Using Amex voucher to buy a comfort seat on Qantas flight

[Nerdnotgeek]

As title , I have a $450 amex voucher for use with qantas. I want to buy x3 $139 seats - 2 for myself and partner and one for comfort.
I cant do this with online booking as you need to enter a name for each passenger and it wont let me enter the same name twice.
Having chatted with Amex travel they are now contacting Qantas before they manually complete my booking and call me for final approval. That was a good amount of hours ago though and with last interactions as the metre Im not convinced I will get my call back today. This leads to the real question..
Should I book the third seat under a random name, complete check in online but then tell them at the gate that the third passenger isnt arriving? What comeback for this could there be , if any ? It seems like a win-win for qantas to me but I wonder if Im missing something.

 

[sudoer]

Should I book the third seat under a random name, complete check in online but then tell them at the gate that the third passenger isnt arriving?

I wouldn't suggest doing this and would highly recommend getting Amex to sort it out, but if you really wanted to DIY it, for the extra seat enter your surname and first name SEATPAID.

Extra Seat (EXST) for Personal Comfort

Customers can purchase extra seat/s on Qantas operated and marketed flights for their personal comfort. If travel includes any codeshare or interline flights, please contact the operating airline for further information.

www.qantas.com

No guarantees it will work or that you'll get the points/SC for the extra seat!

 

[Nerdnotgeek]

I wouldn't suggest doing this and would highly recommend getting Amex to sort it out, but if you really wanted to DIY it, for the extra seat enter your surname and first name SEATPAID.

Extra Seat (EXST) for Personal Comfort

Customers can purchase extra seat/s on Qantas operated and marketed flights for their personal comfort. If travel includes any codeshare or interline flights, please contact the operating airline for further information.

www.qantas.com

No guarantees it will work or that you'll get the points/SC for the extra seat!

Not worried about points at all, Im just trying to think of workarounds as the Amex Travel online chat and phone help are terrible huge hold times etc . This is day three trying to sort something out.
This is for the return leg of a trip so maybe Ill follow your advice - book it as Surname/Paid and then discuss it at the business lounge desk on the outbound leg

 

[33kft]

The problem with booking Seaty McSeatface between yourself and your partner is that once Mr McSeatFace fails to check in prior to the flight he may get subbed out for a waitlist passenger.

You would want to really ensure that they check that "passenger" in, otherwise you are no better off than just chancing that the middle seat were empty (but would be down the $$)

 

[Nerdnotgeek]

I was promised a callback from Amex by 4pm so they called me back at 6pm (!) with fairly good news - they had cleared with Qantas that the purchase was ok but a comfort seat has a different price structure apparently as there are no taxes to pay so it has been transferred to the amex costs department. I assume that means it will be cheaper but as I get no refund from the voucher it wont make any difference. There is a small chance though that I will get this sorted today , meaning it only took 4 days to arrange an empty seat. (If this is finally arranged and there are not any banks of three seats together I may have a conniption lol !!)