Off duty staff travel question

BrockF

Junior Member
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Jan 21, 2013
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46
A recent experience on yesterdays QF 2 from Singapore - Sydney. Upon boarding someone was in my seat 32J (second row, aisle in PE). They had a bag of their stuff piled up in 32K so I asked if they were in the right seat. They moved over the the window and as soon as I had my headphones in and entertainment started informed me that they would need to move to my seat as they were going to need to go to the bathroom a lot during the flight. My response of “why didn’t you book an aisle seat” probably didn’t go down well, as I deliberately also book an aisle seat for just this reason. I did end up changing seats with them thinking perhaps there is a medical reason for this and maybe they originally had an aisle seat and got an upgrade or a seat change. Just after the meal was served the passenger disappeared for quite a long time and I thought this is a little strange. A few hours later, upon awaking from a snooze, they were still not in their seat. I thought this is really strange. 45 minutes before landing I notice a very sheepish person come back with business PJ‘s on and remove their crew bags from the overhead and take them all forward just before the landing announcement. The look on their face when they realised everybody was watching them was priceless.

It was obvious this person was QF crew from their luggage. They were not in uniform, so I assume not on duty travel and also with a W boarding pass. I was under the impression that people moving seats and/or upgrading themselves mid-flight was a big No No. If they were on staff travel I feel it is a big impost to ask full revenue fares to give up their assigned seat. If there was a spare J seat I am surprised that there wasn’t an upgrade at the gate assigned. I know of one WP, sitting in 32J, that had an upgrade request in place! If they knew they could just move up to a bigger seat, then why did they insist on taking someone else’s seat at the start of the flight. In my mind this is just the level of disrespect for customers surfacing again within Qantas stuff culture, but am curious as to others feelings. I am mostly basing this off my neighbor, who is an A380 pilot, telling me that it was a significant workplace offence, for both the staff involved and the CSM if people upgrade themselves after the door has closed!
 
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A recent experience on yesterdays QF 2 from Singapore - Sydney. Upon boarding someone was in my seat 32J (second row, aisle in PE). They had a bag of their stuff piled up in 32K so I asked if they were in the right seat. They moved over the the window and as soon as I had my headphones in and entertainment started informed me that they would need to move to my seat as they were going to need to go to the bathroom a lot during the flight. My response of “why didn’t you book an aisle seat” probably didn’t go down well, as I deliberately also book an aisle seat for just this reason. I did end up changing seats with them thinking perhaps there is a medical reason for this and maybe they originally had an aisle seat and got an upgrade or a seat change. Just after the meal was served the passenger disappeared for quite a long time and I thought this is a little strange. A few hours later, upon awaking from a snooze, they were still not in their seat. I thought this is really strange. 45 minutes before landing I notice a very sheepish person come back with business PJ‘s on and remove their crew bags from the overhead and take them all forward just before the landing announcement. The look on their face when they realised everybody was watching them was priceless.

It was obvious this person was QF crew from their luggage. They were not in uniform, so I assume not on duty travel and also with a W boarding pass. I was under the impression that people moving seats and/or upgrading themselves mid-flight was a big No No. If they were on staff travel I feel it is a big impost to ask full revenue fares to give up their assigned seat. If there was a spare J seat I am surprised that there wasn’t an upgrade at the gate assigned. I know of one WP, sitting in 32J, that had an upgrade request in place! If they knew they could just move up to a bigger seat, then why did they insist on taking someone else’s seat at the start of the flight. In my mind this is just the level of disrespect for customers surfacing again within Qantas stuff culture, but am curious as to others feelings. I am mostly basing this off my neighbor, who is an A380 pilot, telling me that it was a significant workplace offence, for both the staff involved and the CSM if people upgrade themselves after the door has closed!
Something similar but different was posted in another thread about a week ago. Hope it is not going to be a more common occurence...
 
It's worth noting that staff cannot by W tickets. You buy J and if J is full you get W (if not full). So the fact they had a W seat would indicate J was full, cause otherwise they would be in J.
I can't see a W ticket on EF, is it PE perhaps?
 
I can't see a W ticket on EF, is it PE perhaps?

As above, also EF should show classes T, R, W on Qantas flights with a PE cabin (although there are some exceptions like the SYD-PER leg of QF5)

 
Now with the bit of extra information from @milehighclub
Staff member was likely bumped down to W in a window seat.

Still it’s pretty outrageous to tell you they need to swap seats with you.
Absolutely not on.
I would send am email to Customer Care with a complaint about this.
Staff travel has some fairly stringent conditions attached and moving you out of your allocated seat for them to have it would not be part of the deal.
 
Sorry, need to go back a step, the thread title is off duty staff question, what is the question?

I'd hazard something like "Is it OK for an apparently off-duty Qantas staff member to receive what looks like an in-flight upgrade to business?"

Now with the bit of extra information from @milehighclub
Staff member was likely bumped down to W in a window seat.

... and yet the pax apparently was ensconced in business during the flight. Maybe there was a last minute no-show, so the J seat was legitimately empty and filled, after the meal service, by the staff member. Maybe. Still, not a good look.

As ever, we don't know the full story, yada-yada ...
 
Sorry, need to go back a step, the thread title is off duty staff question, what is the question?
Why they are upgrading themselves to business when there existing points requests to business by paying customers.

Agree not a good look.
 
Because as explained above they would have been downgraded to W from a paid staff J ticket
Agreed but how did they spend the rest of the flight in pyjamas in business class?

Downgrading should mean downgrade because there were insufficient seats right? They must have spent the entire flight in crew rest if there were no business seats available.

As I said not a good look. Nor was lying to get to aisle.
 
Agreed but how did they spend the rest of the flight in pyjamas in business class?

Downgrading should mean downgrade because there were insufficient seats right? They must have spent the entire flight in crew rest if there were no business seats available.

As I said not a good look. Nor was lying to get to aisle.
At a wild guess there was an inoperable seat in J, IFE or seat mechanism needing manual adjustment and that’s where they ended up.

Completely agree not a good look to be first of all swapping seats and then disappear to J.
 
Agreed but how did they spend the rest of the flight in pyjamas in business class?

Downgrading should mean downgrade because there were insufficient seats right? They must have spent the entire flight in crew rest if there were no business seats available.

As I said not a good look. Nor was lying to get to aisle.
There must have been a J seat available, either inoperable or a no-show (both seem reasonably likely to occur with things as they are at the moment). Or the CSM moved a J pax to an empty F seat (it was as A380) to free up the J seat.
 
In the 90's my Sister was cabin crew with AN, after the door closed if approached by crew and saying "You seem to be in wrong seat, can I see your boarding pass". After handing over your boarding pass the next comment was along the lines of "You are not in the correct seat please come with me, I can help you with your belongings";) As family this meant instant upgrade and the person you were sitting next to most likely thought 'bonus, no one sitting next to me'. My sister also mentioned sometimes the crew would go back and apologise the other PAX for the inconvenience caused :p
 
I think you’ve got a valid beef for being asked to move to the window.

However where they went after that really is none of your concern and doesn’t impact you or anyone else at all.
Not entirely the case. Asked to change seats for spurious reason and then did not use the seat, so no need to change in the first place.
 
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