Thanks for that. Let me start by saying that I have been a big fan of VS for 31 years and have gone on the record. I have, of course, had some problems along the way but, to get three unrelated issues on one sector - does cause one to be annoyed.
I have been travelling PE (Premium Economy) with them since 1997 and liked the original product and the update even more.
The first problem was the software system change over that the company made in November. In this thread we commented on the change for Flying Club pages but a far, far worse problem had arisen ...
In the change over, bookings that had specific seat requests - were lost. If the company knew about this, they made no contact with booked pax. If they didn't know, they did not check that all requests had moved forward to ensure that their customers paying a Premium price would not be inconvenienced. Thus a set of very specific seat bookings for a very special trip were lost and it was only discovered a few days before departure when finding the wrongs seats allocated. Further, the cabin was fully booked and no seat movement was possible. In our party of four, two people had 'moved' from the A+C seats to the D seats and in separate rows.
Our agent discovered the fault was due to the software changeover only by accident on the morning of departure via a casual question asked by a VS agent she was speaking to.
We arrived at T3 extra early but were told there was nothing could be done and to ask a favour in the cabin. By this time, I had learnt that our return sector was similarly affected and we were all in the D+E seats. I went to the ticket desk to be told, "That sector has the PE cabin fully booked, there is nothing we can do."
The space problem was compounded by the A346 being replaced by the smaller B789.
On board we managed to beg the favour to get the two of us into adjacent seats but still in the middle block, which I abhor and have avoided for decades.
The staff on board all knew about the seat allocation problem and said it has been a pain since the day of the change over.
If you made a booking before the changover - then I advise you to check it. Booking our seats on 30th September to take my partner's parents (aged 78 + 79) on the trip of a lifetime was fouled up and I shall be waiting to see if any kind of apology will be forthcoming.
I know that dung happens but the fact that no checks were made or, if made, were not followed up is lazy and VERY bad customer service. My partner's father said, "I've always heard bad things about Virgin Atlantic - so I'm not surprised." I politely contradicted him by saying this was the worst problem I had had in 31 years of flying with them.
Thus endeth the first problem.