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

I would put in a complaint and tweet - with qantas once I only got anywhere at all via twitter. State clearly offering to downgrade us to meet our accessibility requirements is discrimination on grounds of disability when I’ve already paid for us to sit together in premium and registered us as requiring special assistance. You need to keep at them and it is such BULLSHIT that this is necessary. And say I do not close this complaint until I can see seats allocated that meet our needs.

Ring the daily fail and see if they'll print a sob story for you about the airline refusing to seat disabled kids with a parent despite you paying extra?!

I could be wrong, but I think you’re in a better position because you are flying delta. The US have stricter regulations to protect disabled travellers. As you’ve already got special assistance booked, you’ll be first on the plane. I think if you read up on the Air Carrier Access Act, you should be able to resolve this at the gate / check in. Familiarise yourself with your rights.

I found advice here useful in the past. I emailed a CEO (different company/scenario) but had my issue resolved within 24 hours.
I hope you get it sorted 🤞

And to add...

When i made a complaint to BA customer services about our debacle on the London to Florida flight, they offered me a £100 voucher to put towards my next BA flights. I said it wasnt sufficient but that was as much as they could offer. I spoke to a couple of agents and there didnt appear to be an escalation policy or anyone 'higher up' to talk to.

If I had had the energy, I would have pursued it, but I had too much going on at the time, and of course, thats what they count on.

It is as a PP said, a despicable practice which seems to be more common than we might think.

Hi there you need to start your own thread with this question and people will answer it.

I sat in a row of three last week. Virgin Premium Economy.

If you have the energy before/after I would have a crack at contacting Guardian Consumer Champions https://www.theguardian.com/money/series/consumer-champions They are far less scummy than the daily mail (and anonymous!)

It’s insane that people on the same booking aren’t automatically sat together anyway. I don’t remember this ever being an issue before the internet age. I hope you’re all sat together and if not, that the fellow passengers will see sense and let you sit together. If I fly with my DH I don’t really care not being sat with him. We see each other all the time. A few hours doesn’t make any difference.

On threads like these sometime often suggests putting it on twitter/X for it to get noticed.
Is that an option?

this is what you have right to as American citizen, not sure where to go if you're in UK or somewhere else

www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/airline-cancellation-delay-dashboard

That's as maybe, the thing that's causing me a few ??? is the OP has said it's a 737...

Virgin don't have any and Delta are not fans of narrow bodied aircraft on Long Haul routes so either Delta have had a massive change of policy (and given the fuel situation TBF that's possible) or we've not quite got the full picture...

That is horrendous @Hillsmakeyoustrong
Shame on BA.

This just solidifies why I don’t ever want to go on holiday on an airplane ever again. That is beyond stupidity, I’m so sorry OP. Xx

I've found Twitter / X useful when getting nowhere with companies. Recently had an issue where I was going round in circles for weeks, called them out on X and it was resolved quickly.

Lord help me, the things we get blamed for. 😂
Airline seat arrangements in the UK aren't one of them, so accusing us (this time, at least) is an odd choice.

BTW, millions of us hate what's happening here and despair at how badly it's affecting the rest of the world. It's a nightmare and we're stuck here. They've lost their minds and any sense of decency. MAGA cheats at everything in order to dominate; dictatorship is a very real possibility. It's scary, tbh.

If you didn't vote Reform, you might understand just how wrongs things can go.

God bless us, every one.

I had something similar apparently when they do change to a code share the airline who is the carrier seating plan takes priority. So everyone who booked with Delta gets their prebooked seats and virgin customers are slotted in where there is space.

My guess is that it’s a US domestic flight operated by Delta but sold as part of a Virgin package with a Virgin flight number under their codeshare agreement. IIRC Delta do offer a premium economy service on some domestic routes. The inventory/seat assignments on DL operated flights are completely outside VS’ control.

Hi OP. This happened to me twice before! I paid for seats, then they changed the seats, and my four-year-old was like 10 rows back!!! But on both occasions, they sorted it at the airport. One at check-in and the other on the plane - air hostesses swapped the seats.

Yes, agreed, sounds something like that to me as well.

It's situations like these that always make me feel sympathy for families trying to swap seats on board because they're separated from their children. Sure they might just not have bothered to book seats together but also they might have done but got fucked over by the airline.

I have seen people complain on LinkedIn and that seems to get a company's attention very quickly

As you paid extra to sit together, who on earth thought it would be a good idea to separate children from their mother?! Awful.

I know these can be tricky for the airline when arrangements get changed, but what do they actually fucking think will happen in reality with two small children sat away from their parents, even if they had no additional needs? Plus have they heard of CAA rules? You have to be sat at least across an aisle or one row in front or behind, and it doesn't even sounds like they've bothered to do that, even though that may not be satisfactory in itself.

If it were up to me I'd change CAA rules and say no-one can charge extra for seating and you are always by default sat next to your party unless you elect not to. I don't care if it's costs extra to fly then for all, so what. Because what do they think would happen in an emergency? People will be wanting to get out with their nearest and dearest. People would be climbing over one another to get to their kids or best friends and it would definitely hamper escape and mean fewer people survive.