Strange seat map for DJ flight tomorrow night

[pshepvic]

Flying from Sydney to Melbourne tomorrow night, and a strange seat map came up for the flight:



Normally occupied PE/J seats show a purple person which is the case for everyone in row 2. The two seats occupied in row 1 show a grey person, which is normally what shows for Y seats. Just wondering if this means they are op-ups or Y fares pre-allocated seated in PE/J, or if they are blocked for some reason?

Not an issue, just curious what this means!

(New/refitted aircraft too which is nice ... and a fluke, it was the first flight I booked and just happened to be one!)

 

[jsd]

The first thing that pops into my head might be that they are blocked for airport use...

Or if it is a refit there might not be a bulkhead in front of row 1 and it might be classed as an exit. bit not having been on a refit or BSI that is just a guess...

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[LiamR]

I can't say if you are in the same scenario or not.

But I've seen this once before, 1A & 1C were blocked off like this, instead of being available for sale. Two Virgin Execs were sitting in those seats.

I'm completely speculating here, but, if I had to guess, I'd say staff travel is booked into economy and if the staff qualifies somebody will block off and manually reassign the staff's seats.

They look like they are most definitely blocked off. How many seats are available for sale?

 

[pshepvic]

The first thing that pops into my head might be that they are blocked for airport use...

Or if it is a refit there might not be a bulkhead in front of row 1 and it might be classed as an exit. bit not having been on a refit or BSI that is just a guess...

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Not classed as an exit as there is a bulkhead. Also, when booked on an "old" aircraft I can still select those seats and they are an exit (not that I do as I can't watch LTA from gate to gate!)

It's strange because when I've been on refit/BSI before the map doesn't look like this.

I thought maybe it was blocked by airport ops - but they don't usually block PE. First time I've seen it like this.


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[serfty]

I saw this on some flights I booked for last weekend -since I flew on only one of them I cant report back on the other, but the seats were actually empty on the one I did fly on.

I'm assuming they are deliberately blocked - maybe for late booking HVC's.

 

[pshepvic]

There were more than 2 seats for sale (as it didn't have the "hurry" thing online) yet only 2 were not blocked.

Staff travel sounds plausible - if they get more than 2 more bookings I guess they can move them back to Y.


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[pshepvic]

And the follow up after the flight - the entire front row was empty, so I assume the two grey seats were blocked for some reason.

In the end there was only 1 other person in row 2, so the other 2 PE pax must have disappeared before the flight as well!

 

[LiamR]

The quirks of air travel huh?

 

[pshepvic]

The quirks of air travel huh?

Maybe finishing my tweet after the door closed messed with the space time continuum and the two imaginaries in row 1 missed their flight?

 

[serfty]

I saw this on some flights I booked for last weekend -since I flew on only one of them I cant report back on the other, but the seats were actually empty on the one I did fly on.

I'm assuming they are deliberately blocked - maybe for late booking HVC's.

And the follow up after the flight - the entire front row was empty, so I assume the two grey seats were blocked for some reason. ...

I see a pattern ...

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I'm assuming they are deliberately blocked - maybe for late booking HVC's.

Late booking HVCs or flight altering PE/business travellers perhaps though I'm far from convinced the latter is sensible.

 

[AUFlyer]

As a platinum I can normally just click on one of the "occupied" seats in the first row and it gives me that seat, even though it shows occupied (it actually allocates it). I have done this about 4 times and normally get the seat, however I was once bumped from that seat (1A) on boarding and given 1D. I dont know if this is a bug or just something platinum's can do?

 

[pshepvic]

Interesting. I prefer row 2 anyway, but good to know.


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[VA FF]

The seatmap isn't accurate to say you are on a new aircraft, I had the same layout but was an older craft, thought my trip today and tomorrow were both the new ones but if today wasn't maybe tomorrow isn't either ??

 

[pshepvic]

The seatmap isn't accurate to say you are on a new aircraft, I had the same layout but was an older craft, thought my trip today and tomorrow were both the new ones but if today wasn't maybe tomorrow isn't either ??

The seat map is accurate, assuming there is no last minute aircraft change, which does happen occasionally - and likely happened to you.

The seat map has shown the new configuration for a few weeks now for flights with those aircraft. It's actually very important they do this, as the exit rows on the BSI/refits are a row forward in numbering, essentially due to the removal of a row to fit the new J seating. If they used the same seatmap as non-refitted aircraft you'd end up with ineligible pax in exit rows. I did notice quite a lot of seat changes on flights on BSI aircraft prior to the new seat maps being introduced, probably as a result of this issue. Additionally, on the old seat layout children are not allowed in row 1 as it is an exit. In the new layout this no longer applies because of the new bulkhead, and therefore people with children in their booking should be able to select this row. Finally, as all Perth seats up front on all flights are now officially J between east and west coast, so I guess they had to bring in the accurate seat map otherwise every B738 flight between Perth and east coast would require a reshuffle of pax in the exit rows.

As far as accuracy for non-Perth flights, on the 3 occasions I've had the new seat map for a flight it has been correct and I've been on a new or refitted aircraft each time. There was a fourth time it showed the new layout the day before, however it changed back to the old seat map on the day as they had changed the aircraft. It was updated online about 6 hours before the flight - I guess it could happen even as close as 30-60min before, so there wouldn't be 100% guarantee that what you see online is what you'll get until all the refits are done by the end of the year. It's generally a good indication though.


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