Virgin Atlantic to introduce fees for ‘preferred’ premium economy seating

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Roberto says:

  9 Aug9 August 12:45

  What happens if all the free seats have been chosen leaving just the paid for seats left?

  • Richie says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:00

    They may open up when online check-in opens.

  • Rob says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:39

    I thought the same!

  • Andrew J says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:41

    The same as happens to exit row seats, they are free of extra charge.

  • Littlefish says:

    9 Aug9 August 16:05

    This happens in Economy where the preferred seats get opened up (I think at some point after online check-in opens); separately, any unsold Economy Delite seats may also get allocated where the remainder of the Economy cabin is full.
    These may or may not be how it will work in Premium.

• Nick says:

  9 Aug9 August 13:00

  8:30am – Rob takes umbrage that people are disappointed in ‘polished’ articles that are better than regurgitated press releases

  12pm – Rhys publishes an article referencing UNIQ for the first time, with no explanation!

  • Rhys says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:11

    I don’t know what it is, either!

    • Mike says:

      9 Aug9 August 13:48

      Maybe find out please, or is more minimum wage = minimum effort nonsense

      • Rhys says:

        9 Aug9 August 13:58

        I wrote this article within an hour and then had to write our Gatwick ski article so as you can imagine, time was not on my side 🙂

        • AL says:

          9 Aug9 August 14:54

          To be fair to Rhys, UNIQ isn’t mentioned on the Virgin Atlantic website. It has sporadic mention elsewhere across the internet. It isn’t his or Rob’s fault that UNIQ isn’t advertised by VS in the same way that its nearest cousin, GGL, is on BA.

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Aug9 August 15:47

    UNIQ is more like BAs Premier rather then GGL.

    Invite only with benefits for very regular travellers.

    Friend of mine was one for a while it meant things like them stocking the drinks cart with the brand or gin he liked that wasn’t available to to other passengers and definitely a personal welcome from the CSM and first dibs on menu choices,

    There were several subsets with (IIRC) UNIQE being reserved for “friends of Richard”

• Littlefish says:

  9 Aug9 August 13:11

  I don’t know why they don’t open up the bassinet seats, or some of them, a week before travel; where not needed for babies. A perk for Golds and something people might pay a premium to sit in.
  This new +£55 monetisation is a shame and leaves VS Silvers out in the cold. Why not a 50% discount for Silvers or something?
  BA and AA do preferred seating much better and extend benefit to Silver elites; so this feels a backward step for Virgin and poorly timed in that it remains such a rare event to actually make a VS booking and end up on the plane you booked at or around the same time as booked. Expect, more back office time absorbed to unpick Premium seat reservations every time a plane changes.
  All told, Virgin getting harder and harder to trust and this ain’t helping.

  • Rhys says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:12

    70% of seats are still free to select!

    • r* says:

      9 Aug9 August 13:59

      For now. Doesnt change the fact that its disgusting to charge to pick a seat on a ticket that may have cost 900.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        9 Aug9 August 15:17

        If it disgusts r* to have the option to pay £0 or £55 for seat selection on a £900 PE seat then he’s going to lose his **** when he finds out about BA Club World….

        • Panda Mick says:

          9 Aug9 August 15:21

          Indeed. Thought I was reading comments on the Daily Fail website for a second 🙂

    • Tom R says:

      9 Aug9 August 15:47

      I could be wrong, but I recall EI doing this in economy, initially for a couple of years the preferred seating near the front of economy attracted a modest fee (€15-20) and about 70% of economy was free to select. When I last flew them in 2019 I seem to recall all seats being chargeable and the preferred seats now even more expensive to select. So “for now” 70% are free.

      Meanwhile just because BA charge for PE/CW seat selection doesn’t make it a good thing VS haven’t gone this far. It’s pretty absurd that you could pay £3k for a CW ticket and still have to pay to select a seat!

      As others point out, I’m assuming once all the free seats are gone it leaves those booking/selecting later with no option but to either pay, or take your chances when check in opens.

    • Littlefish says:

      9 Aug9 August 16:22

      No! The 30:70 logic misses out you can’t select the front rows in Premium. On the 789 just 17 of the 35 Premium cabin seats will be available to select for free for the first booker, which is less than 50%!
      I wonder how later customers will react when faced with only the 3 middle seats, or pay £55, or take their chances at OLCI (or try for a different cabin or flight). Interesting bet by VS!

      • Bagoly says:

        10 Aug10 August 09:52

        Do you get to choose seat before paying for flight?
        On some airlines you cannot, which is a pain.

  • MT says:

    9 Aug9 August 13:19

    Because a discount for silvers would make it more likely they would book them and thus make less available for Gold’s, thus devaluing the benifit for Golds.

    • Littlefish says:

      9 Aug9 August 15:54

      I am VS Gold after my next flight so, hopefully, will see over the next year whether these seat charges work out as a benefit for Golds as opposed to a revenue increasing exercise. I would far rather a bulkhead seat as a Gold though; not this which I feel is reducing that chance.
      It may turn out to be back-door theoretical seating for Golds in which case that would be a real benefit …. but then again, if that is part of the intention why not just introduce and advertise theoretical seating for Golds?
      BA did very well out of theoretical seating and lots of the BA Flyertalk community seemed to feel it a decent, if imperfect, perk.

• TimM says:

  9 Aug9 August 15:21

  Why do airlines forever have to complicate matters? I would vastly prefer to clear out a layer or two of management who have nothing better to do than make life complicated for travellers and put their wages towards offering a good-value, easy-to-use product.

  • Richie says:

    9 Aug9 August 16:59

    It’s all about additional revenue streams. Business just loves them.

  • Andrew J says:

    9 Aug9 August 19:27

    It’s all part of the race to the bottom for the industry.

• Panda Mick says:

  9 Aug9 August 15:23

  Regarding corporate flyers: My two flights to Vegas this month have Business Travel in the top left hand corner of the VS app. And, if my memory serves me correct, I’ve always been able to book seats free when AMEX / Concur has been doing the booking. A nice perk…

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    9 Aug9 August 17:10

    Er, everyone can book seats for free 😀

    • Oh! Matron! says:

      13 Aug13 August 03:01

      My bad… wasn’t aware of this! I’m just so used to the noise created by those loyal to BA whining about having to pay for their seats regardless of class.

• James Vickers says:

  9 Aug9 August 16:31

  I prefer the back row in premium anyway!

  • yorkieflyer says:

    9 Aug9 August 22:02

    Shhhh

• Chipper says:

  9 Aug9 August 17:23

  Just another example of the decline of Virgin Atlantic, you just know when you book that you are going to be messed about with 5 or 6 flight changes before you travel and a customer service department that can’t be contacted unless you wait a couple of hours. About time that new management was put in that could actually run an airline properly. Never known a company go so downhill so quickly, they always used to say we like to do things differently.

  • ChrisC says:

    10 Aug10 August 06:07

    You can say exactly the same about BA. And several other airlines as well.

• Cm says:

  9 Aug9 August 22:05

  Hah. Recently flew premium with Virgin for the first time & thats my exact experience. 3 changes, a cancellation with less than 24 hrs notice, rebooked flight was 4 hrs later. Still trying to make headway with a compensation claim, but finding them impossible to contact

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.