Platinum Shadow - how does it work?

[Mal]

Almost guaranteed with 2 WPs on the same booking!

(Not linked bookings), but Anat0l and myself were flying back from SYD after the "Come Play" weekend. On a 767 with separate bookings, we were in the D and F seats respectively of a 767. In E was some random passenger. There were other seats free around the place.

So our platinum aura didn't work!

 

[pshepvic]

How did you checkin originally - OLCI, Mobile or Podium & did your companion to the same or different way of checking in?

We both checked in together via OLCI. I changed the seats allocated at OLCI but the booking still showed the old seats so that may have caused it too, thinking I had 2 seats allocated.

 

[Timba-Jet]

For my last 6 or so flights SYD-MEL/BNE I've had an empty seat next to me, including row 4, exit row in 737, and aisle free in window exit on 767.

Most flight seem busy but not full, felt a bit guilty with all this space to myself.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

We both checked in together via OLCI. I changed the seats allocated at OLCI but the booking still showed the old seats so that may have caused it too, thinking I had 2 seats allocated.

Did you print out the boarding pass when you did OLCI or did you just checkin & not print? If you did the latter you would have been on the ineligible to board list with the reason "needs printing" which may explain why you couldn't scan your card to board at the gate.

I have never seen the "multiple passenger" error before. I understand that people have done OLCI & used their qcard to board but I don't know whether they had or hadn't printed out their boarding pass at home but I'm thinking they must've for the qcard to work.

 

[pshepvic]

Did you print out the boarding pass when you did OLCI or did you just checkin & not print? If you did the latter you would have been on the ineligible to board list with the reason "needs printing" which may explain why you couldn't scan your card to board at the gate.

I have never seen the "multiple passenger" error before. I understand that people have done OLCI & used their qcard to board but I don't know whether they had or hadn't printed out their boarding pass at home but I'm thinking they must've for the qcard to work.

According to Qantas you can use your FF card to board no matter how you check in. I didn't print the BPs but I did open them. There is no way the QF system would know if you'd printed them or not anyway. Plus my partner was able to board with the FF card even though I couldn't, on the same booking.

I've also used my FF card successfully in the past as well after doing OLCI without printing a BP.

 

[Rebekkap]

Did you print out the boarding pass when you did OLCI or did you just checkin & not print? If you did the latter you would have been on the ineligible to board list with the reason "needs printing" which may explain why you couldn't scan your card to board at the gate.

I have never seen the "multiple passenger" error before. I understand that people have done OLCI & used their qcard to board but I don't know whether they had or hadn't printed out their boarding pass at home but I'm thinking they must've for the qcard to work.

Nup, doesn't work like that.

Twice a week I use OLCI, don't print, and use my Qcard to board - no problems at all, not once since they brought in being able to use your card as a boarding pass.

 

[Danger]

I'm flying QF PER-SYD Monday night on an A332. As I post it's 28 hours from departure local time (25 hours by Sydney time). For the first time I can remember there is not one blocked seat, anywhere on the plane. This includes the absence of my Platinum shadow. Expertflyer is showing, from my interpretation, a reasonably full (certainly upwards of 60%) flight, although very few of the seats are allocated.

Any thoughts as to why?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Shadow may work on fare type if less seats are available and on status if more seats are available.

Shadow doesn't work for me on high loadings.[SUP][/SUP]

Serfty?

 

[dfcatch]

I have a very poor result with shadow both domestic and international, regardless of loading.

Personally I think it's always been someone else's shadow if the middle seat has been empty

 

[serfty]

Shadow may work on fare type if less seats are available and on status if more seats are available.

Shadow doesn't work for me on high loadings. ...

As noted, the only real way to "observe" a shadow is to compare the offered seat map that you get with that of another PAX on a separate booking on the same flight or check E/F and/or KVS seat maps.

If you select a new seat; seats adjacent to the new one that were available become unavailable for other PAX.

I have seen it many bookings including award and red e-deals.

Since at best it is only a courtesy provision, check-in staff can override and (of course) on heavily booked flights there simply are too few spare seats to allow this.

 

[juddles]

... Or is this shadow just an urban myth?
...

Surely someone on this forum could grab a Qantas person in the know, ply them with alcohol, and get a confession as to exactly how it works? I would supply a bottle of whatever is needed, just to satisfy my insane curiosity about this!

 

[quark]

i seem to have a shadow about 75% of the time. Depends on how full the plane is really. SYD-ADL is the one where I get it least. But that's always chockas. And my chances seem to be much higher in a row with more than 2 seats.

 

[Austman]

A visit to me from The Shadow:

When booking MEL-SYD-NAN, two bookings show up on qantas.com (one is QF and one is FJ). When I look at my MEL-SYD flight for the two bookings, it shows (the top is the QF booking and lower is the FJ booking):


I'm in seat 2F. Seat 2E is free on the QF booking but has been blocked on the FJ booking.

 

[Mal]

I'm in seat 2F. Seat 2E is free on the QF booking but has been blocked on the FJ booking.

I don't think that is a shadow but instead different 'ownership' of seats on a codeshare flight.

---
This post was made from my mobile.

 

[pshepvic]

I don't think that is a shadow but instead different 'ownership' of seats on a codeshare flight.

---
This post was made from my mobile.

But that appears to be the only seat that is different. If the front couple of rows were blocked on the FJ seatmap but not QF then I'd agree it is the difference in seats available for each airline. In this case it's only 1 seat in row 2, which does look more like a shadow to me.


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

 

[Austman]

The first flight (where the shadow shows) is not a code share. The second one is!

 

[straitman]

What does EF show :?:

 

[Ewing]

What does EF show :?:

On EF it appears like 2A and 2K have a shadow, but not Austman:

 

[Austman]

On EF it appears like 2A and 2K have a shadow, but not Austman:

Waaaaa! But no... This is interesting! We might expose The Shadow yet!!

 

[Austman]

Arrg. Moved to 1F and The Shadow followed!



I think I now believe in The Shadow more than EF!