Virgin Seat Layout

[JaneyS]

Does anyone know what type of plane the 10.35 am virgin flight from Manchester to Orlando is likely to be? I have looked at the website and they have two types of plane, one with a three four three layout for seats and the other two four two layout. Does anyone know if they use one type of plane or the other (I think its either Airbus or 737?) or whether they use both flights on the route?

We are hoping for the first one as there are three of us!

thank you

[katie]

Each time we've used this flight it's been a Boeing 747. The seat layout was 2-4-2 on the whole in economy, although I think this changes towards the back of the aircraft. I am sure others will correct me if I'm wrong.

Katie :)

[Keith]

Each time we've used this flight it's been a Boing 747. The seat layout was 2-4-2 on the whole in economy, although I think this changes towards the back of the aircraft. I am sure others will correct me if I'm wrong.

Katie :)

747 but the economy layout is actually 3-4-3 until the back where it's 2-4-2 for a few rows

[katie]

Thanks for correcting me Keith - I'd only glanced down the section on my way upstairs.

Katie :)

[Keith]

Thanks for correcting me Keith - I'd only glanced down the section on my way upstairs.


well tend to notice more when going to upper class in the nose :hehe:

[katie]

:D :D

Katie :)

[lizzx10r]

We have always had 3-4-3 and then then last few rows at the back 2-4-2. We always have 2 lots of 2 seats.

[JaneyS]

Thanks Katie & Keith. I just can't wait for May so I can do an online reservation. We should be able to have a 3 by the window, so there is a tiny chance my son will go to sleep for a bit in the corner!

[rubyjackxx]

Hi,

not sure if you know this already but if you get your flight locater (which is different to your booking ref if u booked with a travel agent) you will
be able to view your booking on the virgin atlantic website. you will then
be able to add kids meals and choose your seat numbers etc. i think you can do this 3 months before you travel. but in my experiance, you can almost always do it earlier than this. on every virgin flight i have been on the seats are 2 4 2.
hope this helps

[JaneyS]

Thx Ruby - do I have to go to the travel agent and ask for a flight locator number? Our holiday is with US Airtours Ltd although the flight is Virgin from Manchester.

I looked in the Virgin brochure and on their website and it says that you can access your flight details once your tickets have been issued, which is usual 2 or 3 weeks before the flight. It would be nice to reserve seats before hand - presumably I could do this for the return trip as well?

Our dilemma is, if we can have three seats together by a window we will (which would be ideal), otherwise should we have three seats together in the middle (more squashed for whoever is in the middle) or two seats (better for our son to go to sleep) and one of us sit with a stranger on the row behind?

[Strongy]

we booked our seats miles in advance through the website, just enter the virgin booking reference, it will say cant find at which point u enter name flight time flight number and it generally finds it then, it it possible :)

[rubyjackxx]

hi,

have you booked direct with us airtours? if so you need to ask them for
your flight locater with virgin atlantic, if you have booked through a travel agent ask them to call us airtours for you to get this number. If you leave
it til your tickets come and then do it the seats you can pre book online will be full and you will have to ask at check in ( virgin only allow about 50% of the the plane seats to be booked online all others are left free for
check in). i hope im not confusing you, im an agent in the uk and we offer
this for every virgin flight we book to orlando. once you have this number(it is made of of normally 5 or 6 letters and numbers) you can then view the whole aircraft and choose the exact seats you thiink will suit you best.
In my exoperiance with my kids i would sooner have the 3 seats and 1 behind... hope this helps

[krs]

Try here for everything you need

http://www.v-flyer.com/

[JaneyS]

Thx rubyjack - this website is so brilliant. My husband has flown with Virgin before and he didn't know anything about this service. Things like this make life so much easier!

I have just phoned the travel agent and she has confirmed what you have just said and she is going to phone US Airtours and get me our flight locator numbers today. Hoorah!

[JaneyS]

Hi Rubyjacks, I have been in to see the travel agent who phoned US Airtours while I was there and got me the flight locator number. US Airtours told her that the locator number would not work on the Website until the tickets had been issued, which would be at the back end of April.

I tried the locator number on the website just incase but it didn't work!!

I just went on the Virgin website and it has changed since I looked at it last week - it now says you can only use the reservation service once you have issued tickets.

Does this make sense or have I been given dud advice somewhere along the line?

[Strongy]

normally once youve entered the locator, it will say it cant find it then it will give u the opttion of adding more information like flight number what date is the flight etc, so u might want to give it one more try if we had waited for our tickets their would be no more prebookable seats left

[rubyjackxx]

Hi janey,

I have just had a quick look on the virgin website and it looks about the same to me, but i havnt looked at it in as much detail as you probably have!. are you using the manage your flights section?. The only time (in my experiance) that you are unable to get the booking number is if the operater (us airtours) have bought the seats months ago in bulk, and then they will have 1 booking number for all the seats they have booked directly. However i have had clients in this situation and i have asked the operater to ask virgin to issue the tickets early even if the hotel/car vouchers wont be ready all you need is that ref. I have always managed to do it in the past. if you dont have any joy with that im stuck with what else to suggest!, sorry.

Oh, they will only issue tickets if your all paid up!

good luck, let me know

[dmp]

- If and when you get the online seat-reservation working, make sure you also use online check-in. This 'opens' on the virgin-atlantic site 24 hours before the flight leaves. If you don't do this but just check-in at the airpiort a couple of hours ahead, there's a good chance your 'reserved' seats will have been given away to someone ahead of you in the queue, and the whole thing could have been a waste of time... (This happened to me twice before I caught on to this and it's SO frustrating!)

- Use www.seatguru.com to see ratings on the best seats to reserve. (You have to know the kind of plane used for that particular flight, and the www.v-flyer.com site already mentioned is good for this). This is a good site that points out things like exits, galleys and toilets that might affect the seats you choose.

- If you can't get the reservations working online, try online check-in anyway. If you time it right, you still might get the seats you want.

- If not, just get to the airport early and bag the best seats you can. I don't think that many people use online-check-in, and even if they have previously reserved seats online these can be (and are) superceded at the check-in desks.

Enjoy your flight and your holiday.
David

[Castanea1985]

Thx rubyjack - this website is so brilliant. My husband has flown with Virgin before and he didn't know anything about this service. Things like this make life so much easier!

I have just phoned the travel agent and she has confirmed what you have just said and she is going to phone US Airtours and get me our flight locator numbers today. Hoorah!

Janey,

Have you also joined the frequent flying program? It is free to join, and you earn miles when you fly - even if you have booked through a third party!!
Then you can look for 'miles + money' flights when they come out!!

[JaneyS]

Thanks David - I have decided not to bother with a reservation but will definitely be checking in on line the day before we go. My travel agent thinks that a certain percentage of seats are released for reservations and a certain number not released until on-line check in opens anyway, so I imagine there are bound to be some seats roughly where we want them anyway. My husband used the on line check in when he went to Las Vegas with Virgin and it worked fine.

I am planning to do on line check in on our return journey as well if we can find an internet cafe or similar the evening before. I know you can check in at DTD on the day but the MK opens at 8am on the day we leave so it would be better to head there for 3 or 4 hours then pick up our luggage from the hotel and head back to the airport in a taxi. Otherwise it would be 9ish before we'd got rid of the luggage and we'd still have our hand-luggage with us anyway.

Not too long to go now - I am really looking forward to this holiday. Last year was crappy France in a caravan in the rain!

[Redstev]

Hi i booked our seats by phoning virgin atlantic and we dont travel till December they then give me a ref no so i can see our booked seats online.