Lightly loaded flights

[Deleted member 62084]

Nowadays I have a hankering for selecting seats at the time of booking flights, due to a bad experience at T-48 where I should have known better (row 9 on VA with no window). Obviously, if I select seats at the time of booking I am locked in to certain zones of the plane depending on my status level, and potentially miss out on seats further towards the front of the plane, but this is offset by the risk of even 'worserer' seats if I wait.

If I were to go back to my old habits and wait until T-48 to select seats while checking in for my occasional holiday flights, which sectors would I have a greater chance of securing more forward seats at that time? Probably not Melbourne-Sydney commuter runs!, but what about comparatively cheap SC yielding runs like Melbourne-Launceston? What about Perth-Broome, how heavily loaded are they? Flights to Cairns? Are there others that are well known?

 

[dajop]

Are you only allowed one chance at seat selection? If not select early and monitor ...

 

[kalboy]

I have never encountered a light load on MEL-LST, You should be able to move forward at any time, ie. not locked in after seat selection in my experience

 

[Mattg]

I always select a seat at the time of booking, then change if/when better seats open up closer to the departure date.

With Qantas, the best seats usually open up progressively from T-80, or 80 hours before the flight is scheduled to depart. Sometimes I'll even set an alarm/reminder in my phone to remind me to log in and check at the correct time.

I find that I'm often able to get a front row aisle or window doing this. And if not, I'll at least have already chosen a seat I'm comfortable with (albeit at the back of the plane).

Not sure if Virgin has an equivalent of T-80; does anyone know?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

which sectors would I have a greater chance of securing more forward seats at that time? Probably not Melbourne-Sydney commuter runs!, but what about comparatively cheap SC yielding runs like Melbourne-Launceston? What about Perth-Broome, how heavily loaded are they? Flights to Cairns? Are there others that are well known?

I'm not sure those that you mentioned are "well known" for being lightly loaded. I've done multiple MEL-LST, BNE-CNS, CNS-MEL, MEL-OOL (or VV) in the past month and I notice all the flights seem pretty chockers these days. With the capacity constraints implemented a number of months ago, I doubt there are too many lightly loaded flights.

 

[Mattg]

I'm not sure those that you mentioned are "well known" for being lightly loaded. I've done multiple MEL-LST, BNE-CNS, CNS-MEL, MEL-OOL (or VV) in the past month and I notice all the flights seem pretty chockers these days. With the capacity constraints implemented a number of months ago, I doubt there are too many lightly loaded flights.

Yep... I've found PER-BME pretty full too.

In my experience, the CBR runs are very lightly loaded if parliament is not sitting, particularly during the middle of the day and on weekends. However, these flights are also very expensive so not so good for SC runs. (Go figure.)

 

[marki]

I always select a seat at the time of booking, then change if/when better seats open up closer to the departure date.

With Qantas, the best seats usually open up progressively from T-80, or 80 hours before the flight is scheduled to depart. Sometimes I'll even set an alarm/reminder in my phone to remind me to log in and check at the correct time.

I find that I'm often able to get a front row aisle or window doing this. And if not, I'll at least have already chosen a seat I'm comfortable with (albeit at the back of the plane).

Not sure if Virgin has an equivalent of T-80; does anyone know?

My most recent trip back from Europe on QF 10 I was in PE but to sleep it was better to walk down the steps to Economy and take one of the row of seats completely free. The competition was high but managed with three seats as a bed instead !

 

[JohnK]

Select a seat at time of booking then monitor again at T-48 hours.

But sometimes best to leave seats alone. This week SYD-BNE I had 7D pre-allocated and moved to 5C at T-48 hours. Sat next to someone who was coughing badly but luckily wearing a mask and 7E was vacant although 7D/7F looked like a couple so could have missed out there too.

 

[love_the_life]

Though I rarely fly VA, I always choose seats at booking time (usually based on SG around row 11 for domestic) then monitor until T-40 then choose a seat further forward if any open up. If not then check again until OLCI opens. Until T-40 there is rarely if ever any change to seating availability unless there is a sub.

Once you select a seat you are not locked into that, and in fact, are not even guaranteed that seat at CI.