Qantas online checkin launched!!

[Kiwi Flyer]

Yup, I'm beginning to think that online checkin, rather than being a godsend, really is only of benefit to those with status with QANTAS - it's not really beneficial to the casual user.

On the flip side, some status pax would be mighty annoyed to find a lot of no-status pax OLCI'ed and left him/her stranded in row 30.

 

[Mal]

Here is the text from that Virgin Blue ad I was talking about:

"Choose your own seat with Self Check-in

Web Check-in is Australia's only online service. It means you can check-in
and print your boarding pass at home or the office, 24 hours before your
flight. Or you can check-in at the airport at the self-service Kiosks.
Both save you time and give you the freedom to choose your own seat. To
try Web Check-in before your next flight. visit virginblue.com.au/business
"

 

[Yada Yada]

Here is the text from that Virgin Blue ad I was talking about:

"Choose your own seat with Self Check-in

Web Check-in is Australia's only online service. It means you can check-in
and print your boarding pass at home or the office, 24 hours before your
flight. Or you can check-in at the airport at the self-service Kiosks.
Both save you time and give you the freedom to choose your own seat. To
try Web Check-in before your next flight. visit virginblue.com.au/business
"

Yep, it's out of date now!

 

[Dave Noble]

Yep, it's out of date now!

It was already out of date; BA has been offering OLCI on flights out of Australia for quite a while

Dave

 

[dajop]

It was already out of date; BA has been offering OLCI on flights out of Australia for quite a while

Dave

As have SQ.

 

[cabbage74]

Dave - when I used OLCI on Weds evening, I was seq nbr 3 but there were dozens of unavailable seats in the main cabin. They must be blocking them off for some purpose.

Used OLCI on Wednesday for my Thursday flight. I had Seq 1, however the first window seat available was in row 6 (B738). There were a couple of middle seats in rows 4 and 5. The rest of row 6 was occupied by a family of 5. So it appeared that they may have allocated the family, however who knows why they had individuals pre-allocated in rows 4&5 leaving the middle available for OLCI? The flight was fully booked.

Mal.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I was on a very packed flight from Per to Syd tonight, took my OLCI print out with me and as I got to the scanner, there was a second FA there, who grabbed it before the first FA could get to it, but rather than scanning the barcode, they just typed in the seat number and matched the name on the printout...

 

[JohnK]

Whilst standing the front galley waiting for the loo, I saw the J cabin pax manifest. I was one of three SG's, there was one NB, and the rest were all WP's. That's out of about 38 seats, I think. Who knows how many WP's were sitting in the main cabin too. I think SG should be re-coded to NG (nuthin' gold).

Just a thought. YMMV. With the number of QF WP's, and the ease with which you can achieve it, there could almost be enough room for one more status between CL and WP, yes I realise there is partner gold, and reduce some of the benefits from WP down.

Or make it harder to achieve WP!

 

[oz_mark]

Just a thought. YMMV. With the number of QF WP's, and the ease with which you can achieve it, there could almost be enough room for one more status between CL and WP, yes I realise there is partner gold, and reduce some of the benefits from WP down.

Or make it harder to achieve WP!

Wash your mouth!

 

[kpc]

As have SQ.

...and you can checkin 48 hours in advance as opposed to 24 hours

Will get a chance to try QFs OLCI in a few hours

 

[CDS1959]

Used OLCI this morning for a BNE-CNS-BNE run for the 30 status credits necessary to re-qualify as Gold for another year.

Hadn't heard anything about QF offering on-line check-in, so was surprised to see the option available when I checked booking before leaving for Brisbane Airport this morning.

Was pleased to have 4C up, and 5C going back, so didn't need to make any changes, but now having the opportunity to do so with QF OLCI is nice.

 

[justinbrett]

I just checked in online for BNE - SYD flight tomorrow morning (going to the NRL Grand Final). It's a B767 service and I was seq #1 - was given 26K (which is 4th row window seat).

However there's only a handful of other seats available - confirming that the preallocation was done prior to 24 hours. I'm Club Silver and was allocated 26K - and obviously this was better than anything still available to change it to (so in my case I may as well have checked in at the airport, I'm yet to be convinced that the bag drop is significantly faster than normal qantas club check in, except maybe on a weekday morning.

One question I have - is there any change to Qantas Club procedures? I wouldn't be surprised if they start scanning the boarding passes - how hard would it be to edit a PDF on photoshop to change the date or name? This could give you entry even if you are not flying that day or with another airline.

 

[Mal]

One question I have - is there any change to Qantas Club procedures? I wouldn't be surprised if they start scanning the boarding passes - how hard would it be to edit a PDF on photoshop to change the date or name? This could give you entry even if you are not flying that day or with another airline.

Both Syd and Mel at various times have scanned your QP card to see if you're elgible for entry.

TBH, I don't think Qantas always cares who is in the lounge, as long as they appear to fit in, and the place is not entirely packed to the roof.

 

[kpc]

Will get a chance to try QFs OLCI in a few hours

Hate quoting myself.... Here's my experience just then...

As QF Gold, I was preallocated 5C (737-400) with seat preference of forward aisle. As a QF FF with status, OLCI does NOT really help me get a better seat. There were no more forward aisle (i.e. 4C or 4D) seats open when I checked in (Seq Nbr:1) so I couldn't "improve" my seat any more. The emergency row seats were blocked off. I think OLCI is really only of benefit for QF flyers with no status where they can choose the "best ot the remaining seats", unless you have carry on luggage only and want to get to the airport at the "last mniute"

 

[JohnK]

Hell, I wish I was a Platinum FF member!

As would most scums, plebs and nuffin nothings!

 

[DPG]

Something midly amusing happened to me this morning when I turned up for a flight that I had used OLCI for the previous day. I have a forward window preference, and OLCI had given me 1B for the Crash-8 Flight to Port Macquarie. It was an exit row and I knew the flight was full so I didn't argue!

I mentioned this to the lady behind the desk at the QP, and she was suprised that this had happened, and had a look at the system. The passenger in 1A had a forward aisle preference, and hadn't checked in yet, so she swapped us over.

I have never had issues before with Crash-8 flights being allocated a window seat (usually 2A/D), so maybe OLCI gets confused with the little planes! The seat map looked quite funny with the rear facing seats!

Maybe on a full Crash-8 Flight, 1B is considered the best seat, as 1A has the bulkhead, and 1C/D has the rear facing seats to play foot wars with! Just a thought!

D P G

 

[AnonymousCoward]

I caught QF465 back to Sydney on Thursday evening. Perhaps the new system has some glitches, as at least three people in the main cabin had issues with seating.

One of my colleagues did the OLCI thing, but at the gate a "name mismatch" error occured when scanning his BP. It appeared that someone else had also been allocated his 7F seat, and he was bumped till the next flight.

Someone in 6C across the aisle from me got shuffled down to row 21 as another PAX had been allocated 6C as well (one guy had checked in via OLCI, the other had a regular boarding pass).

And someone getting onboard about 10 people in front of me at the gate had an issue with their allocated seat as well, as they got reallocated another seat, and didn't seem very happy about their new allocation. They were still discussing the issue at the service desk when I boarded.

Cheers
AC

PS To whomever said "make Plat harder to achieve" - you obviously don't have to achieve Plat flying economy only (unlike a few of us here). It's plenty hard making plat flying Syd/Melb or Syd/Bris in economy :-| For my sanity (and those in my situation), let's not make it too much harder please?

 

[Dave Noble]

Maybe on a full Crash-8 Flight, 1B is considered the best seat, as 1A has the bulkhead, and 1C/D has the rear facing seats to play foot wars with! Just a thought!

D P G

I would say that 1B is the best seat and 1A is the worst seat on the Crash-8 300s. The space for 1A is dire

Dave

 

[beardoc]

Flew QF532 SYD-BNE today with my online checkin. My partner and I got to the gate at T3 to use our new online boarding passes - to be told to go to the desk and replace it with a boarding pass because it is only a booking confirmation. When I insisted that it actually is a boarding pass, and that the "barcode" can be scanned, the flight attendant had no idea how to do it - having read this site, I showed him - lie the barcode down on the scanner and hold it still over the site where the barcode signifier is - and lo and behold, I was checked in! The flight attendant was shocked - they reported they had been told nothing about this, and he thanked me for being able to educate him. He even made a point of coming down to me in economy and offering me an extra meal as a thank you!

QANTAS may have launched online checkin, but they HAVE NOT adequately briefed their staff, which is surprising, since everyone is using it now!

I can see problems with it though, because it's possible to print a boarding pass with a given seat and then switch it by going through online checkin again, but you could potentially get into the airline cabin with the old boarding pass and then have a conflict with someone that been allotted your old seat. I expect there will be a few arguments over time over this!

 

[justinbrett]

Flew QF532 SYD-BNE today with my online checkin. My partner and I got to the gate at T3 to use our new online boarding passes - to be told to go to the desk and replace it with a boarding pass because it is only a booking confirmation. When I insisted that it actually is a boarding pass, and that the "barcode" can be scanned, the flight attendant had no idea how to do it - having read this site, I showed him - lie the barcode down on the scanner and hold it still over the site where the barcode signifier is - and lo and behold, I was checked in! The flight attendant was shocked - they reported they had been told nothing about this, and he thanked me for being able to educate him. He even made a point of coming down to me in economy and offering me an extra meal as a thank you!

QANTAS may have launched online checkin, but they HAVE NOT adequately briefed their staff, which is surprising, since everyone is using it now!

I can see problems with it though, because it's possible to print a boarding pass with a given seat and then switch it by going through online checkin again, but you could potentially get into the airline cabin with the old boarding pass and then have a conflict with someone that been allotted your old seat. I expect there will be a few arguments over time over this!

Just speculation - but I would think each boarding pass has a unique barcode - and if you change seats the barcode changes. Therefore, once you change seats, the old barcode becomes invalid. Obviously if they manually type in the seat number, that will also only work if you haven't changed seats.

I experienced this with the standard boarding passes - I've lined up to get on and my boarding pass scanned as an error - was told to go back to the desk - problem was my seat had been changed after check in (not by me) and therefore needed a new boarding pass. Reason was I was moved from a standard seat to the exit row window - perhaps somebody wasn't suitable or just had no one to fill the seat (I assume they try to have people sitting in those seats on all flights).

I was a little miffed I wasn't told about this - would it have killed them to page me in the Qantas club to pick up my new boarding pass? Anyway, I got some extra leg room so couldn't complain.