Is Qantas diluting the benefits of status?

[JohnK]

It would appear that Qantas is removing certain privileges associated with higher status with recent announcements regarding allocating seats at time of booking, paying for exit rows coupled with the implementation of allocating seats weighted more heavily towards customer value to Qantas.

I know it is not easy to define "preferred seating" and Platinum may still be able to pre-allocate exit rows (although this is not a published benefit it was still honoured by Qantas) but I feel that Qantas is slowly chipping away at privileges once taken for granted. Are we likely to see further announcements or changes?

Also I was pre-allocated 27C for last Thursday night's BNE-SYD flight on an international configured 767 and I have been pre-allocated 37D :shock: for tomorrow morning's SYD-BNE flight on the international configured 767. I hope this pattern does not continue. Yes it is only a SYD-BNE flight but it could just as easily be a SYD-PER, MEL-BNE flight. If you are a Platinum would you be happy with these seat allocations? Is this happening to any other Platinum, because I know most of you are on cheap red e-deals, or is it just me?

Would appreciate to hear your recent experiences....

 

[flyer4703]

Nine flights last week, all red-e-deals allocated rows 4 or 5 for all flights. Status still seems to be working. Even before the new system started I would occasionally have a seat allocated much further back in the cabin than usual. I don't think anything has changed; QF computer system just makes some interesting allocations sometimes.
.

 

[moa999]

A recent SYD-BNE-SYD,
28K out (30J config), 28A back (25J config)
worse than more recent flights although I always seem to do better with and prefer 738s

But given seat allocation was only working for 24hrs I don't think we can blame that (just yet anyway)

 

[Homer]

I am flying BNE-SYD this evening with Marge and Maggie and we are all on Red E-Deal tickets. I checked OLCI this morning and we have been allocated row 40. We are all WP (even Maggie and she is just three). This has happened to me quite a lot in the past few years. I don't think I will have any luck getting moved based on past experience with the QF check in staff in BNE...they don't seem to recognise status any better than the QF computer system...

 

[SnowYeti]

...We are all WP (even Maggie and she is just three). ...

I love that Maggie is WP !!

 

[Homer]

I love that Maggie is WP !!

Thanks SnowYeti. That was courtesy of a DONE4/vacation/status run that we just completed in April.

 

[Bundy Bear]

I am flying BNE-SYD this evening with Marge and Maggie and we are all on Red E-Deal tickets. I checked OLCI this morning and we have been allocated row 40. We are all WP (even Maggie and she is just three).

:shock:

Would a 3 year old be Qantas youngest WP.

 

[NM]

Are we likely to see further announcements or changes?

Over the 18 years I have been a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, there has been many changes to the benefits available to members. Each time there is a change there seems to be some whose benefits are perceived to be improved and some whose benefits are perceived to be involuntarily downgraded (enhanced ). The benefits available to members are continuously evolving, and that is not just for top-tier statue members. The evolution happens across the program and affects people in different ways. While these latest changes are seen by some members as bad, they are seen by some as good and by others as neutral. Just look back at some of the discussion about overcrowding in lounges and the creation of domestic Business Class lounges with Platinum status members having access to see how different members were affected in different ways and the passion that showed through in the discussion.

I certainly do expect to continue to see changes to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. Some changes will be seen as good and some changes will be seen as bad by different members. How they affect you may be different to how they affect other members, even other members of the same status tier. Each person has different travel patterns, spend models, redemptions goals and benefit values. Predicting what changes will occur, when they will be implemented and how they will affect individuals is the part that requires either a crystal ball or inside knowledge, neither of which I have available at this time.

 

[JohnK]

Either I am having extreme bad luck or there is something seriously wrong with Qantas or the new seating allocation system (ALTEA) that has been in place for ~12 months has been tweaked again recently.

I could not get past 29J until I got to the airport this morning. Still only 2 other seats vacant so check-in and go to the lounge. Could not access OLCI again as it is now <1 hour to the flight. I waited until almost everyone had boarded and asked at the Customer service desk if there was an aisle seat further forward. She looked and looked and gave me a boarding pass for 28B.

After I boarded I noticed vacant seats at 23E (aisle), 26B, 26F, 26J, 28J, 29J, 30JK and 5 other middle seats that were not available earlier. There was even a frail old buddhist monk seated at 26D and I do not believe he had any status. What is going on? And this time it is not last minute op-ups or upgrades to business class that freed up those forward aisle seats.

Qantas is playing games and I do not expect it to get any better....

 

[NM]

And this time it is not last minute op-ups or upgrades to business class that freed up those forward aisle seats.

How do you know that to be the case? As soon as someone relinquishes a seat (ODU, changed flight etc), that seat may be snapped up by the next person checking in. It may only be available for a matter of seconds before said monk checks in and is presented with a nice seat.

You asked for an aisle seat further forward that your original 29J and were given 28B. That does meet the request. But it would seem strange that you were not offered one of the more forward aisle seats when requesting at the gate . I guess there is not really any way to know if the gate agent was able to see those empty aisle seats further forward and chose only to offer you row 28 or if the system blocked them from you for some reason (perhaps blocked adjacent seats for other status passengers??).

 

[albatross710]

There was even a frail old buddhist monk seated at 26D and I do not believe he had any status.

He would have status with the world's over 1 billion buddhists...lol.

 

[serfty]

I've been getting great seating - I mainly travel on red e-deals. So I've seen no dilution personally. This was even true with Qantas recent brief flirtation with online seat selection on booking.

Then again I rarely travel at peak times so am not being assessed against hordes of WP/SS/PS/CL travelling on flexi fares for those good seats.

 

[oz_mark]

Then again I rarely travel at peak times so am not being assessed against hordes of WP/SS/PS/CL travelling on flexi fares for those good seats.

There's probably a lot in this statement. When I fly on Saturdays, I get pretty good seats. On the Friday or Sunday evening flights, nothing fancy about what I have available to me.

 

[notzac]

On the ... Sunday evening flights, nothing fancy about what I have available to me.

IME I've had good luck with these flights at OLCI - 4D on a 73H, which turned in to an aisle bulkhead when they did an equipment swap to a 763. Really can't complain

Edit: this was on a Red-e-deal also .. I think it booked in to O.

 

[Grooba]

I have to agree and say that I am egnerally happy with the WP benifits and seating allocation.

This morning SYD-BNE-ISA I was allocated 5D for both and easily OLCI'd 4C for both legs. SYD-BNE wasn't exactly the peak time (QF520) and was also booked a few weeks ago, which for my travel is quite rare.

Even when I have to travel in peak times I usually get the forward aisle (rows 4/5 on 737's) even when the booking is made less than 3 days out.

No real complaints from a WP here.

 

[JohnK]

How do you know that to be the case?

I am certain as I asked for a more forward seat very close to boarding and unless they have started issuing multiple op-ups on board the aircraft those aisle seats were vacant when I asked at the gate.

You asked for an aisle seat further forward that your original 29J and were given 28B. That does meet the request. But it would seem strange that you were not offered one of the more forward aisle seats when requesting at the gate .

The funny thing is when the monk sat in 26D there was someone in 26E but 26F was empty. I can't imagine 26E was a high status passenger and he ended up sitting in 26F before take-off with a spare seat next to him.

I don't know what to make of it all as most Platinums on AFF continue to have a high success rate at getting forward seating on cheap red e-deals. I am constantly getting pre-allocated seats 5-10 rows back and I have to fight hard with OLCI and Quickcheck to get a better seat. If this happened just once or twice I would dismiss it as a glitch but it is happening to me every week.

I have not experienced blocked aisle seats, blocked middle seats I can understand, in the 12 months that I have been commuting SYD-BNE until the beginning of this month. The flight I had on the 31 May 2009 I was able to get to the front of the WHY fairly easily but in the 2 flights in June I have seen the front of the WHY cabin blocked out for the majority of the time OLCI has been available.

Not the end of the world but it would be nice if Qantas treated all Platinums travelling on the same cheap red e-deals the same way....

 

[Grooba]

I don't know what to make of it all as most Platinums on AFF continue to have a high success rate at getting forward seating on cheap red e-deals. I am constantly getting pre-allocated seats 5-10 rows back and I have to fight hard with OLCI and Quickcheck to get a better seat. If this happened just once or twice I would dismiss it as a glitch but it is happening to me every week.

Are you flying in peak times JohnK? If so, it's not uncommon for WP's to get allocated anywhere between rows 4 and 9(ish) on 737's or the first 4/5 rows on 767's.

 

[Durin's Bane]

Being a WP I have no complaints either with seating allocation.

My only complaint is with the Qantas lounge dragons, who almost always reject my request for an upgrade using points. In three years of being WP I've only ever managed ONE points upgrade. And I fly between capital cities say once a week, including some non peak hour flights.

I've received numerous operational upgrades, including most recently last week flying from Sydney to Perth.

 

[JohnK]

Are you flying in peak times JohnK? If so, it's not uncommon for WP's to get allocated anywhere between rows 4 and 9(ish) on 737's or the first 4/5 rows on 767's.

Depends on what you call peak time. Generally it is one of the last SYD-BNE flights Sunday night and then the later BNE-SYD flights on Friday night. I have tried various variants. Today was the first morning peak flight and I will be avoiding these, except when Sunday night is too expensive, in the future as I got up at 4:30am this morning and I am now extremely tired at work and still another 4-5 hours to go.

Generally I am allocated row 27, 28, 29 on the 767's with a sprinkling of row 30 and this morning it was 37D and there was a 45D one time. :shock: I try to avoid 737 as much as possible but generally I am allocated row 7, 8, 9.

I think I reported on AFF a few weeks ago that a SYD-BNE flight had 110 people on board and row 4 was blocked until ~1 hour before the flight. I then ended up in 4C in an empty row. Also before the last 2 flights my success rate fighting OLCI and getting first row on 737 or 767 has been very high. Something has changed....

 

[SnowYeti]

My only complaint is with the Qantas lounge dragons, who almost always reject my request for an upgrade using points. In three years of being WP I've only ever managed ONE points upgrade. And I fly between capital cities say once a week, including some non peak hour flights.

Don't understand why they would be knocking these back if there is plenty of room, easy way to burn points on QF's behalf ... they are crazy sometimes (is sometimes the right word? :-| )