Seat Map/Availability Question [and "Selling J seats" for Y prices]

[Siegfried]

I just changed dates for my M booking SCL - AKL - BNE from 13/07/10 to 20/07/10 by ringing QF. Prior to this, I checked EF and it told me that availability was was J4 D2 I2 Y1, so I figured I was going to get hit with a chunky fee to change up to Y. However, when I rang QF, they said that there was 1 M seat available, which I promptly snaffled. However, being curious, I checked the seat maps in EF, which showed 3 Business and 20+ Economy seats (and yes, it was the QF seat map, not LA).

About 30 mins later, I checked EF again for availability, and it now tells me that there is NO availability for that routing. I'm baffled!!

Can anyone explain the discrepancy between EF's availability and its own seat maps, and the difference between EF and QF?

UPDATE - just ran the "suck it and see" experiment with the QF booking engine, and got a match with EF's numbers (i.e. J4, Y1) which have magically returned. But I'm still not sure where the M seat came from that I got. Anyhow, I'm hoping that with that loading, there may be an op-up in my future.

[serfty]

Airlines can vary published inventory based on a few facits.

These facets include Geographical Region, Country of Sale, Actual Agent etc.


Often I have found Qantas have a greater inventory for themselves than is available/viewable externally.

The J1 Y1 B0 ... M0 ... is what E/F 'sees' from is USA location. Qantas could very well have had Y1 B1 ... M1 ....

Your move to this flight may well have resulted in "Y0 B0 ... M0 ..." as there was "only" the one seat available to be sold for WHY prices at that time. Such 0'ing of availability may trigger an alert to Yield Management who then decided to release further seats for sale in Economy. (More than likely, selling J seats for WHY prices.)

[Siegfried]

Thanks serfty - that would explain it. Although the J prices on QF looked like "real" J prices when I checked.

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Seat maps should never be used as any indicator of availability, just to note which seats are occupied and which are free.

[Siegfried]

Would that mean that they have been sold but not yet allocated?

[ExpertFlyer Voice]

Would that mean that they have been sold but not yet allocated?

That can happen yes.

[serfty]

... Although the J prices on QF looked like "real" J prices when I checked.

J prices are still J prices.

However, a flight may have 50 J seats and 200 WHY seats. YM see this as a flight with 250 seats to be sold for as much as possible.

Qantas may have sold 40 seats at J prices and 210 at WHY prices - the plan being to operationally upgrade 10 WHY passengers.

In this case they plan to op-up another WHY PAX as may be necessary if another WHY seat is purchased at a WHY price, simply to maximise revenue.

[wenglock.mok]

I often wonder myself how accurately seat maps are reflected on EF for QF - for instance, both of the CityFlyer flights I've booked are showing wide availability in Y (... O9 X9 E9), and while it does reflect the seat that I've selected as occupied, the seat next to mine is marked with an X. Some of the occupied seats further forward also have the seats next to them marked with an X, but others don't and simply have a vacant seat beside them. The X-ed seat next to mine is selectable by me on the QF website, but the other X-ed seats (which are beside the other pax's seats) are shown as occupied on the QF website. Do the seat controllers determine which seats to X and which to leave unoccupied? And how do they determine this?

[serfty]

... The X-ed seat next to mine is selectable by me on the QF website, but the other X-ed seats (which are beside the other pax's seats) are shown as occupied on the QF website. Do the seat controllers determine which seats to X and which to leave unoccupied? And how do they determine this?

Are you WP?

I have seen the behaviour you indicate and have compared notes with another WP travelling on the same flights. It seems for lightly loaded segments, Qantas' software (Altea) automatically 'block's a seat adjacent to WP PAX. This blocked seat "moves around" with the status PAX as different seats are selected.

This is the "Platinum Shadow".

When I travel with SWMBO on lightly loaded 737's, I often select a B or E seat for myself with her on the Aisle. More often than not, the Window (A or F) seat remains unallocated - postulating this is due to my 'shadow'. If I select an aisle seat with SG SWMBO beside me, the 'shadow' does not fall across the window seat.

[straitman]

Are you WP?

I have seen the behaviour you indicate and have compared notes with another WP travelling on the same flights. It seems for lightly loaded segments, Qantas' software (Altea) automatically 'block's a seat adjacent to WP PAX. This blocked seat "moves around" with the status PAX as different seats are selected.

This is the "Platinum Shadow".

When I travel with SWMBO on lightly loaded 737's, I often select a B or E seat for myself with her on the Aisle. More often than not, the Window (A or F) seat remains unallocated - postulating this is due to my 'shadow'. If I select an aisle seat with SG SWMBO beside me, the 'shadow' does not fall across the window seat.

I have seen this also and have found the 'shadow' stays pretty much until they run out of other seats.