Booking seats on Virgin flights

[Jennizor]

Has anyone booked seats on a Virgin flight? Booking for our Caribbean cruise opens tomorrow. I have tried to get access to the site but it won’t accept my cruise reference number. I realise it may be that I can’t do this until tomorrow but I would like to know if anyone managed to book seats without problems.

[peteukmcr]

51 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

Has anyone booked seats on a Virgin flight? Booking for our Caribbean cruise opens tomorrow. I have tried to get access to the site but it won’t accept my cruise reference number. I realise it may be that I can’t do this until tomorrow but I would like to know if anyone managed to book seats without problems.

Is it a specific Virgin site? Have you got a airline booking reference from Virgin (I assume via P&O)?

[Jennizor]

I rang P&O this morning and was told I should speak to my TA. Our TA says I should be able to book the seats through Cruise Personaliser.  We have had the flight details from P&O and have been told we can only book seats 30 days ahead (tomorrow). We have no specific Virgin reference. I will give it a go in the morning. I am just concerned, with all the problems CP has had, it doesn’t work.

[wowzz]

24 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

I rang P&O this morning and was told I should speak to my TA. Our TA says I should be able to book the seats through Cruise Personaliser.  We have had the flight details from P&O and have been told we can only book seats 30 days ahead (tomorrow). We have no specific Virgin reference. I will give it a go in the morning. I am just concerned, with all the problems CP has had, it doesn’t work.

Ask for your PNR (Personal Name Reference) if you have any further problems.   

[peteukmcr]

2 hours ago, Jennizor said:

I rang P&O this morning and was told I should speak to my TA. Our TA says I should be able to book the seats through Cruise Personaliser.  We have had the flight details from P&O and have been told we can only book seats 30 days ahead (tomorrow). We have no specific Virgin reference. I will give it a go in the morning. I am just concerned, with all the problems CP has had, it doesn’t work.

Your airline reference (PNR locator = Passenger Name Record)  should be available from Virgin to do this. 

[leesam]

9 hours ago, Jennizor said:

I rang P&O this morning and was told I should speak to my TA. Our TA says I should be able to book the seats through Cruise Personaliser.  We have had the flight details from P&O and have been told we can only book seats 30 days ahead (tomorrow). We have no specific Virgin reference. I will give it a go in the morning. I am just concerned, with all the problems CP has had, it doesn’t work.

Hi Jennizor

We are waiting to be able to do the same thing with Virgin, please let us know how you get on today with booking your seats.

 

Good Luck

Ian

[Jennizor]

I rang P&O this morning about the Virgin flights. After a long conversation and research by a very helpful Daniel, I got the flight locator/booking references I needed. There is one for outbound and inbound flights. The next steps are:

 

 - go into the Virgin Atlantic site

-  click on my booking

-  enter the booking reference and name 

 

Your booking details should appear and the choose seat option is shown below the flight details.  You have to do this for each flight.

 

A lot of the seats were already booked so they must have been available yesterday.

I have booked our seats but there was no payment requested!

 

Good luck with this and get back to me if you have any problems.

[terry99]

We are flying Virgin to Barbados Azura in 3 weeks time.

Around 30 days before departure, P&O will send you an email providing your 6 character airline locator codes, one for outbound and one for inbound.

Log in to your booking via the Virgin Atlantic website using the locator code and your name.

It looks like P&O have been preallocated a large block of seats for relevant flights already, so if you look at the flights before locator codes are issued, it appears that most seats are taken. These seats are all released once the locator codes have been sent to pax on that flight, so you should then have plenty of seats to choose from.

Good luck!

[Jennizor]

terry99, P&O told me they would send all the details needed before the 30 day deadline, which was yesterday. As I had received nothing I I rang them this morning. I am sure there are others who have not yet received the information .If your theory about P&O pre-allocating seats prior to issuing the locator codes are issued, it looks like a lot of people have not yet received them. The way you described it was extremely helpful, but P&O should have done this a few days ago.

[terry99]

52 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

terry99, P&O told me they would send all the details needed before the 30 day deadline, which was yesterday. As I had received nothing I I rang them this morning. I am sure there are others who have not yet received the information .If your theory about P&O pre-allocating seats prior to issuing the locator codes are issued, it looks like a lot of people have not yet received them. The way you described it was extremely helpful, but P&O should have done this a few days ago.

 

Yes.      30 day deadline is pretty close and feels even closer when they don't keep to it!!  Very annoying when you have to chase things up (and worrying).

[minikiss]

I'm not in quite the position but I do have a Virgin flight booked for our Celebrity cruise in November.

As soon as my TA booked the flights (about 4 weeks ago) I was given the locator code and able to book the seats there and then. No waiting till the 30 day before  time deadline. I wanted seats in the bubble for the return and I would not have been able to so if I had had to wait.

Unlike BA if you book a Virgin flight you can allocate your seats right from the start  for no fee. Certain seat there is a charge like the bubble ones and exit seats but most have no fee.  That is why when you logged in lots of the seats were already allocated. It would be for that reason you had a smaller choice to pick from rather than Everyone logging in the day before you were able to. That said you all will be booked as part of a group rather than a single booking so i'm not sure if you could have got in the booking any sooner.  

 

Happy flying and cruising everyone Jules 

  

[Mrs Wally]

I have flights on Virgin going at the beginning of March and our seats were available last week, however, when we called and obtained the flight locator and logged on to the Virgin Website, the Flight dept at P&O had already pre-selected all passengers seats and allocated them to the passengers leaving no option available at all for alternatives in Premium Economy.  We were originally told that we would be able to select our own seating but this was not the case at all.  I have no idea why P&O opted to choose the seats on our flight, there were 25 bookings and plenty of seats available when I checked seating availability for my flight before the pre-allocation!

[Jennizor]

It all seems a bit odd doesn’t it? I have got seat allocation, that I chose for out and return flights. It will be interesting to see what happens when we get to the airport on the 29th.

[mickey89]

On 1/31/2020 at 4:46 PM, terry99 said:

We are flying Virgin to Barbados Azura in 3 weeks time.

Around 30 days before departure, P&O will send you an email providing your 6 character airline locator codes, one for outbound and one for inbound.

Log in to your booking via the Virgin Atlantic website using the locator code and your name.

It looks like P&O have been preallocated a large block of seats for relevant flights already, so if you look at the flights before locator codes are issued, it appears that most seats are taken. These seats are all released once the locator codes have been sent to pax on that flight, so you should then have plenty of seats to choose from.

Good luck!

On a positive note, since your flight isn't classified as a charter you will be able to get Virgin Airmiles.  Make sure you add to your Flying Club account.