Vueling charged me £16 extra for a seat. Compulsary

DJFearRoss

Not sure if anyone has been through this before.     I bought a ticket about 3 weeks in advance and on the day of my flight I went to checkin online and to my surprise Vueling stated that there were no more free seats left so I had to pay for one of the premium ones.    

I normally fly Ryanair, Easyet and only occasionally Vueling so haven't experienced anything like this before.   Normally I would just let it go but the fact the flight arrived so late, the tube was closed forcing me to pay 30 euros for my taxi as well, is a kick in the teeth.

Does anyone have any advice regarding getting my money back on the seat or is it a lost cause?

Caz3121

not sure it it was compulsary

their website says

Wait for free random seat allocation to open.
Depending on your booking, it will be available from 7 days or 24 hours before departure. You can check it when you check in. If there are no random seats available, you'll need to go to the check-in desk on the day of the flight to be allocated one free of charge.

jimi_man

Hi. You didn’t need to do this. You’d be allocated one on the day. They usually allocate from the back first and generally they aren’t great seats but if you’re on your own, it’s a short flight and you’re not bothered then just let Vuelling do it. I’m assuming it’s a Basic fare? 

eskbanker

There was another thread a couple of months ago about this happening on Ryanair, citing reports on the BBC and Daily Mail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67613343

Voyager2002

You also mention that your flight was very late. Have you explored delay compensation?

Neil49

eskbanker said:

There was another thread a couple of months ago about this happening on Ryanair, citing reports on the BBC and Daily Mail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67613343

My wife and I used Ryanair in October and didn't bother with reserving specific seats as it was a fairly short flight. 

I just had to checkin within the last 24 hours and was allocated seats at no extra cost. 

eskbanker

Neil49 said:

eskbanker said:

There was another thread a couple of months ago about this happening on Ryanair, citing reports on the BBC and Daily Mail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67613343

My wife and I used Ryanair in October and didn't bother with reserving specific seats as it was a fairly short flight. 

I just had to checkin within the last 24 hours and was allocated seats at no extra cost. 

Well yes, that was my experience too, from earlier in the year, but that story suggested that this started happening later on, in early December or perhaps late November....

DJFearRoss

Thank you for the replies.  They slyly took the extra money from me then, as I couldn't proceed with the online checkin without purchasing a seat.  It DID state there were no free seats left.  I'm just really confused why I feel like I'm the only one experiencing this with vueling.  I don't recall see anything about getting a free seat at the airport or I would've done it.

My flight was about 2.5 hours late, so I no compensation either.

zagfles

eskbanker said:

Neil49 said:

eskbanker said:

There was another thread a couple of months ago about this happening on Ryanair, citing reports on the BBC and Daily Mail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67613343

My wife and I used Ryanair in October and didn't bother with reserving specific seats as it was a fairly short flight. 

I just had to checkin within the last 24 hours and was allocated seats at no extra cost. 

Well yes, that was my experience too, from earlier in the year, but that story suggested that this started happening later on, in early December or perhaps late November....

But it probably only applies when they're just "premium seats" left. Seems the budget airlines have cottoned onto the fact that some people leave online checkin till the last minute in order to get premium seats free, as I have loads of times . So they put a hassle factor in the way when that happens - ie forcing you to checkin at the airport. I guess if they have non premium seats left you'd still be able to checkin online.

eskbanker

zagfles said:

eskbanker said:

Neil49 said:

eskbanker said:

There was another thread a couple of months ago about this happening on Ryanair, citing reports on the BBC and Daily Mail:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67613343

My wife and I used Ryanair in October and didn't bother with reserving specific seats as it was a fairly short flight. 

I just had to checkin within the last 24 hours and was allocated seats at no extra cost. 

Well yes, that was my experience too, from earlier in the year, but that story suggested that this started happening later on, in early December or perhaps late November....

But it probably only applies when they're just "premium seats" left.

Indeed, OP stated that this what what they were told by Vueling, and the suspicion would be that Ryanair are doing the same:

DJFearRoss said:

Vueling stated that there were no more free seats left so I had to pay for one of the premium ones.