VIRGIN AUSTRALIA: How to get the best seats – the 48 hour rule

Just like Qantas, Virgin Australia releases seats it holds back for its premium flyers for booking by other passengers 48 hours before the flight. Here is what you need to know.

• Virgin Australia’s T-48 Rule: The Key to Unlocking the Best Seats
• What You Need to Know About Virgin Australia’s Seat Selection Process
• Tips for Snagging the Best Seats on Virgin Australia Flights

Virgin Australia sets aside some of the best seats on its Boeing 737 aircraft just as most airlines do for their premium frequent flyers. The higher level of frequent flyer you are, the greater access you get to these preferred zones, but, once you get to 48 hours before the flight, all of the vacant seats on the aircraft are available to all flyers that is within your booked zone. It’s not like economy passengers can suddenly book into business seats – without upgrading.

Manage my Booking

All you need to do is head over to ‘Manage my Booking’ on the Virgin Australia site/app 48 hours before and find your place in your preferred row, as long as no one had got there before you.

There are a few finer points to keep in mind. Virgin Australia will try and give it’s Platinum members a spare seat next to their allocated seat in economy. However, Virgin is still interested in revenue, so if the flight is fully or nearly fully booked, those seats may also become available around 12 hours before departure. The downside is that they will invariably be a middle seat.

Tips to get a good seat

• Set the alarm on your device for 48 hours and 15 minutes before your flight. That 15 minutes is so you can get to your computer/device and head to the Velocity/Virgin Australia site/app, and go to the Manage my Booking page to see if any of these preferred seats are available
• Book it straight away. They won’t be available if you wait!
• If nothing is available, check again 12 hours before departure in case further seats have been released

And finally, avoid booking the windowless seat 9A on a Boeing 737. For that matter, seats 9A, B and C are all a bit suspect because of their lack of window.

2PAXfly Takeout

With the advent of Economy X, those first 3 rows behind Business Class are only usually bookable by paying a premium. Not sure that they become available for an ordinary economy fare 48 hours before departure. The trick is always to set that 48 hours beforehand alarm and check to see what seats are available and get into those rows 3 to 6 if possible.

I’ll be trying it this week for my return flight from Ballina, so I’ll report on how it goes.