Virgin Flying Club Gold flying KLM – seating q

[caj]

Hi
I will be Flying Club Gold / SkyTeam Elite Plus with Virgin for the 1st time following my next flight.

Separately, I need to book economy light seats from GLA-AMS-NUE return for a party of 8 with KLM. Will I get free seat selection for everyone once my VSGold SkyTeam Elite+ status is updated? Currently showing as chargable…it is several hundred £ for everyone, so want to make sure I don’t pay if I don’t need to.
TIA

[AL]

Once your FC status has updated, usually about 72 hours before your VS flight departs, then you should find that E+ gives you access to some AFKL seating options FoC, but not all. This is, from memory, because Flying Blue (the AFKL loyalty scheme) maps at least two tiers to E+, and free seating is only offered to the higher tier. I think VS Gold maps to the lower tier, in order to incentivise their own customers.

In short, you should see some options. You may not get eight together, so be prepared for that, and there might be some financial outlay required.

The bulk of AFKL pax. will be using the free selection from T-8, so as long as you have sufficient time between your VS and KL flights, you should still see plenty of options.

Getting a solid answer on this is often complicated due to the way in which SkyTeam member airlines apply the alliance requirements in practice.

[caj2310]

Thank you very much for the insight AL. Much appreciated