Does Qantas fly a 4 Class 747 on 3 Class Route (First seats in Business)

[newcomic]

I am flying to Haneda tomorrow night from Sydney. I'm in Business Class on a 747 and when I went to select my seat the seat map is that of the 4 Class 747. I have selected seat 2F. Seat 2F only exists in First Class not Business Class.

I've checked the Seat Map on the Qantas site and it's definitely showing the 4 Class Configuration when comparing with Seat Guru and others.

My question is, does Qantas ever fly a 4 Class 747 to service a 3 Class service and would they allow passengers to sit in the First Class seats but give them Business Class service?

 

[opusman]

Indeed they do, and indeed they would.

Enjoy

 

[newcomic]

That is bloody brilliant news! How exciting! I guess I'm pushing it assuming is get First Class drinks?

 

[JohnK]

First class seats with business class service on the SYD-HKG route occasionally.

 

[Hvr]

I got it once on the LAX-JFK leg.

 

[ozmille]

how many of the old birds are still around? must be getting rare now to get one of these

 

[ReLoad]

It's old first class, so don't get too pumped up, but it's better than old business class!!!!

 

[kelvedon]

Got 1K on one of the last QF5's to FRA. Spacious cabin and flat bed. Given the opportunity, everyone should experience riding in the nose of a 747 before they're gone. You sit in front of the pilot.

 

[love_the_life]

This will be one of the unrefurbished 747s. We flew to JNB on one last year. The extra room in 1A was pleasant but service was very much J (in fact this leg the service was pretty good). Mt LtL in 2A did not enjoy the flight so much as he didn't like the feeling of being in the nose of the plane and was nearly going to ask to move back into J proper.

 

[serfty]

That is bloody brilliant news! How exciting! I guess I'm pushing it assuming is get First Class drinks?

If you can select such a seat on a J booking then enjoy.

FWIW, since Qantas generally only sell First on their normal A388 routes, these two aircraft are used for 3 class services more often than not.

 

[Mattg]

There are currently 2 out of 11 remaining Qantas 747s with old First class seats in the nose.

They seem to spend most of their time flying between Sydney and Johannesburg, Tokyo & Santiago, but can and do feature on other 747 routes occasionally.

 

[newcomic]

Awesome! Does anyone know if it's better to be on the old FC or the new SB2?

 

[Mattg]

Awesome! Does anyone know if it's better to be on the old FC or the new SB2?

I would say that it's better to be on one of the older 747s, IF you can get one of the old F seats. In terms of business class seats though, the mark II skybeds on the refurbished aircraft are clearly better.

 

[love_the_life]

But, the refurbished planes have removed 1 (or maybe 2?) toilets in J/Y+. This means long queues as many people put on the jammies and then want to change out of them in the morning, thus creating a bottleneck. Those of us who just want a quick 'tinkle' have to wait for ever it seems while people get changed. The old birds (not refurbed) still have an adequate number of toilets!

 

[Kefci2000]

Yes have done 1A SYD-JNB on this plane, good seats, J class service, but occasionally keep a good stash of booze

 

[jb747]

.... You sit in front of the pilot.

So you'll get to wherever you're going first.

The booze will be the normal business class. First catering isn't loaded.

 

[Kefci2000]

So you'll get to wherever you're going first.

The booze will be the normal business class. First catering isn't loaded.

Must have been lucky then as a very nice French champagne was on board that I had not seen in J before

CSM said they only had a few bottles

 

[Mr_Orange]

Definitely worth it. We snagged old F on SYD-NRT last year and it was much more comfortable than either J bed.

 

[medhead]

You sit in front of the pilot.

So you'll get to wherever you're going first.

Surely the benefit is the pilot having clear visibility of the front so lower chance of running into something.

 

[Quickstatus]

That is bloody brilliant news! How exciting! I guess I'm pushing it assuming is get First Class drinks?

First class seat = lie flat, but very narrow and hard.
So its business class ticket, service, conditions. Just the seat is different.

There is also this:
http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-to-refresh-two-boeing-747s

You crash before the pilot.