Qantas check-in fury as economy passengers turned away

[Mal]

Qantas check-in fury as economy passengers turned away | The Courier-Mail

A NEW Qantas check-in system is causing chaos, with economy class passengers being kicked off flights to make way for business class frequent flyers.
Dozens of travellers are being turned away at check-in desks across the country, following the launch of the new computer system on Saturday.

The system limits seating for economy passengers to the rear of the plane - even if spare seats are available towards the front of the plane - giving priority to business class flyers.

While it has been labelled "a nightmare" by Qantas employees, bosses said it was a "supreme" way to manage bookings.

One staff member, who asked not to be named, said it had taken the check-in process back 10 years.

"Basically, if you're not important enough for Qantas then you're either down the back of the plane or you're not on the plane," he said. "The system looks after the top-end flyers and everyone else has to take their chances."

Yeah, yet another media beatup courtesy of NoNews Ltd, but still an interesting article about the new departure system Qantas is implementing.

 

[vt01]

Qantas check-in fury as economy passengers turned away | The Courier-Mail




Yeah, yet another media beatup courtesy of NoNews Ltd, but still an interesting article about the new departure system Qantas is implementing.

I'm guessing this is booking class driven so that those on the cheapest fares can be bumped for higher cost fare classes..
Perhaps they needed to do this to enable the 'guaranteed economy ticket purchase' frequent flyer benefit to be honoured.

 

[Mal]

Well I just checked in online for my flights tomorrow. Seq.1 on 2 of the flights.

Except for a couple of blocked seats (and exit rows), I could choose any economy seat on the plane. For one flight, my pre-allocated seat is further forward than in recent times (ie 4D on a 737 Cityflyer peak hour) with only one other seat blocked. These are O fares. See image.

This is my first experience with the new departure system, and I'm not complaining Is it a bug? Not sure. Where are the other pre-allocated people?

 

[superchris]

Tried to check in online yesterday for QF 1011 (HBA) but not possible.
Got a slip this morning from the kiosk sending me to counter 27 for a preallocated exit row seat.

 

[JohnK]

Will be interesting to see how the system handles QF Platinums on cheap red e-deals. I guess I will find out in the next few days....

 

[opusman]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of economy class passengers being kicked off in favor of business class ones. More quality journalism it seems...

 

[oz_mark]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of economy class passengers being kicked off in favor of business class ones. More quality journalism it seems...

I am having trouble with that too (wold a business class passenger be happy put into economy). Smells of an aircraft substitution to me...(less seats than PAX and all)

 

[serfty]

... This is my first experience with the new departure system, and I'm not complaining Is it a bug? Not sure. Where are the other pre-allocated people?

Actually there's been some posts on FT that align with and perhaps explain Mal's observations.

New Amadeus System Bumping Qantas Economy Passengers Off! - FlyerTalk Forums

Having just performed an online check-in for myself (QFF Gold) and my wife (QFF Bronze) for the same flight (booked on separate tickets) I can see where this perception might have come from. For me I had access to select from about 80% of the seats on the plane, whereas for my wife there was about 30% available for selection, and all down the back half of the plane.

Certainly a change from the previous online check-in experience though, where very few seats were available to select from no matter what the status .

Seems the days of the majority allocation via Software 25+ hours before a domestic flight may be over.

And, to interpret the above article, it seems that those of lessor or no status can only choose from seating 'down the back' leaving the seat at the front for Elites when they check-in.

Such will make early OLCI in obtaining one's preferred seating essential.

 

[serfty]

Another interesting Post on the Related FT thread on this article. The author lists their occupation as an "Analyst for Airline Industry":

Alright before this speculation gets out of hand (and believe me, this article is way off base with its story!!!), let me explain this concept.

With Qantas' switch of reservation system, there are alot of behind the scenes changes that have taken place. One of these new concepts is called 'Theoretical Seats,' and believe me when I say that it is an excellent idea in theory, but it will take some time to iron out the issues Qantas is currently going through. Basically, Qantas has setup a list order (or value [PCV]) of each pax for each and every flight (as well as values for individual seats on an aircraft). The ranking order takes into account FF status, PNR associations, SSRs, booking class, etc.

So, behind the scene before a pax even shows up to check-in, the system has allocated 'theoretical seats' for EVERY pax on that flight, depending the ranking order. What this means is that a pax with a high ranking order will have access to almost every seat available on the flight. A pax with a low ranking order will ONLY SEE SEATS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN BLOCKED BY THE 'THEORETICAL SEATS' FOR HIGHER RANKING PAX. Generally, if a flight is booked full (oversold), a low-ranking pax will see maybe 1 or 2 seats, or none at all available to them.

What this concept tries to do, is give pax with FF status, higher fare tickets, etc. better seats on an aircraft when pre-assignment is out of the question (QF doesn't pre-assign domestic seats, same for intra-Europe flights and Eurpoean carriers). Now, the issues that QF has had with this function relate to the way in which it had set up the ranking of pax. Families were checking in for flights and being spread out throughout an aircraft, and FF bookings (for status pax) were showing up at the bottom of the ranking order. QF has since fixed a lot of these issues internally, and regarding the article in question, THIS HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH BUMPING PAX. ZERO, ZILCH, NADA. I'm not sure where that idea came from.

Now, the most difficult as you can imagine, is a check-in agent trying to explain this to pax as they are checking in bright and early for a flight, and not being allowed to access an open seat. It's a very complex situation, and not an easy one to explain.

So, hopefully that sheds some light onto the issue, but I would definitely take the article with a grain of salt, because there is very little valuable substance to it.

 

[JohnK]

Interesting concept in theory. Let's just hope that it works for everyone....

 

[Evan]

Interesting concept in theory. Let's just hope that it works for everyone....

Could well work like it should for us WP lets hope so.
E

 

[Mal]

Could well work like it should for us WP lets hope so.
E

Worked for me today with my OLCI! Best seats I've had in ages.

 

[JohnK]

Worked for me today with my OLCI! Best seats I've had in ages.

I would be more interested in the results when not using OLCI. I will find out the seat I am allocated when I checkin at the airport for tomorrow nights flight back to SYD.

 

[Mal]

I would be more interested in the results when not using OLCI. I will find out the seat I am allocated when I checkin at the airport for tomorrow nights flight back to SYD.

I feel there was some auto shifting happening with seats. I moved myself soon after checking in (image above) to the C seat. Checked a few mins later and the person in A was now in F.
Checked again later this arvo, and there is someone marked in B, but A is free. The person in F has disappeared.
So the following seats are taken according to my view.
4BC
6B
9AF
10DE
13ABCDEF - Exit
14ABCDEF - Exit
15DEF
16F
17C
18A
25C
27C
29A

Wonder if I actually have someone next to me or it's some kind of seat blocking mechanism?

On another flight, I had 3 rows of people in front of me (seq1) in 4CD, 5CD. 6CD Checked again this arvo and snaffled 4D as it appeared free. Plane is also pretty quiet with 11 allocated non-exit row seats according to my view.

So I think you're allocated a preliminary seat, and can't "go further forward" on the plane to trump someone who is closer to the front. However, if you do move yourself around, the virtual seats shuffle for those who havn't checked in yet to keep the business rules in place about seating etc. So you could be virtually promoted closer to the front perhaps?

Time will tell with this new system how it works, and what is the most effective checkin strategy.

 

[JohnK]

Time will tell with this new system how it works, and what is the most effective checkin strategy.

Very interesting analysis Mal. You may well be right.

 

[Mal]

Another check of the seats not available to me on my first flight discussed above. Not everything makes sense to me!

4BC
5AB
6B
7A
8C
9AF
10DEF
13ABCDEF - Exit
14ABCDEF - Exit
15CDEF
16F
17CDEF
18ADEF
25C
27C
28C
29A

Still sitting in 4C. 4B is unavailable to me. Still not sure if it's a person or a blocked seat of some sort. 4DEF are available for me.

 

[JohnK]

First experiment with this new check-in system and I got allocated 23D at BNE checkin with sequence #87.

Note that the aircraft is a 767. So far so good....

 

[v8Statesman]

First experiment with this new check-in system and I got allocated 23D at BNE checkin with sequence #87.

Note that the aircraft is a 767. So far so good....

What fare class was it?

 

[markis10]

What fare class was it?

I have had first row economy on red e deals all week, I love the new system!

 

[JohnK]

What fare class was it?

The cheapest possible red e-deal. I think it was $85 or $89 for SYD-BNE when I booked these flights in June.

I have another flight on Sunday evening and I wiil not use OLCI to continue my experiment of a QF Platinum flying on cheap red e-deals.