Help with seating

When you book your flight or log in to My Booking you’ll be able to select your seat from the seat map.

Standard seats can be selected free of charge. Unless you’re travelling in Economy Light, where your seat will be assigned at check-in.

If you’ve booked Economy Light and want to select a seat, you can pay to select a Standard/Preferred Seat.

If you want to select a Preferred Seat or an Exit Row seat, these seats are chargeable and the price will show when you hover over them.

We’ll always do our best to give you your chosen seats but sometimes we have to make changes for operational reasons.

If you’ve already chosen your seats, you can change your mind at any time before checking in. To change your seat selection, log in to My Booking.

Your new seat must be located in the same cabin as before, or you can choose to upgrade for an additional cost.

If you originally paid the extra charge for a Preferred seat, you could move to a different Preferred seat in the same cabin for free. The extra charge will be refunded if you pay to upgrade cabin, however, charges for Preferred seats are not refundable if you later choose a non-Preferred seat in the same cabin.

We're usually able to honour seat selections but there are occasions when we need to shuffle things around due to an aircraft change or other operational reasons.

On the occasions where it’s necessary to move your seat, we will always try and match your seat and your party to a like for like location and seat type.

Sometimes this isn't possible if the aircraft configuration changes or we need to prioritise seating for customers with special requirements.

You can view your seats at any time and change them to other available seats in My Booking.

We're usually able to honour seat selections but there are occasions when we need to shuffle things around due to an aircraft change or other operational reasons.

On the occasions where it’s necessary to move your seat, we will always try and match your seat and your party to a like for like location and seat type.

Sometimes this isn't possible if the aircraft configuration changes or we need to prioritise seating for customers with special requirements.

You can view your seats at any time and change them to other available seats in My Booking.

If you paid to select your seat, but didn’t receive that seat type, you may be eligible for a refund. See section below: 'How do I rebook or request a refund?'.

Any charges for choosing a Prefered seat are refunded automatically in these situations:

• When as a result of operational, safety, security or other circumstances we are unable to deliver the pre-assigned seat(s) or need to change seat assignments and we are unable to offer a Comparable Alternative (as detailed in section 8 of our seating terms and conditions) a full refund will be given.

• When a flight is cancelled by Virgin Atlantic and passengers are re-protected on alternative Virgin Atlantic flights where Comparable Alternative seats cannot be offered and/or Advanced Seat Assignment is unavailable.

• When a flight is cancelled by Virgin Atlantic and passengers are re-protected on alternative flights on other airlines

• Passengers who are denied boarding due to flight over sales may be offered Advanced Seat Assignment on their alternative travel date if the new flight is operated by Virgin Atlantic and there is availability.  If there is no availability on the alternative Virgin Atlantic flight or passengers are re-protected on another airline, a full refund including any taxes paid will be given.  

Otherwise, charges to choose a Preferred seat are non-refundable.

To claim a refund for seats, upgrades or excess baggage, please complete our our Refund form.

If you need to rebook or have another enquiry, see our Contact forms.

We aim to automatically process seat refunds 14 days after you’ve travelled.