Platinum sitting in economy - Do the airlines pay extra attention to us?

[RichardMEL]

btw re partners. I have a QF Plat friend now living in the US and flying AA on a semi regular basis from a regional city - she reported a number of free upgrades as she was treated as OWE and she would receive free snacks in Y. AA, at least to her, is very good at recognising the status (and of course OWE can select Main Cabin Extra seats at no cost)

 

[ausfox]

I flew 3 Y sectors on AA last year and each time was welcomed down the back, offered food and drink and checked a couple of times mid flight. Qantas-nothing in 5 years if down the back. P status.

 

[Danielb56]

Depends who you fly with.
Generally QF don't give you much more than "welcome back".
I have had special treatment from them but only when I have been flying in J.
CX on the other hand have treated me very well in Y, even bringing me champagne from business class.

I have not flown much these past 3 years (that will change again next year) and so my status has dropped but when I was up there as well I found Qantas hit and miss...but more miss than hit. However, the Oneworld partners treated me like their own...even with upgrades without asking. I have never flown Qantas Business but I have with other partner airlines. I do say that Qantas sometimes does not know if you even exist or value you as a loyal customer. The main reason i stay with Qantas is because of their partners...

 

[Tropic]

The main reason i stay with Qantas is because of their partners...

A very common response from QFF members, esp post LTG.

 

[Franky]

My wife is the traveller in the family and has been WP for ages. Invariably on domestic flights in Y from and to Perth, she has had the benefit of forward seats and a shadow when the aircraft wasn't full. However, more recently, she has been receiving emails asking if she would like to upgrade for X points/$. On the occasions she has either bid low or declined, she has been seated way back, and was more than peeved yesterday on a flight to MEL when she was in the second last row! She is feeling a little peeved right now, but I think it is the way of the future now. As others have said, on international flights (CX in particular) she is always acknowledged and on occasions has been awarded a late upgrade.

 

[downgraded]

I have not flown much these past 3 years (that will change again next year) and so my status has dropped but when I was up there as well I found Qantas hit and miss...but more miss than hit. However, the Oneworld partners treated me like their own...even with upgrades without asking. I have never flown Qantas Business but I have with other partner airlines. I do say that Qantas sometimes does not know if you even exist or value you as a loyal customer. The main reason i stay with Qantas is because of their partners...

Hit and miss is how I'd put it too.
The front of the Y plane usually fills up more than the back, so as a WP I often ended up with someone next to me, but wander down the back and find several rows where people are flaked out across 3 or 4 seats.
Similarly, headphones, J wines etc seems to depend on the crew. Some may give you a glass of J wine, some won't consider it, and on the odd occasion I had crew that insisted that Y wine shouldn't touch my lips.

Low expectations and enjoy the perks when they come - expect it and you'll generally be disappointed.

 

[RichardMEL]

My wife is the traveller in the family and has been WP for ages. Invariably on domestic flights in Y from and to Perth, she has had the benefit of forward seats and a shadow when the aircraft wasn't full. However, more recently, she has been receiving emails asking if she would like to upgrade for X points/$. On the occasions she has either bid low or declined, she has been seated way back, and was more than peeved yesterday on a flight to MEL when she was in the second last row! She is feeling a little peeved right now, but I think it is the way of the future now. As others have said, on international flights (CX in particular) she is always acknowledged and on occasions has been awarded a late upgrade.

Does she not preassign her seats when booking?

 

[chickentalon]

WP for a few years. Zero special attention on Qantas domestic until I hit P1. Where it was a simple congratulations on achieving P1 from one of the cabin crew.

Qantas International eccon: A little extra attention in terms of a personal greeting and farewell on every flight. They have occasionally asked if I wanted any of the booze from J.

Other OW eccon: Heaps of attention. Qatar in particular felt a little over the top. Makes sense I guess as they know that frequent flyers are the ones likely to spend if they win a customer over.

 

[VPS]

in the past 8 or so flights as WP I have one occasion with the FA came back and said welcome on board and sorry couldn't get me any further forward (I was in row 7) I am an aisle person and I've noticed on a few non full flights I've had someone in the middle even though a lot of the seats past row 12 don't have anyone in the middle. One flight I specifically asked if it wasn't full could I have a spare seat because I wanted to get some work done even if it was much further back and needed a bit of room and she said sure but I had someone next to me and lots of empty middle seats past tow 12 again

 

[Franky]

Does she not preassign her seats when booking?

On this occasion no, it was booked by the company that wanted her in Melbourne. This was her 6th flight in the last 10 days or so (PER-HKG-TPE-KHH-HKG-SIN-PER) so it got overtaken by events. I try to book most of her flights to avoid these events, but the recent leg SIN-PER on QF was one where she was seated well back after declining to bid for an upgrade, as was another a few weeks before flying SUB-SIN-PER.

 

[Silvia]

Little love from QF other than the welcome back and very fake good to have you on board, tell us what you need but not proactively offering anything.
Iberia I got a snack and drink (beer) as OWE, even my partner got free snacks.
Once I got a op-up on LATAM from Y to J on 787 from LIM-SCL which was a treat.

But in all, I go with little to no expectations

 

[RooFlyer]

Qatar in particular felt a little over the top. Makes sense I guess as they know that frequent flyers are the ones likely to spend if they win a customer over.

Exactly. Emirates is also very good at QFF attention - even op-ups. These are airlines that behave like they want your frequent flyer business (and QR is getting as much as I can give it at the moment) - unlike Qantas, who behave like they couldn't give a rat's behind.

 

[Tropic]

...unlike Qantas, who behave like they couldn't give a rat's behind.

Probably because they don't! ☹

 

[Pushka]

EK was particularly wonderful to us on several occasions as mere SG and Bronze. Sadly I haven’t flown with them since being WP

 

[esseeeayeenn]

On this occasion no, it was booked by the company that wanted her in Melbourne. This was her 6th flight in the last 10 days or so (PER-HKG-TPE-KHH-HKG-SIN-PER) so it got overtaken by events. I try to book most of her flights to avoid these events, but the recent leg SIN-PER on QF was one where she was seated well back after declining to bid for an upgrade, as was another a few weeks before flying SUB-SIN-PER.

She could still select a seat as long as she knows the PNR (Booking Reference).

 

[moa999]

On Y SYD-LAX as Plat on one of the older 747s about 18 months ago (before I went back to LTG) I got a last minute shift to bulkhead (interestingly former pax in the seat had got an upgrade to J, and there was a rush to shift CPAP power from Y to J).

CSM came up and introduced himself and asked if there was anything they could do.. so I asked for a real champagne and got it. Other than that normal Y service.

 

[Franky]

She could still select a seat as long as she knows the PNR (Booking Reference).

Sure - but the point I was trying to make was that she was so flat out flying that keeping tabs on all of her trips fell by the wayside. In past times, she was generally looked after by QF due to her status, I believe on this occasion the company omitted to quote her FF number and we may not have picked that up early enough. Either way, this afternoon she has been cooling her heels in MEL lounge for a missing QF connection to CBR which is already 25m past departure and rising, and the aircraft hasn't even landed yet. Such is life as some say.

 

[rcn]

Just stepped off QF79 in Y tonight. While the personalized greeting can feel a little awkward, I did appreciate the proactive distribution of J amenity kits to WPs.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Sure - but the point I was trying to make was that she was so flat out flying that keeping tabs on all of her trips fell by the wayside. In past times, she was generally looked after by QF due to her status, I believe on this occasion the company omitted to quote her FF number and we may not have picked that up early enough. Either way, this afternoon she has been cooling her heels in MEL lounge for a missing QF connection to CBR which is already 25m past departure and rising, and the aircraft hasn't even landed yet. Such is life as some say.

I wouldn't ever leave it to the airline to allocate my seat in Y!

 

[juddles]

Sorry @juddles but the shadows are real.
When I have a booking I can see the seat next to me blocked in expertflyer.
And if I change seats the shadow will move with me.
Also while they have never actually referred to it as a shadow, on several occasions at checkin, staff have observed "and we have kept the seat next to you empty for you Mr S".

Young grasshopper,

yes, I have also delved over time into such things as experimenting with seat selection and watching expertflyer, etc. There does seem on some occassions to be an automatic seat blocking. But as I said in my other post, this is not something that Qantas has ever (to my knowledge) claimed or advertised as a benefit. And my personal research revealed that this "shadow" effect always disappeared near departure. If you were on a light pax load, you could enjoy, but otherwise the whole thing was meaningless. Often the seat in the shadow taken by someone who to any disgruntled flying veteran is particularly annoying - the status-less last minute show that spends the whole flight trying to work out how to deploy the tray

My point is that any concept of a shadow is actually more shadowy than the shadow itself. Talk about it just gets people expecting same, and then getting disappointed when it does not protect a beloved spare seat next to you.

If I had to state my exact and complete belief about QF shadows, I would suggest that somewhere deep in the QF coding team there are some bright sparks who rationally thought that the concept of soft-blocking spare seats next to high status pax was a good idea. (Of course it is!!) But then, being QF, this great innovation has been overridden by others who simply allow late pax and checkin staff to chuck whoever in whatever seat. These staff do not give a two-hoots about status - they just want to finish their shift having successfully boarded all pax that arrived late....

It is actually hard to be consistently inconsistent, but unlike shadows, that inconsistency even a QF-lover like myself finds hard to deny.