Domestic seat selection now up and running

[YQY]

I'm not sure what the issue is - for domestic flights in March (1st, 4th, 8th, 11th, 15th & 18th) I am able to select any seat from practically any row. I don't see any blocked rows.

Is the issue that SG, PS, NB are able to see all rows as available?

 

[jamesatfish]

Some more data points for two flights booked this morning:

•Booked 2 seats QF45 Sat 15 May, Red e-Deals, both passengers WP. Was automatically allocated 5A and 5B, but able to select 4A and 4C. Entire Economy cabin except the exit rows available for allocation.

•Booked 2 seats QF46 Sun 16 May, Red e-Deals, same passengers. Did not get any automatic allocations (seats were listed as 'No Preference', but again able to select 4A and 4C. No rows were unavailable except exit rows, but plenty of seats blocked across the whole cabin.

 

[Katie]

I'm not sure what the issue is - for domestic flights in March (1st, 4th, 8th, 11th, 15th & 18th) I am able to select any seat from practically any row. I don't see any blocked rows.

Is the issue that SG, PS, NB are able to see all rows as available?

As a PS (travelling with a NB and a QP NB) on a B ticket (PE/R on Intl), when I went into seat selection for our flights BNE-SYD-(US)-SYD-BNE at the end April/mid May, I was only able to see rows 39+ on a 2-3-2 whY cabin (not sure what aircraft) and rows 30+ on a 3-3 whY config for the return flight.
There was a fair number of whY rows in front of me that were blocked from me, and I don't have EF to check what capacity was like. So, still plenty of rows at the front of whY for WP and SG to select. It would have been interesting to see if we could have changed our selections with OLCI ... but I've burned some points and upgraded us.

 

[serfty]

I'm not sure what the issue is - for domestic flights in March (1st, 4th, 8th, 11th, 15th & 18th) I am able to select any seat from practically any row. I don't see any blocked rows.

Is the issue that SG, PS, NB are able to see all rows as available?

What is your booking class?

 

[YQY]

What is your booking class?

I travel on K class domestically.

 

[JohnK]

I'm not sure what the issue is - for domestic flights in March (1st, 4th, 8th, 11th, 15th & 18th) I am able to select any seat from practically any row. I don't see any blocked rows.

Is the issue that SG, PS, NB are able to see all rows as available?

Most Platinums cannot select from the first 2 rows of economy for future bookings.

I travel on K class domestically.

That may well be the trick....

 

[samiam]

Okay, let's give this a spin...

I've just used seat selection to choose a seat on QF 775 to PER on Wednesday 3/3 at 0610. Time is now > 80 hours.

Furthest forward row I can see is 30.

I'll check back at around 10.10pm tonight (which should be T -80, if I have it right) and see if I
can sit in a zone (separated by some imaginary curtain) unto which a non-WP may or may not be 'worthy'


View attachment 521

Screenshot taken at T -80...

... additional forward seats available. So, technically, I could queue-jump a WP at this stage (except for first row)?

 

[JohnK]

I don't think you understand ... they can't "get there first" as with "Theoretical Seating" their allocation would be somewhere aft; whether they preselect or not.

e.g. A SG preselects a seat on booking and picks a seat on row 30 (763), can't go further forward into the WP and CL 'zones'. At T-80 they come back to have a look and see maybe they can get to row 27, same as was the case prior to thi.

This may be a pain for late bookers, but that has generally been the case anyway.

Please expalin how you think I do not understand? Look at the example above posted by samiam and explain to me how 24AB and 24JK are vacant and "theoretically" NOT pre-allocated to a Platinum at T-80 hours whilst there are seata further back pre-allocated to Platinums. So now wide open for anyoneswith access to the seat map to allocate those seats.

Finally, it's certainly more beneficial for high state QFFers than the aborted implementation last year.

Perhaps for Gold and Silver. There is clearly something wrong with the software or the implementation of the software....

 

[serfty]

... . So now wide open for anyoneswith access to the seat map to allocate those seats. ...

How is this different from OLCI at 24 hours?

I see no effective change with theoretical seats at all ...

>>> BTW:

With the advent of this implementation, seat maps for any mainline domestic flights are now available on expertflyer should your QFF details in your account profile be adequate.

Also, www.checkmytrip.com now also returns seat maps for domestic flights.

 

[JohnK]

How is this different from OLCI at 24 hours?

Is this how "true" OLCI behaves at T-24 hours? I believe you could not jump zones under the current implementation of OLCI.

e.g Chairmans Lounge pre-allocated 23A and requests upgrade or changes flights at T-20 hours which leaves 23A vacant. Silver logs on and is pre-allocated 47D but cannot see anything outside of their zone especially 23A. I checked OLCI yesterday late in the afternoon at around T-4 hours and 24DEF (in the mini cabin) were still vacant from the night before. You can't tell me a Gold or Silver using OLCI did not want to move up to row 24. They simply cannot.

I see no effective change with theoretical seats at all ...

Our whole theory on theoretical seats needs to be seriously questioned. How does Altea leave 24AB, 24JK vacant while there are other Platinums pre-allocated seats further back?

Something is not quite right with this implementation.

 

[serfty]

None of that show any real change from the majority of the posts in this thread:

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...ntas-domestic-seating-data-capture-17973.html

I mean, how is that different (aside from accessing the real seat map 2⅓ dayes earlier than before)?

On a personal level I find it far better, as I can access seat maps for any domestic flight (helps planning greatly)

 

[medhead]

Is this how "true" OLCI behaves at T-24 hours? I believe you could not jump zones under the current implementation of OLCI.

e.g Chairmans Lounge pre-allocated 23A and requests upgrade or changes flights at T-20 hours which leaves 23A vacant. Silver logs on and is pre-allocated 47D but cannot see anything outside of their zone especially 23A. I checked OLCI yesterday late in the afternoon at around T-4 hours and 24DEF (in the mini cabin) were still vacant from the night before. You can't tell me a Gold or Silver using OLCI did not want to move up to row 24. They simply cannot.


Our whole theory on theoretical seats needs to be seriously questioned. How does Altea leave 24AB, 24JK vacant while there are other Platinums pre-allocated seats further back?

Something is not quite right with this implementation.

The example of a silver is not exactly right IME. I often have the option of moving into that WP zone during the 24 hours, often even 4B and E (even 4F once) on a 737-800. (sorry most of my flights are on 737, so can't comment of 767).

I believe this is due to the WP who have been pre-allocated the seat choicing not to take that seat for whatever reason. As every other WP has either checked in and taken another seat or are still on the preallocation, those vacanted seats then open up for those from outside that zone. Effectively no WP is being beating by lower status because they all have seats in their zone.

This isn't a strong theory, but it matches my experiences.

 

[anat0l]

Is this how "true" OLCI behaves at T-24 hours? I believe you could not jump zones under the current implementation of OLCI.

e.g Chairmans Lounge pre-allocated 23A and requests upgrade or changes flights at T-20 hours which leaves 23A vacant. Silver logs on and is pre-allocated 47D but cannot see anything outside of their zone especially 23A. I checked OLCI yesterday late in the afternoon at around T-4 hours and 24DEF (in the mini cabin) were still vacant from the night before. You can't tell me a Gold or Silver using OLCI did not want to move up to row 24. They simply cannot.


Our whole theory on theoretical seats needs to be seriously questioned. How does Altea leave 24AB, 24JK vacant while there are other Platinums pre-allocated seats further back?

Something is not quite right with this implementation.

The example of a silver is not exactly right IME. I often have the option of moving into that WP zone during the 24 hours, often even 4B and E (even 4F once) on a 737-800. (sorry most of my flights are on 737, so can't comment of 767).

I believe this is due to the WP who have been pre-allocated the seat choicing not to take that seat for whatever reason. As every other WP has either checked in and taken another seat or are still on the preallocation, those vacanted seats then open up for those from outside that zone. Effectively no WP is being beating by lower status because they all have seats in their zone.

This isn't a strong theory, but it matches my experiences.

medhead seems to confirm to some degree what I think is happening.

Once preallocation has taken place, someone who vacates their allocation for any reason will open their seat for anyone. So if a WP gives up 4A for whatever reason, anyone could take it. It won't be held blocked again for another WP. Nor will a WP who was preallocated a seat further back be reallocated into 4A and their former preallocation now made a "free for all" select seat.

In saying this, JohnK's example disproves that this "theory" is rock-solid (i.e. WP or CL status seat is vacated but still unavailable to be selected by SG or PS, even so close to departure).

If you check my ba97, I was a PS between Jun 2008 - mid Oct 2008, then a SG from mid Oct 2008 - Feb 2009. Most of those are Y trips and mostly bought in cheapest Red e-Deal. As you can see, it's not entirely impossible for PS and SG to get seats in WP zones. (Yes I know - not a lot of those flights are expected to be WP/CL heavy). But from my experience of course it wasn't easy - I had to keep checking OLCI all the time hoping for something in row 4 to give way. I don't know whether Altea has been modified a lot since then (not counting the new Advance Seat Selection feature).

Either way, with Adv Seat Selection (T-80 window) vs. OLCI (T-24), I can't see much difference between the two w.r.t. seat choice. If anything, maybe this is only to create a more "level" playing field against those who book at the last minute. Either that or to create a faux benefit to imitate what is now commonly seen as a new feature of most airlines (something which is also new - many airlines will charge for the privilege!)

 

[medhead]

In saying this, JohnK's example disproves that this "theory" is rock-solid (i.e. WP or CL status seat is vacated but still unavailable to be selected by SG or PS, even so close to departure).

I did say that my theory wasn't very strong.

But I did read JohnK as providing an example of what he believed happened, which didn't match with what I've experienced.

However, my experience is limited and not documented. So it definitely isn't the basis for a rock solid theory. I certainly bow to superior experience.

 

[straitman]

By the way it is 1:30 now but you don't appear to be online to look at the picture for the return flight....

I needed my beauty sleep more than I needed to be online.

... and no comments from the peanut gallery :!:

 

[Kendall Roy]

QF Domestic Seat Selection now available for PS+

Frequent Flyer ? Select Seats

 

[straitman]

Re: QF Domestic Seat Selection now available for PS+

Frequent Flyer ? Select Seats

sydflyer,

From where I'm sitting that link does not appear to work :!:

 

[Kendall Roy]

Re: QF Domestic Seat Selection now available for PS+

sydflyer,

From where I'm sitting that link does not appear to work :!:

No issues here (it was stolen from a QF Facebook update).

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but I don't have access to this feature as a QP PS.

 

[simongr]

medhead seems to confirm to some degree what I think is happening.

Once preallocation has taken place, someone who vacates their allocation for any reason will open their seat for anyone. So if a WP gives up 4A for whatever reason, anyone could take it. It won't be held blocked again for another WP. Nor will a WP who was preallocated a seat further back be reallocated into 4A and their former preallocation now made a "free for all" select seat.

I was told at the QP that seats are held for SG/WP if vacated by a WP/SG. They can't be grabbed by PS/NB.

 

[markis10]

I was told at the QP that seats are held for SG/WP if vacated by a WP/SG. They can't be grabbed by PS/NB.

Until the flight goes till airport control, which then allows them to assign whoever to whatever seats, I often see a no status in the middle of row 4 on the 73's