Need help- Virgin have changed my seats and allocated me away from my kids after I paid to sit together

[Fcukedupflight]

This is going to be a long one to get in all details, but here’s a short version- Virgin changed my flights, lost my seat bookings and have sat me away from my children and are now saying they can’t do anything about it.

long version- I booked my flights months ago, travelling as a single parent with two ‘disabled’ children (one is ASD with a physical disability and complex additional needs, one is deaf and adhd). I paid to upgrade to premium economy and paid to book our seats so we were next to eachother.
a few months ago Virgin text to say they’d changed my flight. I checked and it was only by an hour so no issues. Then today I had a thought and checked, yep, they’ve moved our seat allocations and we are all separate and middle seats.
so today I’ve spent 3.5 hours on the phone and gotten no where. Virgin say that it’s a delta flight so they can’t change the seats. Delta say I would have to downgrade to economy (I’ve said no problem, not ideal but I’ll it) but to do that I have to get Virgin to make the change. Virgin say they can’t and I need to ask delta to call them? I have cried, I’ve asked to speak to a manager (and got put on hold and then disconnected ). I’ve offered to pay to upgrade. No one can help me. They just keep blaming eachother and saying they can’t do anything.

I don’t think we can do the flight, my kids fly well and are used to travelling, but they’re very stranger conscious and won’t manage hours in the middle of random people. Also my daughter is only 7, she needs to be near me for safeguarding. I don’t know what to do. Does anyone have any experience of this happening? I feel like our dream trip has been ruined, I just don’t see how they’ll manage the flight.

any Virgin experts who can help me out? I’ve called (a lot!), emailed and tried their chat which no one ever responded to. Due to fly in two weeks

Email the Times travel dr. This would be an easy win for them I reckon. How awful OP.

[email protected]

Just echoing previous posters who have advised the special assistance line. I have two disabled children and I’ve never paid to sit together. Special assistance have always sorted it so we are sitting together. They also help with accessibility in the airport. They can help with things like fast tracking you through security and put you first on the plane etc.

Good luck op! I really hope you get it sorted.

That’s what they told me, but I paid to book seats together to make sure. But I’ve seen the seat allocation and we are sat me, one child in the row behind and one child a row behind and opposite

Yes, I made it clear when calling but I’ve also got special assistance booked for the airport etc as well as registering it with the airline. This is why I’m so upset, I did everything possible and they’ve screwed it yp

Thank you, I’m so upset about it all, it’s really made me worry and it’s the flight at the end of the holiday so it’ll just ruin it all if I have to wait for the airport. I’m trying special assistance tomorrow!

Exactly what I was going to say.

You need to speak to special assistance, don’t go into the Virgin stores unless you have booked a Virgin Holiday package. If you’ve booked a flight only the won’t be able to help you as that’s with Virgin Atlantic rather than Virgin Holidays.

You should have had a refund for the seat change as well?

I've not got any helpful advice but posting a reply to drive traffic to this thread so more chance others will see it that may be helpful.

It's not right the situation you are being put in! Even if its eventually resolved at the airport, it's completely not acceptable or right that you should be under this sort of stress through no fault of your own and have to go to the airport potentially wasting all that time and planning without 100% knowing that you'll actually be able to board that flight. Not to mention you may not even be able to go the airport on a 'hope and a prayer' if you have accommodation/booking that needs to be cancelled well in advance in order to not take big financial loss. What a situation to be in, unacceptable. As a (physically) disabled person that travels Delta/VA about twice a year transatlantic to visit family, I'm severely disappointed in Delta/VA that they've done this to you.

https://www.delta.com/contact-us/accessibility-service-request

I'd be very cross and upset about this mess up too.
Could you get a letter from your doctor or your kids' teachers saying they need to be sat with you for whatever reason? You could show it at the desk when you check in and ask them to re shuffle other passengers.

We had this with BA but it happened the day before and we didnt realise until we arr8ved at the airport. We were fobbed off at check in and boarding, stating it would be sorted on board. It wasnt. We got on our London to Florida flight and told that all four of us were sat individually, me, DH and our seven year old twins, one with an autism diagnosis. We had paid over £100 to choose our seats as well. When i said we couldnt fly separately, i was told we were welcome to disembark. It was only when other travellers offered to move, we could continue our journey. That was in premium economy and our flights were thousands.

Ive not flown BA since.

The Daily Mail isn’t an airline, it’s a (rag of a) publication. What an odd comment!

@Fcukedupflight - send an email to the CEO Corneel Koster is the Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Atlantic. His email address is generally listed in corporate contact databases as [email protected].

• CEO: Corneel Koster (Effective 1 Jan 2026)
• Email: [email protected]

Hopefully he'll be able to sort it for you

Try to submit this form, OP, it may lead to the matter being resolved.

They have to sit you with your dc, take the confirmation of your booking with the original seat allocation you paid for, arrive early at the airport and let them sort it out at check in

This is just appalling - and a prime example of the f-ed up world we live in - you pay for a service and they are allowed to just remove it ‘cause Ts&Cs’. It’s a disgrace and a symptom of our useless society where even a corporate company is unable to be held accountable. Disgraceful. F-d up Britain. Sorry Op - really hope they sort it for you but you should never have been put in this position.

I’d be saying it’s their mess up, they can upgrade you to sort it out. It’s ridiculous they expect you to downgrade because of their mistake

Special assistance keep the whole front row free and it’s prioritised on need. I’ve had it multiple times with 2/3 days notice and when it was showing as full on the plane map. They don’t allocate the seats there until 24h before. It’s special assistance you need to be talking to for sure.

It's not an "odd comment", the DM often publish stories from MN and if they picked this story up, that would likely shame the airline into correcting this situation for the OP, seeing as they are currently giving her the run around.

But op shouldn’t have to wait till the last minute to sort this - she paid good money to avoid the worry. Does Richard Branson still own virgin? He should send his private jet for her to sort this. So bored of the super rich demanding perfect service when they can’t provide it.

I agree that OP and her DC need to sit together, but this needs sorting out before she gets to the airport.
Not only will it be incredibly stressful for her and her DC waiting to see what will happen, but in order for them to be seated together other people will need to be moved from seats they have also presumably paid a great deal for into unpopular, single middle seats.
It’s for the airline to sort out but it’s only fair those passengers are notified in advance and given the chance to cancel or reschedule.
I hope you manage to get this sorted out OP so that you can go back to looking forward to your trip.

Are you not registered with assistance? Book all of you on for assistance at both ends and they will put you together

What will probably happen is that you’ll arrive on the day and they’ll sort it out. The airline staff do not want children sitting separately it’ll cause disruption. Deep breaths. And trust it’ll all get sorted out x

deffo really bad service from Virgin. This situation happened to me with return flights on Ryanair and I tweeted them, even they called me back on holiday within about five minutes and resolved immediately.
Virgin are the pits for customer service.

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[email protected]

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