Fee for choosing seat on Qantas - what happens if you don't select them?

[aussiedom]

I just booked flights with Qantas to LAX and return for our party of five. Hadn't travelled overseas on Qantas in a couple years.

Once I'd made the reservation I noticed that the Qantas website stated that there was a $25 fee for selecting a seat. I don't recall this being the case last time.

This begs the question - what happens if you don't make a seat selection? Would the default position be that my wife and I are seated together as we are both on the same reservation?

It's more complicated as we have three separate reservations, ours, another with two persons and a third with just one person.

We are not in a high tier of the FF program but my wife and I are Qantas Club members. Does any of this make any difference?

Also I recall booking exit row seats for $60 per person per sector on our last major trip (SYD-SIN-LHR-BKK-SYD). Now they seem to be asking $160.

Just wondering if there is any clever way around some of these fees?

 

[Hvr]

Hi aussiedom, you will most likely be sat together but maybe not depending on how busy the flight is and the number of children who must sit next to their parent.

At T-24 check in on line and allocate seats. At the airport ask for the exit row seats but don't be surprised if they're already gone or you're asked to pay for them.

Have your QFF number on the booking, it's better than nothing.

 

[mannej]

You have mentioned 3 separate bookings. I would suggest if you want QF to be aware that you are traveling together to call them and ask them to TCP the 3 bookings.

To answer your question, the fee for seat selection has been in since at least 2012 if not earlier.

 

[aussiedom]

Thanks for the responses - probably I shouldn't waste any more time thinking about what is a trivial issue in the scheme of things!

mannej - re your suggestion about getting our three reservations TCP'd, a few points that may be relevant:

*all five people are flying together from SYD to LAX
*three of the five (who are on two different reservations as one was a late addition to the party) are coming back LAX-SYD together after two weeks
*my wife and I are staying another week before we return from LAX to SYD with Qantas.
*there is no T/A involved here - all these flights were booked online.

Should I at least ask Qantas to link up all three reservations on the outbound leg? Forgive my ignorance here, have never heard of TCP until now.

One more thing. Once we get to LA, we are flying to Mexico City and then to Cuba. After Cuba we will all return together to Mexico City. The next day, the three who are coming home sooner will head to LA to take their return flight back to Sydney, while my wife and I do something else in Mexico or the US Southwest for another week.

To get from LAX to Mexico City, we are going to burn some Qantas FF points to travel with AA. We haven't booked this leg yet as we had to wait while people signed up for the FF program and then for 'family transfer' of points to occur. I'm wondering whether there is some way to link the Qantas and AA flights - or is the fact that the FF numbers will be associated with both cause them to be linked? It's not really an issue on the LAX-MEX leg, but for the three going back early, they will be flying MEX-LAX with AA then 4 hours in LAX before boarding for SYD with Qantas. Anything I should be/could be doing to make things smoother for them by somehow linking their AA and QF flights?

Sorry it got so long!

 

[Joshua]

If you are booking the AA flights with Qantas points for your family you do not need to transfer the points to their accounts (nor do they require accounts). You can simply book all of you together from your own account. While they won't check family members and domestic partners are allowed (same as the family transfer).

Once you book the AA flight you can call QF and get them to add a passive or PK sectors. This places the AA flight information into the QF booking which might make check-in at SYD slightly faster and be handy if the AA flight was delayed (so QF could see you were incoming). However it is not really needed, you would check-in with both tickets and the agent should be able to provide boarding passes and tag bags to the final destination.

I would ring regardless once you have made the other booking and hopefully you'll get a helpful agent who can address these concerns, like you said it is minor but it doesn't hurt, particularly if it saves you from being seated apart. Being QF club members you can still use the prem. economy check-in and unless you're super late or it's crazy oversold it should be okay.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

One more thing. Once we get to LA, we are flying to Mexico City and then to Cuba. After Cuba we will all return together to Mexico City. The next day, the three who are coming home sooner will head to LA to take their return flight back to Sydney, while my wife and I do something else in Mexico or the US Southwest for another week.

To get from LAX to Mexico City, we are going to burn some Qantas FF points to travel with AA. We haven't booked this leg yet as we had to wait while people signed up for the FF program and then for 'family transfer' of points to occur.

I'm wondering whether there is some way to link the Qantas and AA flights - or is the fact that the FF numbers will be associated with both cause them to be linked?

It's not really an issue on the LAX-MEX leg, but for the three going back early, they will be flying MEX-LAX with AA then 4 hours in LAX before boarding for SYD with Qantas. Anything I should be/could be doing to make things smoother for them by somehow linking their AA and QF flights?

Sorry it got so long!

To keep things simple just focus on making sure all parties are TCPed on the QF flights to LAX

The AA flights can be added in at the airport. Even if res were to add the AA flights in as information segments they won't appear as oncarriage anyway so would still need to be added in on the day the the checkin agent.

Are you stopping over in MEX or continuing on to Cuba that day?

 

[aussiedom]

Thanks Oz and Joshua!


I called Qantas yesterday and a helpful lady TCP'd our three separate reservations for SYD-LAX. When I look at the reservations online, I cannot see any indication that they are now linked, but I guess they probably don't present that info on the website?

The Qantas rep suggested that, once we book the LA-Mexico city flights using points, it would also be a good idea to call Qantas back and have that reservation also linked up (the return leg MEX-LAX for the three who will be flying LAX-SYD late the same night being linked to their LAX-SYD reservation). She suggested that this may be of some advantage if for example the AA flight is late leaving MEX - QF knows our three are on that incoming AA flight and will be a little later.

I asked whether there is any possibility that their baggage might be checked in at MEX and not have to be retrieved at LAX/carted from Terminal 4 to TBIT and checked in again for the Sydney flight. She wasn't sure and suggested they ask AA when checking in.

Oz, re your question: As per our planning spreadsheet, we will arrive in MEX on the afternoon of Oct 11 and will fly to La Habana on the morning of Oct 13. I need to book these flights asap, but of course need to ensure that the selected Aeroméxico flights to and from Cuba are still available at the time I book the LAX-MEX-LAX ones!

We will all fly back together from HAV-MEX on the afternoon of Oct 22. Three people fly to LAX then home on Oct 23, with my wife and I remaining longer and doing some other stuff in Mexico or the US.