3 economy seats vs 2 premium economy

[TrevIng]

Hi ellin10 Due to medical grounds, exit row seats are never booked. One always is able to book three seats and it is a automatic preferance for us. It suits us and it fits our type of travel. Cheers TrevIng

 

[mannej]

Hi ellin10 Due to medical grounds, exit row seats are never booked. One always is able to book three seats and it is a automatic preferance for us. It suits us and it fits our type of travel. Cheers TrevIng

QF and a couple of other airlines (i.e SQ) allow exit rows to be purchased for a fee prior to the flight on certain routes (i.e international flights that aren't TT), so that statement is not entirely correct.

However, if you don't fulfill the criteria for sitting in an exit row, QF won't seat you there nor refund you the fee.

This info is freely available on the QF website.

 

[TrevIng]

mannej As I said I do not book exit row seats (Reference is myself), more than understand the rules and availability for passengers who fulfill the criteria.

 

[Cocitus23]

The only problem we had was that Qantas cancelled our return booking for no reason and didn't contact us, but that appeared to be just normal Qantas incompetence.

Gee, Aardvaark, I have to say that I get annoyed by distainful throw-away lines like that one of yours. I have travelled for a lifetime with Qantas, and many other carriers, but I have never encountered anything I would call "normal Qantas incompetence". Sure, there have been occasional glitches (very occasional), and usually there has been a reason for those glitches. Incompetence? Hardly ever, and certainly not the norm.

ozbeachbabe has answered you excellently.

Cocitus 23.

 

[jacquij70]

Thanks everyone for all the answers - I'm going to have a good look at pricing but leaning toward three seats and will make sure I follow all the rules when booking

 

[Aardvaark]

Generally airlines don't just cancel bookings for no reason. Just because you don't know the reason doesn't mean there wasn't one.

Did you bother to ask the airline why the booking was cancelled so you can take steps to stop the same thing happening again? I'd do that if I were you & get the facts first before you automatically assume the airline is to blame.

There can be a number of reasons airlines cancel bookings such as:

* if you shopped around for fares with different travel agents, some agents book flights they quote you on then not cancel the booking thus creating a duplicate booking if you subsequently book the same flights through a different agent

* travel agents not acknowledging messages from airlines to cancel duplicate booking which may cause both or in some cases several bookings to cancel

* airlines notifying travel agents of changes/cancellations then those details not being passed on to passengers

* passengers not bothering to regularly check their inbox of the email address given to the travel agent or airline

Seasoned travellers always check the airline website the a couple of days before travel to double check the flight departure time at which time they would be aware of any changes to their original flight details

When did you find out the flight had been cancelled?

Airlines make every effort to advise passengers of changes to their booking but it's a two way street and passengers need to check their emails regularly if this is the only means of communication, particularly if you have already departed Australia.

A brief response as this is getting off the thread.

Tickets were booked in person at a QANTAS Office using a Senior Travel Consultant.

No changes were made to itinerary.

QANTAS made no attempt to contact us (some of our Hotel bookings were on the SABRE system), or warn us when checking in on tehe outward leg.

After some correspondence the final letter from QANTAS stated

"Regrettably, from our investigation, it is apparent that your return flight was inadvertently cancelled in this office, prior to your departure."

Luckily the extensive use of the internet nowadays means that passengers can usually pick up these sort of problems.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

A brief response as this is getting off the thread.

Tickets were booked in person at a QANTAS Office using a Senior Travel Consultant.

No changes were made to itinerary.

QANTAS made no attempt to contact us (some of our Hotel bookings were on the SABRE system), or warn us when checking in on tehe outward leg.

After some correspondence the final letter from QANTAS stated

"Regrettably, from our investigation, it is apparent that your return flight was inadvertently cancelled in this office, prior to your departure."

Hope you have a better experience next time.
Luckily the extensive use of the internet nowadays means that passengers can usually pick up these sort of problems.

So what QF are saying is that it was finger twubble by their travel consultant who accidentally cancelled the return flight in your booking.

Just a couple of points re QF not contacting you:

As your flight was accidentally cancelled by the consultant, he/she would have no reason to contact you if they hadn't realised what they'd done. I'm sure if they'd picked up the fact they'd cancelled your flight by mistake they would have either immediately reinstated it or taken other steps to ensure you got the seats back.

When you checked at the airport checkin staff only see your flight bookings for that day & oncarriage on other flights that day or in some cases the day after. If you for example flew outbound SYD/LAX 20 Jun then returned 06 Jul, the checkin agent would not see your return details on the checkin screen (Altea) so would not pick up you were meant to have a return flight.

If somebody was to look up your booking in the (Amadeus) reservations system only then would they see all your other flights in the booking. Checkin would rarely have any reason to look up your booking in the reservations system.

I'm assuming you didn't find out your booking was cancelled until you arrived at the airport?

What did QF do to get you home? Did you get any form of compensation for the inconvenience?

It's always a good idea to call the airline 24-48 hours before just to check everything is okay re flight times, special meals or assistance required & special meals if any. That way any problems can be dealt with then so it's all smooth sailing when you get to the airport.

 

[Cocitus23]

Aardvaark, I'll accept that it was a Qantas error that caused your return flight to be cancelled. But does that error constitute "normal Qantas incompetence"? You quote one isolated line from their letter to you, where they acknowledge culpability, but I would be interested to know what was said before or after that line. In particular, I would be interested to know the answers to the questions posed by ozbeachbabe:

What did QF do to get you home? Did you get any form of compensation for the inconvenience?

.

Thanks,

Cocitus 23

 

[MEL_Traveller]

What did QF do to get you home? Did you get any form of compensation for the inconvenience?

It's always a good idea to call the airline 24-48 hours before just to check everything is okay re flight times, special meals or assistance required & special meals if any. That way any problems can be dealt with then so it's all smooth sailing when you get to the airport.

I too had a booking 'inadvertantly' cancelled by Qantas. I picked it up myself checking the booking on line. I got no compensation for the inconvenience. Just a 'oh sorry, we'll fix it now'. After investigation they could not offer any reason as to why the booking was legitimately cancelled. Not that I expected any compensation, the booking was reinstated and I hadn't lost anything.

While it may be a good idea to call the airline 24-48 hours before, this is not Qantas policy which says that flights do not need to be reconfirmed.

Thousands of extra people ringing the airline would be a significant cost factor (sales staff to handle the calls) and wait times would be phenominal.

 

[Cocitus23]

The only problem we had was that Qantas cancelled our return booking for no reason and didn't contact us, but that appeared to be just normal Qantas incompetence.

.

If you are still following this thread, Aardvaark, you might care to peruse the text below which I submitted to a different thread last year. It contrasts quite dramatically with your words above, which I have bolded.

Cocitus23

Do We Protest Too Much?

Sometimes as I browse this excellent site, I find myself thinking how glad I am that I am not an employee of an airline, especially of Qantas. I don’t think my constitution could stand the load dumped upon it! Now don’t get me wrong. I have no claim to virtue here, having done my fair share of complaining, whingeing, coughing and carping about perceived failures of service. And I guess that such a forum as this, of its nature, inevitably attracts more adverse comment than favourable. So let me try to set the record straight.
I have not done as much flying as many of you. I am about to retire, so will soon be doing much less. Never-the-less, over my working life I have gone around the world a couple of times each year, and made innumerable trips to many destinations, both famous and obscure. Suffice it to say that I have flown enough for Qantas to bestow platinum upon me for many years now.
Now, looking back over my flying years, what I have to report is that the airline industry, and Qantas in particular, has delivered to me extremely high quality, consistent and dependable service.
Let us consider the usual list of gripes:
Delays: Yes, I have suffered the occasional delayed departure, but very few that I remember were really of consequence. Of course, I always try to leave a little float time in making my reservations, just in case something goes wrong. Of the thousands of airline connections I have made, only 3 or 4 were ever missed, and every time the re-scheduling was handled efficiently and courteously. Yes, I have suffered an unexpected overnight disruption, but only one, and that was in Chicago during an ice storm. Hardly the airline’s fault (UA), but they took every measure to transport me to a fine hotel where they had arranged a discount rate.
Food: Once I was served unthawed Beef Strogonoff by SU (Aeroflot) on a flight between Vladivostok and Omsk. No, they were not trying to give us a genuine Siberian experience, but they did apologise for the ovens malfunctioning. And in recent years I have preferred to pass on the offerings in the US domestic market. But other than that I have to say that the fare has been surprisingly good given the constraints of time, space and the number of mouths to feed.
Lost Baggage: I have never had anything lost, in the sense that I never saw it again. Yes, I have had temporarily mislaid bags, but surprisingly infrequently, maybe once every 100 flights. With one exception I have been reunited with my bags within 24 hours, generally less. The exception was 4 days somewhere between YYZ – IAD – BHM. I survived.
Emergencies: Once I had an aborted landing caused by a wind gust, just before touching down at Wellington. Never anything more serious than that.
Discourteous Service: I guess that I must have received discourteous service at some time, either in the air or on the ground, but frankly, I am at a loss now to even come up with a single instance. Occasionally, I probably even deserved discourteous service, but all I remember are polite smiles. On the other hand, I could report on many instances of rude, demanding passengers, often quite unrealistic in their expectations.
Is my experience totally unrepresentative?

 

[PineappleSkip]

The idea of paying for a third seat surprised me. I'd nominate the punters option if you have enough ff status.

Mrs pineapple and I have regularly preseated ourselves in A and C and punted on B being blocked as a result. It works about 2/3 of the time which would be the proportion of not full flights we travel on.

Obviously not much chop if you expect the flight to be heavily booked.

for international flights we generally look for flights which are normally 767s, A330s and the like with 2 aisle/window seats at the edges.

Cheers skip