Qantas charging for aisle seats on international flights??

[greg-777]

My father inlaw checked in to qf11 this morning whilst I was with him on check in he asked for an aisle seat if at all possible...the qantas check in agent then asked him quite rudely if he had paid for a aisle seat ??? Since when is this the case ??.. He is a lowly bronze and does about 2 return economy trips to the usa a year. He did pickup 80h after I stepped into the conversation being a gold that buying an aisle seat sounded like cough...

 

[ChrisFlyer]

You can pay to specifically request a particular seat, so perhaps the desk agent was asking if he had paid to preselect a particular aisle seat (which was for some reason not showing up on her screen)... but no, there is no charge to select from available seats from the online check-in stage onwards, including when at the airport.

 

[simongr]

A new thing came in earlier this year whereby anyone could at any time pay to select from a range of seats. Previously as a lowly bronze they would have been able to select seats at/after book up booking up until a cut off point when a certain % of seats had been allocated. After that it was restricted to premium cabins and premium pax.

 

[serfty]

Information on that is available here:

Qantas Seat Selection | Exit Row Seats | Check in Seat Selection

Note that it is complimentary for bookings with a PS and higher status PAX (and oneworld equivalents).