Plane half empty till 48 hours to departure

[mrsterryn]

My flight SYD to Hawaii next week has been empty.. wasn't fussed if I didn't get an upgrade as economy was quite empty.
However in the last few hours the seats have been filling up rapidly .
Is that because seats on Qantas can't be picked prior to 48 hours?
Or ?
Just surprised how quickly it is filling
Sadly so is business

 

[MaritimeTraveler]

You can always check inventory on expertflyer, quite useful when hoping for upgrades.

 

[whughes3]

How exactly was the OP concluding that the flight was empty?

 

[mrsterryn]

How exactly was the OP concluding that the flight was empty?

I was monitoring Seat Alerts

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Is this based on seats sold or seats allocated on the seat map? If it’s from the seat map then that’s usually the passengers without seat allocation being assigned seating. Not uncommon to see a Y cabin go from sparsely populated to full in the last days before departure. For J they could be processing upgrades too.

 

[Mattg]

How do you know it was half-full before? The seat map is not a reliable indicator of loads.

Actually, even the flight availability data on Expert Flyer doesn't always give you the full story. I had a UA flight last week that was showing Y6 and zeros in all the other economy classes until around 48 hours out. Then, 48 hours before departure it reverted to 9's across the board in every economy fare class. There were still only 6 seats available but I suspect the airline was trying to get some extra last-minute sales.

 

[mrsterryn]

Thanks @GoldCanyon340 and @Mattg I did wonder if that might be the case.
Ah well it could be a long flight

 

[mannej]

It is about T-80 those who haven’t allocated a seat will be given a seating allocation on your seat map, hence why you saw your flight fill up quite late in the piece.

 

[Mattg]

It is about T-80 those who haven’t allocated a seat will be given a seating allocation on your seat map, hence why you saw your flight fill up quite late in the piece.

Indeed. Also, Qantas charges everyone except QF Silver and above frequent flyers for international seat selection. So many will not have chosen seats already.

 

[mannej]

Indeed. Also, Qantas charges everyone except QF Silver and above frequent flyers for international seat selection. So many will not have chosen seats already.

They only charge those without status on a sale fare now, that’s only changed within the last year or so

 

[HS-TQE]

Personally I'd check the seat map when the selection/online check-in opens up anywhere between 24-48hrs prior to departure. The seat map before that isn't a reliable indicator of loads, imo.

 

[dajop]

Had some interesting experiences with my mother travelling back from SIN (to MEL on QF 36) recently. Seat map was quite open on expert flyer and in manage my booking - even after check in opened. However during OLCI there was only one other seat on the aircraft available for selection. On MMB could select other seats without a charge but they wouldn’t stick.

This was different to the outbound experience 3 weeks earlier where what was available on OLCI matched expert flyer and MMB exactly, and she was able to select a seat free of charge after OLCI opened.

As a SG don’t experience it much, but although I happily pay seat selection fees on this route on Jetstar ($7) and ($12) I was a bit shocked at how much QF charge for such ($35 or I think for SIN originating bookings $45), a bit too much for my liking. I wonder what the price elasticity is on this.

 

[RichardMEL]

Also note that leisure destinations like HNL probably also have a fair number of group bookings, and those may not be finalised between the operator and QF until relatively close in and seats assigned so you can often see large blocks go allocated quickly in this case. Plus as others have said the numbers of pax without allocations (and again, prob less status flyers on a lesirue route) that then get filled.

Also agree that EF sales availability is only ever a guide given the ability to oversell on flights with higher no show rates.

 

[mrsterryn]

It ended up being very very full. Very few empty seats . However I did receive an upgrade to business at T -30 hours