If at first you don't succeed, try again

[Edge]

Had a 5pm flight from Brisbane to Melbourne in O yesterday. My meeting finished early and I got to the airport just after 3pm. Approached the sales desk and asked the person if there was any chance of being able to jump on an earlier flight. He was obviously having 'one of those days' and told me quite abruptly that as I had booked on the cheapest possible fair the only way I could fly earlier was to purchase another ticket. And my enquiry about exit row seats was given a very abrupt 'sorry the flight is full' without him even checking it.

Just.
Plain.
Rude.

Decided to roll the dice again at the airline desk at the airline desk after security with a much different result. A quick check of earlier flights yielded the response: "I can do 3:55pm for you with a window seat in the exit row?" (without me even requesting exit row). Wow. Sure I'm only bronze (will be silver in a month or two) but if there's room on an earlier flight and it's easy to move someone, wouldn't you just do it so you can potentially sell the 5pm seat to someone else?

Thank you to the person that helped me out! The other bonus was the earlier flight had personal IFE so got to watch a movie as well.

 

[samh004]

I believe this all comes down to whether they think there'll be issues later in the day, proactive onload? Something like that. There's also the problem that staff don't all have the discretion to do what you ask.


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[SeatBackForward]

I believe this all comes down to whether they think there'll be issues later in the day, proactive onload? Something like that. There's also the problem that staff don't all have the discretion to do what you ask.


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I've said it before on AFF, (assuming the OP is referring to QF too), and here I'll say it again: the decision to move has more to do with the person at the counter, than any "policy/rule"...

I'm in two minds about whether this is good or bad, on one hand it empowers the staff member to act accordingly, however, on the other hand it leaves the door wide open to a lack of consistency and questionable actions such as the one the OP describes.

 

[serfty]

Welcome to AFF Edge

I presume it was Qantas?

 

[Edge]

Sorry.. yes, Qantas to clarify things.

Agreed, it's just the consistency (or lack thereof) that's the most frustrating part. I travel on Qantas and/or Virgin probably 8 or 9 times per year (which will be increasing) and every time it's a lottery. I never go in with the expectation that I'll have my request accommodated, and a lot of the time I've been told that they would love to help but the earlier flights are fully booked. No worries! But when I'm told that the only way I can fly earlier is to purchase a new ticket (when I know that's not the case) in an abrupt tone, it really translates to a negative customer experience. I've been trying to put all of my travel through Qantas recently (even though 'lowest fare' is our company policy) and if I hadn't tried the second time I may have reconsidered my next trip.

Anyway, not blaming Qantas or anything like that. I'd rather they had the policy of 'sometimes' being able to accommodate these types of requests than just having a blanket "no we cannot do this ever" approach. Just sharing my experience.