Seat Allocations...

[Josh]

Hi,

I flew BNE-MEL a few days ago (Good Friday), any obviously it was a very full plane.
As usual, in the QP i ask the CSM for either a better seat (I got allocated 9D....bleh), or exit row seating. I also ask them to block the seat next to me if the plane isn't full.
He allocated me an exit row, and when I asked about blocking the seat next to me, he told me he couldn't block exit row seats, and the plane was chockers, and it was in fact over sold. Fair enough.
However, when I got on the plane, EVERY seat was on the plane was filled, except for the one next to me .
I was wondering - this obviously was not a coincidence, so how exactly does the allocation system work in that respect? Is there a "allocate this seat last" flag that he could have placed on the seat next to me or what? Or did i just get lucky?

Cheers,

Josh

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Its possible he could have blocked the seat but spun a line for fear the block wouldn't hold. After all a block is just a request to not allocate a seat, and can easily be overridden (and on oversold flight you'd expect it to be).

OTOH you may just have been lucky. Perhaps the pax allocated to that seat didn't show up, or swapped flights.

 

[TonyD]

Hi,
I flew Melbourne to Brisbane last wed. arvo, with my wife (also in QC) and 3 kids. On the way to melb. 6 days earlier I did online boarding passes and found we were automatically in row 8 - (fine by me!) So without a computer, I figured we'd be cool on way back. We checked in an hour before to find we were in row 25! When we tried for better we were told sorry bad luck!! full etc. It was confirmed (as I have been told in the past) Platinums then gold then silver get their preferred seating and there are 45 ahead of you etc etc. So QC membership makes no difference in seating -just status.
Many times though I have found that this system is fallable and on ringing QC told "the system has problems" etc.
Anyway the plot thickened! On board - ANYBODY with kids was seated from row 23 back! - I have since been told this is common practice.
cheers
Tony

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I'm not surprised the first row with 5 available adjacent seats is row 25.

 

[TonyD]

I was surprised given that they are pre-allocated and we had row 8 the week b4.
Re the blocked seats. I seem to win this about 50%. - when they do fill it has only been when the flight is chockers!
The last time it was a BA staffer - Had a really good chat about all this stuff.
The time before was a bit of a tradg. At the last minute a waitlisted Q staff plonked down in the middle with an 18 month old:shock:
cheers