Lounge asks if anyone wants to move to an earlier flight

[vandy]

I was in the lounge this morning and an announcement was made that some spare seats were available on a soon to be departing flight to Brisbane. Staff asked if there was anyone without checked baggage wanting to move to an earlier flight to see the service desk immediately.

I have never heard such an announcement before and I understand requests to move to an earlier flight are usually vehemently opposed by QF staff. Has there been a change in policy that 'fly forward' is now being offered?

 

[TomVexille]

This does happen when there is impending weather

 

[serfty]

I have heard this in both QF and VA lounge a few times over the years.

Generally on the golden triangle and CBR FWIW.

It is possible the later BNE flights were oversold or maybe they were expecting cancelations due to weather or some other reason.

 

[GSP]

Maybe freeing up the latter flight for a cancellation.

 

[Sdtravel]

Ive heard it a few times before.
A BNE - SYD flight was running late and they were worried about curfew so were trying to move people forward.
I was on a mid morning SYD - CBR flight and in the lounge they asked if anyone wanted to move to an earlier flight.
This was all months / years ago so its a common practice.

 

[Hvr]

This was done from SYD in Feb at the end of the FT AGM. Apparently bad weather was expected.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was in the lounge this morning and an announcement was made that some spare seats were available on a soon to be departing flight to Brisbane. Staff asked if there was anyone without checked baggage wanting to move to an earlier flight to see the service desk immediately.

I have never heard such an announcement before and I understand requests to move to an earlier flight are usually vehemently opposed by QF staff. Has there been a change in policy that 'fly forward' is now being offered?

QF does it when it suits them! If they want pax to move to an earlier flight they make the announcement. If you voluntarily try, expect to be rejected. The 'move forward' also usually applies only if you have no checked baggage. Which can be very annoying. I suffered an extensive delay due to mechanical ex SYD and was not allowed to move forward even though anyone without baggage on my flight was allowed to do so.

(Although I did get to meet JT so that made the wait worthwhile )

 

[GoldCanyon340]

I have heard this in both QF and VA lounge a few times over the years.

Generally on the golden triangle and CBR, FWIW.

There was one made in the badlands of the ADL QP last week

 

[eddie 73]

Heard it called out over the years, and have been a lucky sprinter to the front of the counter twice on flights between mel/syd. Love getting home earlier

 

[kermatu]

I've heard this frequently in CBR, MEL and SYD. Usually a sign of an impending cancellation. But once in MEL there was a delayed international arrival so they were trying to move people up to the earlier domestic flights (ADL, CBR and HBA from memory, now with spare capacity) so the delayed international pax could get on later ones. The call in the QC and J lounges explained it all, which was very sensible.

 

[JohnK]

I have heard the announcement many times over the years. From memory there was fog in BNE at the end of the previous week and my Friday night flight was delayed ~2 hours as were most flights. I had checked luggage and could not take up the offer but I would not want to move to earlier flight if no aisle seats available. My comfort is more important than getting home earlier.

I have even heard this announcement on VA.

 

[eric2011]

Have heard it for BNE-SYD on VA. I have even been personally paged to the front desk and asked if I would like to go earlier