What does blocked seat mean

[ashnmar]

Whenever booking and trying to choose a seat
there seem to be a lot of "blocked"seats.
OK so, can someone explain as to what that means?

 

[BlueAU]

I understand it means the airline blocks it for a number of reasons:

1. It is blocked for priorty PAX, CL, Platinum, Gold, Silver
2. It is blocked for operational requirements
3. Could be blocked to reserve an accessible seat for a disabled PAX
4. Once upon a time as a SG, I was able to ask the check in person to block seat next to me, so nobody sat next to me unless flight became full :shock:
5. Blocked for groups / tour groups (Reservations I guess)

Could be wrong, will let some of the other seasoned AFFers answer their interpretation!

 

[serfty]

To put it simplistically, any seat on a planned flight can have several attributes applied to it.

Among these attributes are "allocated" and "Blocking Status".

The first is self explanatory, the second can have at least 3 types

• Not Blocked
• Q-Blocked (Premium Seating for Elites)
• Blocked (e.g. Exit Row Seat, Bassinet, Crew Rest)

If you are referring to Qantas on-line seat selection, your "Blocked" seats are either already allocated, Q-Blocked or Blocked.

 

[Travel Guru]

Seats are also blocked when the flight isn't going to be 100% full in order to evenly distribute passenger weight throughout the aircraft.

TG

 

[drron]

I notice doing OLCI on JQ that the first 4 rows are always unavailable for selection.Each time I or mrsdrron are travelling alone and we check in at the airport we are allocated a seat in the first 4 rows-often row 1.So when travelling with baggage I find there is absolutely no benefit to doing OLCI on JQ as they wont accept your bag until 2 hours before the flight anyway if you have done so.

 

[dede]

Whenever booking and trying to choose a seat
there seem to be a lot of "blocked"seats.
OK so, can someone explain as to what that means?

You're in a Jetstar toilet?

 

[russianrob]

Go easy on the new kids DeDe

 

[djfuzz]

A question relevant to this thread -

Booked my parents on QF93 (A380) PE next month - unfortunately, due to the load and their lack of status, the only seats available to them were in the middle of Row 39, basically away from any windows, wedged between the toilets and the PE snack bar.

However Seatcounter shows W9, and the EF seatmaps indicate that all but one seat in the front row and the exit row seats in row 38 are Q-blocked.

So my question is - if the load stays light and no WPs pre-allocate those seats by the time OLCI becomes available, will they be able to access those seats at OLCI? Or do they just have to try their luck on the day at the airport (if that works at all)?

 

[serfty]

I believe more seats may become available shortly before OLCI - keep checking, especially 2-3 days before the flight.

 

[djfuzz]

An update at a week out.

EF now shows: F9 A9 J9 C9 D9 I2 W9 R0 T0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 VC SC NC QC OC XC E0

Seat maps show 7 blocked PE seats not yet taken, and numerous F, J and Y seats both blocked and available. QF.com shows no available seats for them to move to in the PE cabin.

As advised serfty, will keep checking on both QF.com to see if there's anything that opens up, but it seems pretty closed up right now. Hoping that you're right and something comes up before or at OLCI, or as a backup, their unlikely NB points upgrade comes through.

Would hate for them to be stuck in that coughpy row right at the back of the plane, which is pretty much what they were hoping to avoid when they paid extra for PE!

 

[djfuzz]

Hmm, rather frustrating - seat map still shows the cabin full, as claimed by the agent over the phone, despite EF showing two available (not blocked) seats at the bulkhead, with W9 R2 T2.

OLCI opens tomorrow morning, so I'll try then - I'd really rather cancel their points upgrade, but all I want is to bag these seats for them first. So annoying trying to do these things without the benefit of any status.