QF926 02/02/13 - Interesting pax load and seating

[CaviAck]

So today I decided to be a curious one and look at the availability of my flight (QF926 02FEB13) and to my surprise there were no economy tickets left (only business fares left). Quick look on FlightStats and it shows as C/9 D/0 U/0 and a check on EF shows business to be empty.

The interesting bit comes with economy. FS shows that there are no economy fares available and when I checked EF this morning all the economy seats pass from row 17 onwards was blue except 28F which was available. After checking again just now, white seats have appeared... Seat selection in MMB shows the same seats available as EF except the exit rows are all available. What also got me curious was that between rows 19 and 26 there seems to be a block for me as a SG and no status when checking through EF.



Now this got me thinking, is the flight actually full in economy and is there really only two status PAX a SG and a WP?
I also checked reward flights and making a dummy booking for business class. A JASA books into U as usual and when buying the seat comes up as a D fare. Do the 9+ C fares just turn into what ever is needed at the time the processing is done, or is it because FS isn't accurate?

Anyone got any idea what's going on here? Is this peculiar or do I just fail at understanding EF and/or how QF allocates seats.

(EF was configured to show seats available to SG, NB shows up the same but obviously with only normal seating available)

 

[medhead]

What does EF shows for fare availability? Where does this fly?

In terms of number of pax of various status all that seat map is telling you is that 1 WP and 1 SG have allocated themselves a seat. It also looks like a heaps of PS and NB and others have also allocated seats. No J pax have allocated seats but 3 J fares might have been purchased.

I'm not sure what this means:

to be a block for me as a SG and no status when checking through EF.

 

[CaviAck]

What does EF shows for fare availability? Where does this fly?

In terms of number of pax of various status all that seat map is telling you is that 1 WP and 1 SG have allocated themselves a seat. It also looks like a heaps of PS and NB and others have also allocated seats. No J pax have allocated seats but 3 J fares might have been purchased.

I'm not sure what this means:

Just thinking that as SG/WP/WP1 wouldn't you already allocate seats (or have it pre allocated from your preferences?)

The flight is SYD-CNS taking off at 1:25pm. Didn't really think this was relevant as I was more interested in the pax loading and seating allocations. I was thinking to myself that it seems like there are only two status pax on this flight... I mean if you had status and the opportunity to allocate upfront seats or exit rows, wouldn't you do that ASAP? Or the fact that it seems like this flight is going to have no pax in business class or some lucky person on PS or possibly even NB will have their upgrade request fulfilled.

As for what I meant, if you take a look at rows 19 to 26 you'll notice that there are seats that you can't choose. I tried it with my SG number, with my parents' NB numbers and with no FF number and the block on rows 19-26 was still there. Even looking through MMB as a SG I couldn't allocate those seats.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Could be a (very) large tour group?

 

[medhead]

Just thinking that as SG/WP/WP1 wouldn't you already allocate seats (or have it pre allocated from your preferences?)

The flight is SYD-CNS taking off at 1:25pm. Didn't really think this was relevant as I was more interested in the pax loading and seating allocations. I was thinking to myself that it seems like there are only two status pax on this flight... I mean if you had status and the opportunity to allocate upfront seats or exit rows, wouldn't you do that ASAP? Or the fact that it seems like this flight is going to have no pax in business class or some lucky person on PS or possibly even NB will have their upgrade request fulfilled.

As for what I meant, if you take a look at rows 19 to 26 you'll notice that there are seats that you can't choose. I tried it with my SG number, with my parents' NB numbers and with no FF number and the block on rows 19-26 was still there. Even looking through MMB as a SG I couldn't allocate those seats.

You'd be surprised. I rarely see more that 2 or 3 seats in the P/P1 area allocated on the 3 flights that I regularly take. I was reliably informed that there were more than 10 P/P1s on one of those flights last week. I also regularly see those X's in rows 4 and 5 stick after T-80. So I think that P1 and Ps aren't that bothered on the whole because experience tells them they'll be looked after. Probably also Gs.

I was interested in the route because I want to look at the seat map as a WP. Just too lazy to search for the route.

Rows 19-26 are mostly allocated to people, all the solid seats. On the whole I don't see it as strange that you can't bump people who have made a firm seat commitment.

 

[medhead]

So here tis for WP. I only just noticed the starboard side for rows 19-26, now. Interesting. Tour group seems likely, I guess.

View attachment 13048

 

[CaviAck]

Could be a (very) large tour group?

So here tis for WP. I only just noticed the starboard side for rows 19-26, now. Interesting. Tour group seems likely, I guess.

Did not think of that being a tour group... Hope they're nice, if it is. The last 3 times I've bumped into tour groups on this route they've been nothing but disruptive and noisy....


Also just did a dummy booking for J seats, seems like there's only one available.
Try booking two or more seats and the flight doesn't come up as an option.
Looks like it's a pretty full flight with lots of people just not choosing to allocate seats (in Y an d J).

 

[jetlagger]

Did not think of that being a tour group... Hope they're nice, if it is. The last 3 times I've bumped into tour groups on this route they've been nothing but disruptive and noisy....
).

They generally travel & hunt in packs :shock:

 

[RooFlyer]

What does EF shows for fare availability? Where does this fly?

In terms of number of pax of various status all that seat map is telling you is that 1 WP and 1 SG have allocated themselves a seat. It also looks like a heaps of PS and NB and others have also allocated seats. No J pax have allocated seats but 3 J fares might have been purchased.

I'm not sure what this means:

Hi medhead (or CaviAck)

Just for my (and maybe others) understanding, please - what tells you that there is 1WP and 1 SG? I see the 2 seats allocated in otherwise blocked areas, but how do you tell their status from the seat diagram?

 

[serfty]

6A would be WP as that's as far forward as a mere Platinum can allocated on domestic flights until T-80.

The occupant of 13C could be SG or higher status - PS cant generally preallocate forward of around row 17 and NB row 19 (Depends on the flight/route).

 

[CaviAck]

Hi medhead (or CaviAck)

Just for my (and maybe others) understanding, please - what tells you that there is 1WP and 1 SG? I see the 2 seats allocated in otherwise blocked areas, but how do you tell their status from the seat diagram?

The seat that they have chosen. Up until T-80 seats are blocked off according to status.
Rows 4 and 5 are usually reserved for WP1 and CL. And rows 6-10 are reserved for WP.
Rows 11 onwards are then able to be be chosen by SG.

Since there is no one in rows 4 or 5 and only one person in rows 6-10, we can assume that there is at least 1 WP in 6A. Can't remember what rows are blocked for SG or PS but NB can only choose from rows 17 or 19 and backwards if IIRC. I can't remember being able to choose any seats forward of row 19 on a 73H as a NB last year before T-80. As for the SG, that would be me in 13C, and I'm assuming that there is only one SG because there isn't anyone else allocated in rows 11 to 16. People in rows 17 and 18 are probably PS, never done a domestic flight as a PS so can't tell which rows are saved for PS. That's my reasoning so far, probably wrong somewhere with PS and SG and as mentioned before, there's probably some status pax that haven't allocated yet, which perplexes me TBH. For the WP1's why not choose your seat now so you get row 4 or exit before waiting and risking row 5 or for SG why not allocate an exit row now instead of waiting and risking a normal seat? (Minus those that aren't suited to sit in an exit row, why not row 10 and be as far forward as possible?) Or just choose your favourite seat, as there's a very high likely chance that it's still available in that sea of empty seats.

 

[medhead]

Hi medhead (or CaviAck)

Just for my (and maybe others) understanding, please - what tells you that there is 1WP and 1 SG? I see the 2 seats allocated in otherwise blocked areas, but how do you tell their status from the seat diagram?

What they said. Greater than 80 hours before the flight means seat selection is in blocks by status.

Also what I didn't include in my picture is, as a platinum, in rows 6 to 12 only 6A is allocated. All the rest of the seats are available except row 9 window seats probably because those seats have no windows. Rows 4 and 5 X'ed out for me.

 

[CaviAck]

Although EF has the J cabin empty (meaning they haven't chosen seats?) looks like FS has updated to:

J/1 C/1 D/1 I/0 U/1

This is gonna be one very full flight... Baggage collection is going to be fun.

 

[RooFlyer]

The seat that they have chosen. Up until T-80 seats are blocked off according to status.
Rows 4 and 5 are usually reserved for WP1 and CL. And rows 6-10 are reserved for WP.Rows 11 onwards are then able to be be chosen by SG.

<SNIP>.

Ah, that's the key phrase, thanks.

 

[MH_fan]

They generally travel & hunt in packs :shock:

Especially when they're from mainland China! When you see them coming, do yourself a favour and move out of the way. You don't want to become another statistic... Those who have stood their ground have lost tempers and limbs.

 

[dfcatch]

Especially when they're from mainland China! When you see them coming, do yourself a favour and move out of the way. You don't want to become another statistic... Those who have stood their ground have lost tempers and limbs.

Chinese New Year - not a fun time to fly to/from CNS - just ask any uber-frustrated FA.

 

[vitagen]

Especially when they're from mainland China! When you see them coming, do yourself a favour and move out of the way. You don't want to become another statistic... Those who have stood their ground have lost tempers and limbs.

OMG dont get me started on mainland chinese.....

Im chinese myself but those mainlanders are a different breed

 

[CaviAck]

Just took another look at EF well after T-80 and looks like the WP out front has a shadow, and I'm thinking there's an unaccompanied minor in the last row.
As a SG row 4 is still unavailable.



Also took a look at ES showing all J seats are still unassigned and FS is showing

J/9 C/9 D/0 I/0

Also there's no availability in economy.

Edit:

FS has updated to

J/4 C/4 D/3 I/0 U/4

Which is in line with the ability to make a dummy booking for 4 J seats.