Virgin Atlantic Airways Review

“Before travelling I was contacted by a representative...”

Written on: 29/01/2011 by plumrose (1 review written)

Before travelling I was contacted by a representative of Virgin to discuss my seating requirements. There aim to sell me extras (which is business) however after spending quite some time discussing the options on pre booked seating I made my choice and was asked to pay, only at that point did the person tell me that she could only request my choice that I woud not necessarily get the my numbered seats, I was furious as I had spent quite some time to no avail. I did not want to pay extra and then find that the seats allocate to me were near the galley or toilets, this could not be guaranteed. I had the same problem on my return, when i visited the Virgin office to book my return seats I was given the most complicated explanation on why I could not book specific seats and also it was not possible to sit together on our return journey. Now in addition to the pointless offer of booking seats we sat on our out bound journey with the seat ratchet broken on my husbands seat which kept reclining, obviously he moved so we sat appart for 8.5 hours. We reported it to 3 attendants who showed no interest at all in recording it as a problem. On our return journey we did get seats together however my husbands entertainment unit did not work and despite the polite attempts of the attendents to reboot or whatever it remained not functioing for the 7 hour return journey.


I do think it is missleading to offer the opprortunity to book seats, when in reality it appears that the only booking taking place is choosing between premium, exit seats, extra legroom etc. Many people would believe that booking your seats is rather like booking seats in a theatre, you choose you get. I must also point out that at the moment only legroom length and seat pitch sizes are made available. The seats which form part of a set of 4 in the centre of the plane are narrower than those at the side. These measurements should be made available so people of a large girth do not spill over into the seats of their neighbours!