It's confirmed - 'Fly Ahead' benefit is now useless...

[JohnK]

I will try this benefit out tomorrow night in BNE.

I am on the 9:00pm but no harm in trying to get on an earlier flight if I get to the airport earlier.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Dont see how any benefit that allows a totally inflexible ticket to become a flexible ticket in any respect without incurring any cost, could be classed as useless. Personally, I think any flexibilty is very useful, especially when it is given to me without charge

See what I've written more than once in this thread:

Re: "useless" - I did state in my first email: "While it will still be useful for those who have no checked baggage, to me, the (published) benefit is useless [...] as I frequently do overnight trips (with checked baggage)"

I will try this benefit out tomorrow night in BNE.

I am on the 9:00pm but no harm in trying to get on an earlier flight if I get to the airport earlier.

Will you be travelling with checked baggage, or just carry-on? ... if the former, it will be interesting to see if this is still offered at priority check-in!

 

[MarkD]

I am sure if, you arrived hours early, and there were several earlier flights they would do their best to accommodate your needs, even if their benefit is useless.
As someone above stated, have you actually tried it, or are you just stressing out and getting all uptight and flustered about something that may not be an issue?
I repeat my statement, something for nothing is not useless, maybe to you, but not to me.


Sent from my iphone and AFF app

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I will try this benefit out tomorrow night in BNE.

I am on the 9:00pm but no harm in trying to get on an earlier flight if I get to the airport earlier.

So JohnK, how did it all go?

 

[JohnK]

Will you be travelling with checked baggage, or just carry-on? ... if the former, it will be interesting to see if this is still offered at priority check-in!

So JohnK, how did it all go?

Got to BNE airport ~7:00pm and thought I would try at priority check-in first. There were already 2 people being served and I waited ~1-2 minutes to be served.

While I was waiting a lady who was being served in front of me had a largish bag on belt obviously to be checked in. The next thing I hear is the check-in person asking her 'Is it OK if I move you on to the 7:55pm MEL flight?'. I have no idea what type of airfare the lady had or what status.

Anyway my turn and the other priority check-in agent called me over. I asked any chance of an earlier flight to SYD. Immediately she said 'The 8:00pm flight?'. And i said 'Yes". Anyway she starts tapping away and hands me boarding pass for 3C on the 8:00pm flight. I thought I had 3D on the later flight so that is pretty good service.

That is very good service and just to go off-topic slightly I just went to check-in for tomorrow's 6:00pm flight and I have already been pre-allocated 3C!

 

[777]

Myth: BUSTED!

 

[N860CR]

Has anyone tried this of late at the regional ports? I believe most of the staff are contractors and I'm not sure how "up" they are with the new VA rules. I have a flight out of ROK this weekend that I want to move to quite a bit earlier (ie: 6 hours), however there are four of us... (1x Plat, 3x Gold)

 

[ChrisFlyer]

As someone above stated, have you actually tried it, or are you just stressing out and getting all uptight and flustered about something that may not be an issue?
I repeat my statement, something for nothing is not useless, maybe to you, but not to me.

I have already answered that question in this thread, and addressed the term "useless" several times (though it may no longer be 'useless' (to myself), owing to recent anecdotes)

Glad everything worked well for you JohnK, and good to know the benefit is still (unofficially) there! I was flying SYD-BNE on Saturday night, and checked the flight loads at around midday. At that time, all flights scheduled to depart before mine were at 100% capacity, and when I checked again a couple of hours later, mine too was showing 100%. That being the case, I didn't bother asking for an earlier flight on check-in (nor was one offered obviously), but I was pleasantly surprised to be handed a boarding pass for 2C (which turned out to have full PE service - my first DJ op-up)... so I'll say it - obviously, the enhanced customer service is still there for those that routinely travel with checked baggage haha

 

[an*g-bne]

Has anyone tried this of late at the regional ports? I believe most of the staff are contractors and I'm not sure how "up" they are with the new VA rules. I have a flight out of ROK this weekend that I want to move to quite a bit earlier (ie: 6 hours), however there are four of us... (1x Plat, 3x Gold)

How did you end up going? I've found the DJ staff (and I do believe they are actual DJ employees) at ROK to be very helpful and flexible; though it probably helps that I see them at least once a week .

 

[N860CR]

Sorry forgot to report back.

I called Platinum in the morning and they said they can't do it over the phone, but the 1pm flight was looking ok. I was a little concerned that it would take some work to explain it all to the contractors at ROK...

All very easy though. First girl at checkin was very switched on, knew exactly what to do and changed the flights. She was trying to get us seats up the front when the plane arrived and the supervisor came to finish us off. She wasn't in the best of moods... (or was just a cow) so we ended up with two of us in row 2 (where the first girl moved us) and the other two in row 4. Rows 1 & 2 were otherwise empty with no PE pax.

She also made a deal of weighing each of our tiny carry on bags. We did check baggage with no issues.

Another plus, the crew onboard gave the two of us in row 2 (plat & gold) free food and drinks. The two in row 4 (gold & gold) got stuck paying.

Very easy all up and I was quite impressed.