Virgin cruises - is this normal

martinthebandit

Hi, bit of advice please,

I have booked and paid for a cruise for my wife and I with Virgin, we last used them for a cruise 5 years ago and they were excellent.

Its not particularly cheap, £3600 plus and, because its going from Venice it involves a short haul flight Virgin are using Monarch airlines.

Today I checked in with the airline to book the seats etc, Monarch told me that I need to check in with Avro (whoever they are) and put me through. The Avro rep asked if we wanted to book extra leg room at £11.99 per passenger per flight, I declined and was then told that to pre book ordinary seats would still cost £5.99 per passenger per flight.

Now I expect such shenanigans when using Easy jet, Ryanair and the like but I actually did not expect such nonesense when using a company like virgin.

Am I being unreasonable getting annoyed by this? and what can I do about it?

I did ring virgin and they did offer to refund me half the cost (£12) of pre booking the seats, as they could not guarantee that we would be sat together if we did not pre book, I am now waiting for a supervisor to ring me back, should I hold out for the full £24 or suck it down and just remember it for next time?

Archergirl

I never pay to book seats and we have always sat together. It's only a short flight, if it would be a disaster to have to sit apart and you don't want to risk it you will have to pay. As I say I never have and we have never had a problem.

Dogger69

Virgin are the agent.

The flight is operated by Avro.

It is pretty standard to pay to prebook seats. I wouldn't see the need for such a short flight.

F_Bear

i'd pay extra to sit apart :rotfl:

martinthebandit

Dogger69 wrote: »

Virgin are the agent.

The flight is operated by Avro.

It is pretty standard to pay to prebook seats. I wouldn't see the need for such a short flight.

I know Virgin are the agent thanks, one of the advantages of using an agent is that the price they quote should be the price you pay I was quite surprised to find that I am expected to pay extra to guarantee sitting together.

Dogger69

martinthebandit wrote: »

I know Virgin are the agent thanks, one of the advantages of using an agent is that the price they quote should be the price you pay I was quite surprised to find that I am expected to pay extra to guarantee sitting together.

No disrespect but that is quite an old fashioned view. With most 'package' holidays you will now pay extra for allocated seating, in some cases even your luggage and meals are not included either.

martinthebandit

Dogger69 wrote: »

No disrespect but that is quite an old fashioned view. With most 'package' holidays you will now pay extra for allocated seating, in some cases even your luggage and meals are not included either.

No disrespect taken thanks and yes it probably is an 'old fashioned' view, to be honest it's probably my own fault for not realising that Virgin had gone so down market.

Oh well, lesson learned for the future I suppose.

Gloomendoom

I have flown with Monarch many times and have always been sat together with my wife whether or not I pre-booked a seat,

bagand96

I know Virgin are the agent thanks, one of the advantages of using an agent is that the price they quote should be the price you pay I was quite surprised to find that I am expected to pay extra to guarantee sitting together.

With all due respect the price you have been quoted is the price you have paid. And you will get what you have paid for... Which is a cruise from Venice, and a flight to get you there.

Wanting to guarantee seats together is an optional extra and therefore chargeable. Monarch still allocate seats at check in; so as long as your there in plenty of time you will have no issues.

claire16c

I've never paid and always got seats together, Venice is a short flight anyway.

opinions4u

You will almost certainly be sat together without having to pay.