck with priority boarding etc!
All up it really makes me wonder why I don't just arrange flights with the cheapest carrier in the US and forget the VA partnerships as they don't seem to do anything for me.