Selecting F seats on QF128

[boomy]

Firstly we can safely say there are no First customers on these flights as First was not sold.

First Class was sold on these flights. Initially I booked it as FASA and later was downgraded and refunded 60K points.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

QF gives first priority to pax downgraded from F (regardless of status)...

speaking of which... this was another example of a 'win' by AFF. It was our persistence on the relevant thread that got downgraded passengers a seat in the F cabin rather than being relegated to the business cabin.

 

[JohnK]

First Class was sold on these flights. Initially I booked it as FASA and later was downgraded and refunded 60K points.

The Christmas/New Years flights?

I think flights end of January and Chinese New Year in February were an after thought and First Class not sold.

 

[deka2]

Our flight on the 15th Jan will be interesting, being a Silver and Bronze, in a cabin full of CL, Pi and WP

 

[JohnK]

The suspense was killing me.

Called customer care and begged be allowed to sit in First. Went to supervisor who said Seating would be responsible. She called seating who asked her what seat I wanted and they were busy. Row 1 is fine?

Anyway have 1K allocated. Interesting to see what the fuss is all about.

 

[eosphoros]

Well after all these reports I decided to call back today to give it another go. Simply asked for a seat on the 'lower deck'. The rep realised this was the F cabin and seemed first to have a bit of trouble. Then she said she was pulling up another seating system and offered me 3A. I accepted.

Seems odd that some reps can't seem to access it and then have to go by their supervisors or by Seating whilst others can.

On that note I do recall at least one other time in the past an agent mentioning that there was a premium seating system.

 

[boomy]

speaking of which... this was another example of a 'win' by AFF. It was our persistence on the relevant thread that got downgraded passengers a seat in the F cabin rather than being relegated to the business cabin.

As a member of AFF and QFF I would like to believe that but I remember that after the cancellation of F the cabin was blocked for selection to all pax and it took QF a while to release the seats but I don't recall anyone being downgraded from F to the J cabin after the seats were unblocked. I believe the intention of QF was always to take care of it's F pax, P1 and CL before "upgrading" WP.

 

[boomy]

The Christmas/New Years flights?

I think flights end of January and Chinese New Year in February were an after thought and First Class not sold.

First was cancelled only a few months ago, you could potentially book it before that on both A380 and B747.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

As a member of AFF and QFF I would like to believe that but I remember that after the cancellation of F the cabin was blocked for selection to all pax and it took QF a while to release the seats but I don't recall anyone being downgraded from F to the J cabin after the seats were unblocked. I believe the intention of QF was always to take care of it's F pax, P1 and CL before "upgrading" WP.

Nope, unfortunately not.

It was AFF who suggested (very strongly) that downgraded F pax without status should be allowed to stay in that cabin. I don't recall - and happy to be proven wrong - any statement from QF suggesting downgraded F pax would be protected in existing seats.

Maybe after AFF got involved, but certainly not proactively.

 

[boomy]

Nope, unfortunately not.

It was AFF who suggested (very strongly) that downgraded F pax without status should be allowed to stay in that cabin. I don't recall - and happy to be proven wrong - any statement from QF suggesting downgraded F pax would be protected in existing seats.

Maybe after AFF got involved, but certainly not proactively.

So you assume that F pax with no status would have been downgraded to the J cabin without AFF involvement or did it actually happen? What I remember is that everyone were downgraded at first and there was confusion and a lot of speculation about who will get to sit there after the seats will be unlocked.
I find it hard to believe QF would refuse to allocate former F pax in the F cabin, there is no reason for them to do that. Even after allocating P1 and CL It seems there are plenty of seats left available based on the fact that the flights I'm booked on the F cabin is not even half-full and also two members on this forum were allocated in the F cabin upon request today.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So you assume that F pax with no status would have been downgraded to the J cabin without AFF involvement or did it actually happen? What I remember is that everyone were downgraded at first and there was confusion and a lot of speculation about who will get to sit there after the seats will be unlocked.
I find it hard to believe QF would refuse to allocate former F pax in the F cabin, there is no reason for them to do that. Even after allocating P1 and CL It seems there are plenty of seats left available based on the fact that the flights I'm booked on the F cabin is not even half-full and also two members on this forum were allocated in the F cabin upon request today.

It is my recollection, in the dedicated thread, that F pax were to receive their compensation, and be seated in the business class cabin.

Passengers with suitable status (and their families) were to get the F seats.

I don't actually know if it's the case that former F pax are even back in the cabin? Or have the right to be seated there? but if they have been automatically accommodated there, it was likely due to the concerns raised here.

 

[boomy]

It still sound like speculation to me. All pax (myself included) were downgraded to the J cabin at first. Only after calling QF I was moved back to F. What I would like to know is if any F pax who called QF and asked to be moved back to the F cabin were refused because they had no status and only after the AFF thread they were moved. That would be a proof the thread helped, otherwise we can't tell for sure.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It still sound like speculation to me. All pax (myself included) were downgraded to the J cabin at first. Only after calling QF I was moved back to F. What I would like to know is if any F pax who called QF and asked to be moved back to the F cabin were refused because they had no status and only after the AFF thread they were moved. That would be a proof the thread helped, otherwise we can't tell for sure.

I've gone back and read the initial thread. Seems there was a lot of confusion about the change of aircraft, with Qantas initially being unable to confirm anything.

There were issues around downgrade compensation (as per 'the table'), and the refund of FASAs.

Requests for QF to confirm the retention of F seats were not responded to, and requests for F lounge passes were being denied.

If individuals managed to get their seats back by calling QF, it certainly wasn't a proactive measure. Otherwise people wouldn't have been kicked out of them in the first place.

 

[boomy]

I've gone back and read the initial thread. Seems there was a lot of confusion about the change of aircraft, with Qantas initially being unable to confirm anything.

There were issues around downgrade compensation (as per 'the table'), and the refund of FASAs.

Requests for QF to confirm the retention of F seats were not responded to, and requests for F lounge passes were being denied.

If individuals managed to get their seats back by calling QF, it certainly wasn't a proactive measure. Otherwise people wouldn't have been kicked out of them in the first place.

Sorry for being a bit negative here but I can't find any evidence to show that thread changed anything. In fact, don't you find it a little strange there are still plenty seats available in F? I would say it's more then possible that pax who were downgraded (with or without status) and didn't call QF are still in J.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry for being a bit negative here but I can't find any evidence to show that thread changed anything. In fact, don't you find it a little strange there are still plenty seats available in F? I would say it's more then possible that pax who were downgraded (with or without status) and didn't call QF are still in J.

I see your point!

It doesn't appear it was/is proactive. So I don't really see QF 'looking after' those passengers in that sense.

However, the availability of F seating for former F's certainly wasn't QF policy (if it was they would have been happy to confirm it and/or just do it).

That F pax can get seated there now seems to indicate the change in policy. And that came fairly shortly after the sustained AFF discussion.

 

[Aeolus]

I received the change of aircraft notification twice (from A380 to 747 and back again to A380). Selected 1A when it changed to 747. Seat seems to have stuck when I was notified again of the change back to A380. Happy days. Just checked EF and looks like I am still the only one on lower deck

 

[hotpaws]

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but after the hassle of securing a seat in the F cabin on the A380, Qantas has now changed the flight back to a 747 on Dec 25. Interesting that they would do this 4 days out (it was still an A380 yesterday), a bit too early substitution due to an aircraft going tech, and would imagine there would be some issues calling in a 747 crew on Christmas day with such short notice. All fare buckets in J and W are zero now, with QF happy to sell 7 Y seats only, so a massive loss of capacity on the flight. Have managed to change to 5B on a refurbished 747, I hope this doesn't change again. At this stage my flight on Jan 1 is still showing an A380.

 

[JohnK]

Is there a chance of downgrade going from A380 to 747?

 

[hotpaws]

Is there a chance of downgrade going from A380 to 747?

I hope as a WP I will be protected, for me it is already a downgrade going from a F suite to a Skybed.
If there are downgrades, I can think of no worse day for this to happen, (Merry Christmas, by the way your no longer in J, here's your Y seat!)
Not that it means much, but as of yesterday, there were 29 J seats unassigned, and showing 9's in all J fare buckets (J,C,D,I).
I also noticed that BNE-HKG is no longer operating, so suspect some may have been moved over to the Syd flight or the Mel flight.
This is also obviously affecting the return flight HKG-SYD, but this is still showing as J9 C9 D9 I0, and W9, so expect the load on this flight must be been very light.
The only reason I can imagine Qantas doing this would be poor load on the Syd and Bne flights in both directions, making it more economical to combine the two flights into one 747.

 

[redslert]

My recent experience on SYD <-> HKG both ways return, this is all in November/December.
I did this return 3 times over the last month.

Flights on depart Sydney Saturday/Sunday
Return on Tuesday/Friday/Saturday...

In all flights it was 100% full and on my most recent returning on Tuesday it was oversold... some got downgraded and some got reroute.
I overheld one pax got reroute who was suppose to be HKG->MEL, but got sent HKG->SYD->MEL... no idea how it makes sense on that one when the flight was already oversold.

On one flight I was suppose to be SYD->HKG->PVG, but when going to the airport I got a call from QF F check in and asked if I wanted to go direct SYD->PVG because the SYD->HKG was oversold.

Surprising HKG is a very popular route at the moment.