QF "Seat Shifting"

[Pushka]

Qantas just changed a seat for WP from something like row 7 to row 22. What the heck are they doing?

 

[love_the_life]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Qantas just changed a seat for WP from something like row 7 to row 22. What the heck are they doing?

Weirder and weirder - a bit Alice in Wonderland (I know it is curiouser in the novel but QF is just plain weird)
Why would they do that?
Did you get it back?

 

[Pushka]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Weirder and weirder - a bit Alice in Wonderland
Why would they do that?
Did you get it back?

No. It was originally the larger plane. So he thought it was fine. Then boarded and they'd swapped planes but kept the seat we think. Lots of grumbling going on from others too apparently.

 

[love_the_life]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

No. It was originally the larger plane. So he thought it was fine. Then boarded and they'd swapped planes but kept the seat we think. Lots of grumbling going on from others too apparently.

Painful then.

 

[MrJetset]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

No. It was originally the larger plane. So he thought it was fine. Then boarded and they'd swapped planes but kept the seat we think. Lots of grumbling going on from others too apparently.

This is standard.

When a plane gets subbed Altea attempts to keep the allocated seating. So if an A330 gets subbed for a 738 1A will keep 1A. If your seat on the A330 doesn't exist you will find yourself somewhere completely different.

On the old 767s where 23A was the front of Y, when this was subbed to a 737 you would be in row 23....

 

[KitKat]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Qantas just changed a seat for WP from something like row 7 to row 22. What the heck are they doing?

plane change?

 

[love_the_life]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

This is standard.

When a plane gets subbed Altea attempts to keep the allocated seating. So if an A330 gets subbed for a 738 1A will keep 1A. If your seat on the A330 doesn't exist you will find yourself somewhere completely different.

On the old 767s where 23A was the front of Y, when this was subbed to a 737 you would be in row 23....

True but nonetheless annoying to end up at the back of the bus

 

[Pushka]

Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

True but nonetheless annoying to end up at the back of the bus

And not much thought for WP. So where do all the much higher seat numbers go when there are no seats? Up front or tossed out I guess.

This is standard.

When a plane gets subbed Altea attempts to keep the allocated seating. So if an A330 gets subbed for a 738 1A will keep 1A. If your seat on the A330 doesn't exist you will find yourself somewhere completely different.

On the old 767s where 23A was the front of Y, when this was subbed to a 737 you would be in row 23....

This is pretty much what happened.

 

[serfty]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Yeah standard stuff these days. (They used to have some conversion seat mappings but no more.)

Today some HKG flights I had were swapped from 744 to 333. My 43H selection stayed ...

However this is a different issue from the OP's.

 

[RichardMEL]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

This is why I tend to book 1/2/3A on the 737 on MEL-SYD flights - if (unlikely) sub to a 330 occurs the seat will stay.
Likewise if I'm on a 330 and it gets downgraded it will still stay - but if I'm in 2K or something that may not work out in my favour (though tbh it would still map to a window or an isle in an inferior seat in a 737 J cabin, but if there's a chance of downgrade at all it's less likely if I'm allocated in a seat that maps... well hopefully. This has never actually happened to me though )

 

[Pushka]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

This is why I tend to book 1/2/3A on the 737 on MEL-SYD flights - if (unlikely) sub to a 330 occurs the seat will stay.
Likewise if I'm on a 330 and it gets downgraded it will still stay - but if I'm in 2K or something that may not work out in my favour (though tbh it would still map to a window or an isle in an inferior seat in a 737 J cabin, but if there's a chance of downgrade at all it's less likely if I'm allocated in a seat that maps... well hopefully. This has never actually happened to me though )

We selected the second row in economy.

 

[KVK]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Just happened again! Wife and I had 2K and 4K selected, got to the airport and we are seated together in the middle. Same excuse, they thought we would like to sit together. Very romantic, but not what we want and now our original seats are gone. Would checking in on line prevent this?

I wouldn't necessarily believe what you've been told.


Two weeks ago Q changed our selected seats made months earlier and after WP status had been reconfirmed for my +1. We even had our boarding pass for the original seats. Thank goodness for the Qantas app that showed changed seats while in F lounge. Otherwise it would have been at the gate and not fixable. Two bulkhead seats and we loathe bulkhead seats. Approached the F desk in MEL and they said the host might have thought we wanted to sit together. Sure. Two issues. This was the new J class 330 where no one really sits together because of the fixed partition so we had chosen 2 solo window seats! But - the seats Qantas kindly 're selected' were on opposite sides of the plane anyway! So the reason given for the change was a nonsense.

Bottom line - they don't really know why things happen to seat allocation and make a guess.

 

[Pushka]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Just happened again! Wife and I had 2K and 4K selected, got to the airport and we are seated together in the middle. Same excuse, they thought we would like to sit together. Very romantic, but not what we want and now our original seats are gone. Would checking in on line prevent this?

Nope - I had checked in online and actually had printed out boarding pass with our correct seats. We would have been pinged at the gate if we hadnt spotted it in the lounge and they made damn sure they fixed it.

 

[KVK]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Thanks for the reply, might chase this up with Qantas

Nope - I had checked in online and actually had printed out boarding pass with our correct seats. We would have been pinged at the gate if we hadnt spotted it in the lounge and they made damn sure they fixed it.

 

[RichardMEL]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

seems like a couple of examples here of staff being "proactive" and trying to be helpful but making assumptions too.

They're missing the consultation thing.

in the case of moving pax around - if they want to do that they should *ask* them first. you know, maybe page them at the gate or something. Or in the case of noticing a couple travelling together if they really want those 2 windows in a row, or maybe they'd like a free middle pair?

That way they could still be proactive in looking to assist customers, but actually inform them rather than just doing it silently in the background (applies also in my view if it's some sort of system 'feature' that hasn't been manually done).

At least that's how I feel about it. To me the bottom line is moving pax for non operational reasons (eg: air marshall or even perhaps a bassinet row - and even then) at least inform the passenger and ask if it's OK.. maybe even give a choice of alternate seats (if available) instead of assuming. Yes it's time consuming, but surely making a choice to manually move people anyway is a process in and of itself.

so basically.. consult with your customers rather than assume that maybe a traveling pair want to sit together or that singleton wants to be moved from his window to an aisle 4 rows back (unless it's downstars to )

 

[blackcat20]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

When we've checked in for J on the 330 they usually suggest moving us to the middle seats. We just politely decline and explain that we both like windows.

 

[Pushka]

seems like a couple of examples here of staff being "proactive" and trying to be helpful but making assumptions too.

They're missing the consultation thing.

in the case of moving pax around - if they want to do that they should *ask* them first. you know, maybe page them at the gate or something. Or in the case of noticing a couple travelling together if they really want those 2 windows in a row, or maybe they'd like a free middle pair?

That way they could still be proactive in looking to assist customers, but actually inform them rather than just doing it silently in the background (applies also in my view if it's some sort of system 'feature' that hasn't been manually done).

At least that's how I feel about it. To me the bottom line is moving pax for non operational reasons (eg: air marshall or even perhaps a bassinet row - and even then) at least inform the passenger and ask if it's OK.. maybe even give a choice of alternate seats (if available) instead of assuming. Yes it's time consuming, but surely making a choice to manually move people anyway is a process in and of itself.

so basically.. consult with your customers rather than assume that maybe a traveling pair want to sit together or that singleton wants to be moved from his window to an aisle 4 rows back (unless it's downstars to )

Except - in our first case they said it was because they thought we might want to sit together.

The seats were not together. One was in the bulkhead 1c, the other was 1f. So one seat and an aisle between us!

 

[RichardMEL]

Except - in our first case they said it was because they thought we might want to sit together.

The seats were not together. One was in the bulkhead 1c, the other was 1f. So one seat and an aisle between us!

well then that makes zero sense

but I presume the agent *thought* those 2 were together for some reason

but my thought/point still stands... they need to consult and *ask* not just move because they "thought" ...

I mean yes points for trying to be nice and thoughtful - no issue there - but don't just do it... suggest as an option and ask if you'd like to move.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Mrs 340 and me always sit in the windows seats, one in front of the other. QF and two other airlines in the last six months have asked at checkin if we'd like to move to middle, adjoining seats. It's a nice gesture and I don't mind them asking, as long as it isn't done beforehand without our knowledge.

 

[downgraded]

Re: Qantas Removed Seat Allocation from Boooking

Qf recently down guaged my flight from a330 to 737. I was first mapped to the same seat = front of a330 became back of 737, but then alongside the 2 hour delay they moved me to the now similarly timed next flight (another a330) and put me back at the front of the plane. So QF overseers must have been active.