Premier economy mix up...

[JulieHaydon]

My partner and I work very hard and we decided to treat ourselves to a holiday with seats in premier economy as we were flying long distance and my partner is tall.

Fine going out and we had a wonderful holiday.

Then coming back we were all sat down on the plane waiting to take off when parents got on with their young child. Again fine, if they've got the money to do that then good luck to them. A flight is public transport after all.

The problem was they boarded late and there was only two seats left. What the mix up was I don't know but as the child was four the flight crew would not allow him to be on one of his parents laps.

So they had the awful task of trying to get one or two people to swop down into economy to let them travel together in Premier - and no one would. We refused outright as did the other passengers. If it had been up to first class we and others would have gone like a shot but this was never on offer. Perhaps it was full.

It was the parents' attitude that amazed us. You'd think with a child they would have booked in early but they didn't they came late, and expected others to move to accommodate them. The woman was very large and said she needed a wide seat which was obviously true.

But as another passenger said "Why can't two people from economy be upgraded so that they can all sit together in cattle class? They were late after all so why should someone move when we've all paid so much more?" However they went on to refer to the mother as a "Fat lump with no manners, if you need a wide seat with your family then be on time boarding" which I don't respect - there's no need to be rude.

We were delayed for an hour because of them. I think they had to go down to economy to sit together as they wanted because two new people suddenly appeared and took their seats.

And I don't think this was unreasonable do you?

[JulieHaydon]

Perhaps my last post explains it in simple terms just for you Slithytovel! you obviously have a problem with understanding my initial post. Doh!

[AgaPanthers]

This is all a bit odd.

(a) Virgin don't have First Class, it is Business Class called Upper Class.
(b) They don't have Premier Economy, it is Premium Economy.
(c) You signed up specially to post this?

[forago]

yes that's right, and if you don't get there in time, the gate closes and you miss your flight. The gate closes at the published time whatever (believe me - I have raced for enough last minute standby flights :))

being the last person to board the plane with a boarding pass with an allocated seat number - as apparently was the case here, is NOT late.

As others have said, many people with young children choose to board last as there is then less time to try and keep the children quiet and entertained before take off.

I used to work for BA and I can't honestly see how this could happen. Because they have a sensible child seating policy and pre-allocate seats. But we don't really know what happened here I don't think. As far as I know, both Virgin and BA have a compensate to downgrade policy, but my knowledge might be out of date.

I flew BA recently (with kids and in PA, natch) and they weren't that great. I think air travel generally these days is pretty tedious. And flying PE is not really much of an upgrade, unlike business or first. Those seats cost way more and have a larger mark up so the airlines treat those passengers much better, of course.

[ToffeeMoon]

People can be horribly selfish when flying though. We recently flew transatlantic with our baby and tried, but filed, to pre-book the seat with the bassinet in front. When we checked in, staff said the bassinet seat was taken but not to worry, the passenger wasn't travelling with a child so we'd be able to swap with them on board.

Er, nope! When we got on, a middle-aged couple were sitting in front of the bassinet space and despite being asked politely by cabin crew, they absolutely refused to swap with us. We see in business class so all the seats were good and perfectly comfortable etc. we had been placed a couple of rows behind them but exactly the same amount of space. The guy (he was horrible) shouted at me that I was "entitled" in expecting him to move just to accommodate my baby. He aid he'd specifically booked that seat to be as far away from the galley as possible so he didn't have to listen to the crew "gabbing away all night".

When I explained that if he didn't swap with me, I'd have to hold my baby on my lap all night he replied "you should have checked in earlier then shouldn't you?". He was perfectly ok with making me sit with my baby on my lap on an overnight flight while he took up the bassinet seat with NO BABY.

It was all resolved quite quickly in the end when a very sweet chap next to them realised he also had a bassinet seat (why the crew didn't realise this I don't know) and he jumped up to let us in. As he left his seat he said "We're in business class, the seats are all the same aren't they?" And gave the knob and his lady knob a withering glance.

Anyway, his tv didn't work so we had the last laugh in the end but it did leave me gobsmacked at how unhelpful and rude people can be on planes.

Actually, I was really upset and fighting back tears...which he could see, but didn't care. His horrible wife just looked at her feet.

Ooh, I've been wanting to vent that for months.

[forago]

Julie - Premium is not "the expensive seats".

[ToffeeMoon]

Oh, and I think the OP is full of shit. It doesn't make any sense and is full of goady wind-up comments.

[PerditaMcLeod]

Julie, that is indeed the case for BA (ot it was when I worked there). Children under 14 were not permitted in First or on Concorde. Club was no problem.

I work for another airline these days and I can tell you there are really only 2 explanation for this.

1. Family didn't realise at checkin they hadn't been seated together in PE and were looking for people to move so they could be seated together.
   
2. They had been really cheeky and booked 2 PE and 1 E with the hope of getting 3 seats in PE.
   

Errors on check in/boarding really don't happen very often. Particularly not these days. Every pax accepted for boarding will be allocated a seat number and the checkin systems will not allow 2 pax to be allocated the same seat.

[AgaPanthers]

I agree ToffeeMoon, I mean 'JulieHaydon', really?

Fucking bollocks, the whole lot of it.

[JulieHaydon]

I've been wanting to vent this for a while as well. I stand corrected. Virgin do indeed have Premium Economy not Premier Economy - my memory is going...

[ExitPursuedByABear]

I didn't think Premium Economy was worth the extra money when we did it.

[forago]

me too - and it's so painfully "Hyacinth Bucket"

[BeCool]

2. They had been really cheeky and booked 2 PE and 1 E with the hope of getting 3 seats in PE.
But if they had done this surely cabin crew would tell them simply to take their seats (one adult with the child in PE) and not gone to great lengths to try to rearrange everyone and piss everyone off in the process?

[JulieHaydon]

At least I have the guts to post using my real name rather than the childish nicknames many people use on here.

And I have the brains to give an opinion without swearing. Only stupid people do that.

[TwelveLeggedWalk]

Okaaaay then

[ExitPursuedByABear]

That's your real name?

Well more fool you

[BeCool]

At least I have the guts to post using my real name rather than the childish nicknames many people use on here.

THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE READ ON MN EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Julie do you have a habit of travelling though life completely missing the point?

[BeCool]

OOPs I meant to say:

THIS IS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING THING I HAVE READ ON MN EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PerditaMcLeod]

BeCool, you would like to think so, but given how chaotic things in the cabin can be as the crew run through their pre-departure checks, if the family in question were really kicking off, they may have looked to try another approach. Either way, you sit in the seat you were allocated, let the crew get on with their job and then try and negotiate a seat swap once they've finished doing minor things like checking the doors are locked and cross checked! That really is the only way I can see something like the OP described happening.

[BeCool]

Fair enough - but the OP didn't say the 'latecomers' were kicking off, just that they were a seat short.

[PestoSunnyissimos]

Sorry, but I don't believe this scenario happened at all due to

1. Pre-allocated seating with boarding passes issued and checked more than once before being allowed on the plane.

[JulieHaydon]

ToffeeMoon I didn't think lap children were allowed in business class? And I agree the way you were treated was horrible.

[JulieHaydon]

Pesto google the subject and you will find whole threads on it. Not my scenario but similar.

[JulieHaydon]

Almost always problems due to the parents' lack of planning rather than the fault of the airline...

[PestoSunnyissimos]

I don't need to google to source outlandish scenarios, I fly often enough with Virgin to know that this didn't happen.

Well done for entertaining us though.

[Stinkle]

I was on a flight once where a family, I assume, had booked 2 seats in premier and 2 seats in economy, then tried to get them all upgraded to premier.

The row was pretty epic.

The family all wanted to sit together in premier but the cabin crew weren't having any of it - they gave them 3 choices - 1 parent with 1 child in premier/1 parent with 1 child in economy, all 4 together in economy, or get off

I couldn't believe the cheek