Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 ADL-SYD) using OLCI...wha?

[straitman]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

Either that or warped theories.

Or maybe a Cynic with warped theories.

 

[JohnK]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

Or maybe a Cynic with warped theories.

LOL! :shock:

 

[NM]

Or maybe she or someone she knows requested an upgrade on line prior to check-in using points and U was available and it was confirmed.

 

[Skoogle]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

It is a marketing ploy... End result is QF requires less check in staff as everyone is using OLCI.

Works for me.

 

[serfty]

Well there you go.
She boarded fine and is now sitting in 1A.

Lucky! Has anyone ever heard of a successful, unrequested upgrade DURING OLCI before? I certainly haven't!

Back in Nov '05 I had an op-up become apparent to me at Quick-Check (MEL-BNE, 4J on a 763, 6pm flight, 5:30pm had been cancelled due to u/s aircraft). This was pre-OLCI.

Similar though ...

 

[littl_flier]

Or maybe she or someone she knows requested an upgrade on line prior to check-in using points and U was available and it was confirmed.

What strikes me as strange (and I'm sure Febs said it but it's late) is that all seats were available for selection, including rows in J and Y.

IIRC, I only get the option to select J seats on OLCI when I'm already booked and confirmed into J, presumably to stop people making mistakes and selecting 42A when they're booked into J? OLCI in booked J is a sample size of 1 but is this normally the case?

 

[Febs]

Or maybe she or someone she knows requested an upgrade on line prior to check-in using points and U was available and it was confirmed.

Definitely no points upgrade requested by her.

The bag drop staff member was curious if she knew anyone who worked at QF who may have upgraded her. From what he could see, it was a random, un-requested upgrade.

TBH I think JohnK might be somewhat on the money.

What strikes me as strange (and I'm sure Febs said it but it's late) is that all seats were available for selection, including rows in J and Y.

Sorry mate, might have been mis-leading. She only had access to J seats, and was pre-allocated 1A.

I guess it's fair enough though...the other 3 of us travel J internationally, but she only travels domestically, so it was good she got a taste of J.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[Reggie]

I guess it's fair enough though...the other 3 of us travel J internationally, but she only travels domestically, so it was good she got a taste of J.

Why, so she knows what she is missing out on

 

[JohnK]

Why, so she knows what she is missing out on

So what is she missing out on? A comfortable flat bed and a gourmet meal?

 

[Reggie]

So what is she missing out on? A comfortable flat bed and a gourmet meal?

Free drinks, better SC's (yes I know it was an opup), cleaner toilet , dedicated FA, overhead locker space (sometimes).

 

[Yada Yada]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

Well there you go.
She boarded fine and is now sitting in 1A.

I think this story (sadly) says more about the supposed value of being an SG or WP than anything else.

 

[simongr]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

It is a marketing ploy.

Give a nil status passenger an upgrade during OLCI and it then gets posted on forums like AFF and soon everyone is using OLCI just in case they also get that elusive upgrade. End result is QF requires less check in staff as everyone is using OLCI.

As much as I love a good conspiracy theory this does rely on two key elements - first that the punter makes the link between OLCI and the upgrade and that the link is communicated to other people.

A slightly more self involved individual may not in fact tell other people about this benefit in case they miss out on it in the future due to other people trying the same trick.

I think Yada Yada is right in that people who get status hoping to be first in line for an Op-Up are sadly mistaken

 

[jpk]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

I think this story (sadly) says more about the supposed value of being an SG or WP than anything else.

agreed, this story makes me simultaneously sad and angry (not sure of the smiley for that). at the end of it all, could simply have been a bug.

how full was the rest of J and Y respectively? ie: did they need to op-up.

 

[Febs]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

agreed, this story makes me simultaneously sad and angry (not sure of the smiley for that). at the end of it all, could simply have been a bug.

how full was the rest of J and Y respectively? ie: did they need to op-up.

Y had quite a few seats free. 4B next to me was free, as were other seats scattered throughout the plane.

J - not too sure, but during boarding there were still 2 seats free, and there was definitely at least one seat free for the entire flight.

Cheers,
- Febs.

 

[Reggie]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

I think this story (sadly) says more about the supposed value of being an SG or WP than anything else.

It's rather depressing.

 

[Dave Noble]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

I think this story (sadly) says more about the supposed value of being an SG or WP than anything else.

I don't see how it does at all. There is nothing anywhere in the details of Gold/Platinum membership which indicates any entitlement or that there should be any expectation of involuntary upgrades

Often it seems that they do use that criteria but there is no reasonable expectation that they should do

Dave

 

[Yada Yada]

Re: Booked in economy, given seat 1A (QF774 SYD-ADL)...wha?

I don't see how it does at all. There is nothing anywhere in the details of Gold/Platinum membership which indicates any entitlement or that there should be any expectation of involuntary upgrades

Often it seems that they do use that criteria but there is no reasonable expectation that they should do

That's why I said "supposed value".

You just made my point much more eloquently than I did.

 

[NM]

Another possible explanation comes to mind. Perhaps the lucky passenger had been auto-allocated a Y seat by the computer before OLCI opened. then before the person had actually checked-in a family travelling together turned up at the airport for check-in and obviously wanted to sit together. The check-in agent may have looked around the seat map and found the easiest way to seat the group together was to move the "displaced" passenger from their pre-allocated seat. but of course by that stage there was only middle seats left and it would not be nice to move them to a worse seat, so when there was space up front the passenger was upgraded .

I have seen this happen where it is far easier to just move one person to open up the space for the group to be together. And rather than make lots of shuffles around the cabin looking for the highest status person to upgrade, it just makes sense to move one person and upgrade them.

So its not always who you are or what status you have or what letter of the alphabet you use, but where you are sitting that has the best chance of an op-up.

 

[Shano]

What NM described above is essentially how I scored one of my more recent op-up (albeit about 5 months ago).

I had been allocated an aisle seat in a bassinet row on a 767 SYD-MEL. While sitting in the QP I was paged to come to the service desk. A family had checked in and wanted the bassinet position, so they moved me up to J.

The flight was pretty full so highly unlikely there would have been any other forward aisle seats available to move me to.