4x Int. J Flights, not one sitting next to my wife.

[bammac]

This one is causing me a bit of grief and it's spoiling the experience a bit also. In the last 12 months my wife and I have flown 4 Int. J flights booked through Qantas. Each time I end up getting a seat not allocated next to my wife. We are both gold FFyers with Qantas and after the first flight I cleared all seating preferences... still without luck. I select seats together, but seem to get separated. We end up having to ask other pax to swap seats. It's a bit bit embarrassing and sours the experience.

Over the weekend we took another flight booked through Qantas (on EK metal) and again the problem occured. The first flight MEL-AKL was corrected at check-in, the FA stated they have been getting the wrong allocations from Qantas. The return flight, we were next to each other in a near empty cabin... divided by the aisle. Again we had selected the middle row, seats together on the A380.

The only thing I can think of is that my wife has yet to take my surname (due to professional reasons). It's driving me a bit bonkers, any advice on a course of action to resolve it would be great.

 

[markis10]

Out of curiosity are the bookings all on the same ticket?

 

[bammac]

Out of curiosity are the bookings all on the same ticket?

Yes, they are. On every occasion.

 

[markis10]

Yes, they are. On every occasion.

How odd, in the case of the EK flights its worth jumping on the EK site to confirm seat selection, it seems to help with stickiness.

 

[hdfb]

You can always take your wife's name if she is unable to change hers for professional reasons and you think that that is why you have not been seated next to her.

 

[docjames]

Certainly odd on same booking.

Agree with markis10 if travelling on EK metal.

 

[Jack_OC]

Agree with others that this is extremely odd.

I don't know what the explanation is, but you may find the MyFlights app very useful. It's available for iPhone/iPad, and possibly android too (not sure). The guy who developed it is a member of AFF too. It sends you an instant notification any time any changes are made to your bookings - including changes to seating allocation as well as change to aircraft, departure time, even notes added to your booking by the airline or travel agent. It obviously doesn't stop someone changing the seats you have allocated, but it means you find out right away if it does happen, meaning you should have the maximum amount of time to get the change reversed or select different seats beside each other.

 

[Katie]

Do you both have sating preference listed in your QFF summary? You don't both prefer window seats or something like that?
I have a different surname to Mr Katie, and more often than not, we are seated together. The main occasion when we have not been was when there weren't seats available together. On occasions with Little Miss, who has her father's surname and all of us on the one booking, she has been placed with her father rather than me if there's 2 seats together. I out that down to alphabetical order eventually. Though in Jan on our points upgrades from BKK-SYD, she was put in the middle aisle, and we were out in side aisle and window seats.

 

[bammac]

Do you both have sating preference listed in your QFF summary?

I hadn't on our MEL-SYD-LAX-JFK flight last year when the issue started to arise. After that flight I did clear all preferences on both profiles. As we also had enough status on the return flight I thought I would be able to change the seats, but the cabin was fully booked and we were stuck.

Since then I have been diligent enough to make use of our SG status and actually pick seats together on booking, I even checked & re-checked that I am selecting the seats together from the seat map. They just don't seem to stick too my selection requests. The seats are not AFF fav's, so It's not a demand thing. As I mentioned earlier it happens in both full and empty cabins.

The odd thing is that it doesn't appear to affect our domestic bookings, just Int. Well that's just one of the many odd things in this situation. Will definitely check out the app, sounds very handy.

 

[Anna]

Perhaps your wife is ringing up QF without you knowing and asking for her seat allocation?

 

[vetrade]

Can relate to your frustration bammac but don't think you'll get a logical explanation. Wife and I (same surname) recently did a OW RTW in J with 16 segments on 6 different airlines (booked with QF FF points) and I found there were multiple occasions when I logged on to find the seat selections for one or more legs had been mysteriously changed (didn't have selections for BA flights because they charge $33 pp per leg and I was too stingy to pay the extra when I'd already booked a J ticket). Strangely, when I went in to "change seats" in my booking to see what was available several times I found that the original seats I had selected were vacant and I could change back to them. Go figure !

I put most of it down to random computer behaviour (a bit OT but Iberia's computer also randomly cancelled our flights with them on four separate occasions - one of them en-route - which I wasted several hours in total getting re-instated) but I did work out that two of the seat changes occurred when there was a change of metal for a particular flight even if the seat maps were much the same.

 

[russ]

I've paid lawyers a lot of money so that I don't have to sit next to my wife.
I am jealous that you achieved the same thing for free!

 

[Hvr]

I've paid lawyers a lot of money so that I don't have to sit next to my wife.
I am jealous that you achieved the same thing for free!

Hopefully you didn't have to pay her enough that she can afford to fly J.

 

[Paddy55]

Mrs Paddy is actually Ms Xylophone on her passport and never have had a problem sitting together.
Puzzled by your experience

 

[Sprucegoose]

Perhaps your wife is ringing up QF without you knowing and asking for her seat allocation?

Youve obviously been married for a while!!

 

[sydflyer]

I thought that all pax on same booking would be seated together by default, and only separated if someone with access to the booking details selected seats to that effect.

 

[knightman7]

Very very strange. I've flown upwards of 30 int J legs with my wife, maybe more and have never not sat together. You must just be cursed! I tend to keep a close eye on seat allocations though and if there is a last min aircraft substitution, have aways gotten seated together. She didn't change her name either so that's never been a problem.

 

[Paddy55]

Wonder what your default seating preferences are... and whether they conflict?
For example, if you both have a window seat as your preference the QF system may try to satisfy that before worrying about whether you're seated together.

 

[serfty]

That's never been an issue for us, we both have aisle preferences and auto allocation when both are booked together has always been an aisle and an adjacent seat.

 

[russ]

Hopefully you didn't have to pay her enough that she can afford to fly J.

Hahahahahaha!! ROTFL!!!! Clearly you have never been divorced!