Qantas "Comfort" Seating [EXST]

[brucebrad]

The seat allocation was looking fine until the night before - then we got moved to opposite sides of the aisle! However checkin sorted this out. Not sure if the would have if we hadn't been early.

More annoying : checkin staff in sydney said there was no baggage allowance for the extra seat! Not happy.

 

[fresherbill]

I thought I’d follow up with a few thoughts on this, now that I’ve had a chance to fly half of this booking: QF38 + QF614 last week.

there is very little you can manage within the booking when there is a comfort seat attached. This includes selecting seats. You will likely have to phone up to get anything allocated.

So that’s exactly what happened. Until about mid-March, clicking on this booking in MMB went to an error page. Anything I needed to change or check required a phone call, including seat requests, ABN etc. The thing that concerned me the most was the fact that seat requests weren’t showing up in ExpertFlyer. Out of an abundance of caution I called up 3 or 4 times to check. Each time I was told that the requests were confirmed and that everything would be ok. Only one guy managed to get the seats to show up in EF, but for QF38 he put me in 34JK instead of 39JK on the A330-200. I’d wanted 39 so I could recline right away and go straight to sleep.

In mid-March, Qantas must have updated something because the booking could now be accessed via MMB. At T-80, I selected 39J on QF38 and 4F on QF614, and both showed up in ExpertFlyer as single seats – the blocked neighbour seat wasn’t there but I wasn’t too concerned.
It also appears that web check-in isn’t available for these bookings, so upon checking in at the airport I was dismayed to find that I was moved from 39J to 46J. 39JK had been taken and there were no other last-row pairs available. Still, I was consoled to see 4F on my QF614 boarding pass.

So in the end, QF38 wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been as I went to sleep without reclining either seat - the poor folks behind me needed the space more than I did. And on QF614, a gentleman was placed in the seat next to me at the very last minute. That didn’t bother me at all though because he turned out to be an interesting chap.

BUT the biggest disappointment was when I wrote in to claim the extra miles & SCs, and was told:

“We're unable to credit points for your claim as we're not crediting points for an extra seat. Points that will be credited to your account is according to the fare type you have purchased with the certain flight.”

Ouch. This must be a recent change.

Qantas is a joy to book and fly on my regular jaunts between Singapore and Australia, but this whole exercise has been uncharacteristically shambolic. I’ll write this experience off as “school fees” and probably bore some people to death with the story at dinner parties. But I genuinely feel for the folks who need to book these seats out of necessity.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I thought I’d follow up with a few thoughts on this, now that I’ve had a chance to fly half of this booking: QF38 + QF614 last week.



So that’s exactly what happened. Until about mid-March, clicking on this booking in MMB went to an error page. Anything I needed to change or check required a phone call, including seat requests, ABN etc. The thing that concerned me the most was the fact that seat requests weren’t showing up in ExpertFlyer. Out of an abundance of caution I called up 3 or 4 times to check. Each time I was told that the requests were confirmed and that everything would be ok. Only one guy managed to get the seats to show up in EF, but for QF38 he put me in 34JK instead of 39JK on the A330-200. I’d wanted 39 so I could recline right away and go straight to sleep.

In mid-March, Qantas must have updated something because the booking could now be accessed via MMB. At T-80, I selected 39J on QF38 and 4F on QF614, and both showed up in ExpertFlyer as single seats – the blocked neighbour seat wasn’t there but I wasn’t too concerned.
It also appears that web check-in isn’t available for these bookings, so upon checking in at the airport I was dismayed to find that I was moved from 39J to 46J. 39JK had been taken and there were no other last-row pairs available. Still, I was consoled to see 4F on my QF614 boarding pass.

So in the end, QF38 wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been as I went to sleep without reclining either seat - the poor folks behind me needed the space more than I did. And on QF614, a gentleman was placed in the seat next to me at the very last minute. That didn’t bother me at all though because he turned out to be an interesting chap.

BUT the biggest disappointment was when I wrote in to claim the extra miles & SCs, and was told:

“We're unable to credit points for your claim as we're not crediting points for an extra seat. Points that will be credited to your account is according to the fare type you have purchased with the certain flight.”

Ouch. This must be a recent change.

Qantas is a joy to book and fly on my regular jaunts between Singapore and Australia, but this whole exercise has been uncharacteristically shambolic. I’ll write this experience off as “school fees” and probably bore some people to death with the story at dinner parties. But I genuinely feel for the folks who need to book these seats out of necessity.

Something has screwed up with your booking and it looks like the extra seat has been disassociated from the main seat and booking somehow.

If the booking had been processed correctly there is no way someone else could have been seated in the seat next to you on the QF614. The head-count wouldn't have allowed it. Your paid seat and the extra seat are not severable. In fact seating via the manage booking function shouldn't have been possible - or if it was - maybe that severed the seats.

Secondly, Qantas still says you can earn points and SCs for an extra seat: Purchasing an extra seat

The fact that QFFF has written back to you indicating you're not eligible seems to confirm the extra seat was somehow severed from the booking. You may have still had a spare seat beside you (pure luck), but there's a special way that they both need to be checked in to guarantee the spare seat. If at any point they didn't check both seats in correctly one would have cancelled as a no-show (and cancelled any subsequent second seats).

You should be able to scan a copy of your ticket and send it back to QFFF to have the second seat credited. They'll have to go into the booking history and figure out what went wrong.

 

[serfty]

“We're unable to credit points for your claim as we're not crediting points for an extra seat. Points that will be credited to your account is according to the fare type you have purchased with the certain flight.”

That is a standard form filled reply - The second sentence; I have had it before word for word and is certainly incorrect in this case.

See here

 

[eminere]

BUT the biggest disappointment was when I wrote in to claim the extra miles & SCs, and was told:

“We're unable to credit points for your claim as we're not crediting points for an extra seat. Points that will be credited to your account is according to the fare type you have purchased with the certain flight.”

Ouch. This must be a recent change.

That's not right, you should definitely be able to earn points and status credits for the extra seats. See here and here (at the end). I'd call back again.

 

[fresherbill]

Thanks guys - that's very encouraging about the points. I'll write back to them now.

it looks like the extra seat has been disassociated from the main seat and booking somehow.

Both boarding passes had EXST printed on them so I'd say the system was aware of the extra seat. I should clarify that on QF614 the CSM came by just before takeoff carrying the manifest, asked if I was travelling alone, and then moved a passenger from further back into 4E. Not sure why he needed to be moved, but I'm sure they had their reasons... and it was no real bother for me anyway. I was really only after the extra seat for the longer sector.

 

[serfty]

See this thread: SC & FF points earn when buying extra seat "for comfort"?

Also, see this from Qantas.com: Purchasing an extra seat

 

[mrsterryn]

Last year I had a fiasco with a Qantas flight AA metal.
AA checked me in on the comfort seat not my real seat.
Qantas ended up cancelling my return flight. Rather major fiasco stating I hadn't taken the flight from Syd to LAX
Anyhoo I received SC and double points as that was the special I had booked under
Hope you sort it out

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks guys - that's very encouraging about the points. I'll write back to them now.



Both boarding passes had EXST printed on them so I'd say the system was aware of the extra seat. I should clarify that on QF614 the CSM came by just before takeoff carrying the manifest, asked if I was travelling alone, and then moved a passenger from further back into 4E. Not sure why he needed to be moved, but I'm sure they had their reasons... and it was no real bother for me anyway. I was really only after the extra seat for the longer sector.

Agree - EXST should indicate the second seat was checked in. In that case fairly straightforward to claim the missing points.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

***(((BUT the biggest disappointment was when I wrote in to claim the extra miles & SCs, and was told:

“We're unable to credit points for your claim as we're not crediting points for an extra seat. Points that will be credited to your account is according to the fare type you have purchased with the certain flight.”
Ouch. This must be a recent change. )))***
Wow, that one is too bad, now they won't allow earning x2 points and x2 the relevant SC, great downside of booking comfort seating if retaining status is on the mind.
When I did it, I had double the points and SC.
On the other hand, for long distance flights, having the seat next empty is a very good thing.
Gain some loose some!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

***(((BUT the biggest disappointment was when I wrote in to claim the extra miles & SCs, and was told:

“We're unable to credit points for your claim as we're not crediting points for an extra seat. Points that will be credited to your account is according to the fare type you have purchased with the certain flight.”
Ouch. This must be a recent change. )))***
Wow, that one is too bad, now they won't allow earning x2 points and x2 the relevant SC, great downside of booking comfort seating if retaining status is on the mind.
When I did it, I had double the points and SC.
On the other hand, for long distance flights, having the seat next empty is a very good thing.
Gain some loose some!

If you read the rest of the thread you will see that this is a Qantas error. The ability to earn points and SCs for the additional seat is still on the website. Likely the QFFF agent didn't properly understand what was being asked.

 

[samh004]

I should clarify that on QF614 the CSM came by just before takeoff carrying the manifest, asked if I was travelling alone, and then moved a passenger from further back into 4E.

I would be complaining about that.

I recall quite a few years ago now I had an EXST flight from MKY I think and when I got onboard someone was sitting in one of my seats (Dash-8). I didn't sit down and instead motioned to the crew and pointed out the predicament but they just moved me to another row. Some time into the flight they came round and were very nice to me, presumably having realised their mistake, but nothing was said.

If I pay for a shadow, I expect a shadow!

 

[cmon0005]

I would be complaining about that.

I would complain too, if I paid for that seat I would be asking for a partial refund.

 

[cwphoto]

Thanks for sharing - very informative thread.

Wondering if you buy a comfort seat on a DSC promo would you get 4x the normal SCs??

 

[fresherbill]

About 6 weeks ago I received an email confirming that the original advice was wrong and that the points and status credits for the extra seat would be manually credited in due course. Two days ago they finally landed in my account. Thank you to everyone on here for your help.

Looking forward to doing this all over again after the return leg in August!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

About 6 weeks ago I received an email confirming that the original advice was wrong and that the points and status credits for the extra seat would be manually credited in due course. Two days ago they finally landed in my account. Thank you to everyone on here for your help.

Looking forward to doing this all over again after the return leg in August!

It could be worthwhile to spend a couple minutes to confirm your comfort seat is still booked for the return. Either on line or by calling up. It's not unheard of that the comfort seat can get separated from the booking and get cancelled (it could register as a 'no show' on the outbound, or revenue control could look at the flight and not appreciate it is a comfort seat, and so release it back into inventory).

 

[mrsterryn]

Just a bit of an update
It is quite easy to lose your seat allocations for comfort seat.
We have taken three last seats (for recline value ) on QF11 and 12
Our outboard on 11 had the three seats but coming home only two
Hobart after a lengthy conversation and talking to "Seat allocations" have fixed it.
As this trip is not for a few weeks I am a tad concerned that if this is a refurbished plane we may have to go through again

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just a bit of an update
It is quite easy to lose your seat allocations for comfort seat.
We have taken three last seats (for recline value ) on QF11 and 12
Our outboard on 11 had the three seats but coming home only two
Hobart after a lengthy conversation and talking to "Seat allocations" have fixed it.
As this trip is not for a few weeks I am a tad concerned that if this is a refurbished plane we may have to go through again

This is disappointing. As far as I've been told, it actually requires proactive intervention by an agent to split the PNR and cancel the EXST. It cannot happen automatically by the computer. An EXST is part of, and inseparable from, the booking... a bit like having a child on there, or another passenger. One of them doesn't just 'autocancel' by the computer. (There can be problems if check-in doesn't correctly 'check-in' the exst - then it can become a no-show just like any other booking. But in advance of travel, one seat shouldn't just 'cancel'.)

It's understandable that the flight may be full, or overbooked (perhaps because of irrops), the airline and other passengers may want yur extra empty seat. But they should call you first! Just assuming you won't notice (until it's too late at the airport), or that you won't care, is the sad part.

 

[mrsterryn]

@MEL_Traveller hoping this time it sticks
However will monitor the seats and see how it goes
As a side note this was one disastrous booking from the get go lol not all Qantas fault just one of those trips

 

[MEL_Traveller]

@MEL_Traveller hoping this time it sticks
However will monitor the seats and see how it goes
As a side note this was one disastrous booking from the get go lol not all Qantas fault just one of those trips

It's always a good idea to monitor comfort seats... especially when you arrive at your destination. As mentioned above, the check-in agent may not have 'checked-in' the exst properly, and so it can auto-cancel as a no show. It can be reinstated pretty easily, but you need to be right on top of it.

Then usually check again around 24-36 hours prior to departure, in case the gremlins have been at work trying to find that extra seat or two to accommodate overbookings!