Qantas Seat Selection

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Starinc

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Jun 3, 2013
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Hi All,
This is my first post here so I hope in the right place.

I am a QP member and have booked four tickets Sydney to Honk Kong in September on QF 127 which is a 747. I am travelling my wife and two children aged 12 & 3. I can pay to select seats now or wait until 24 hours before.

When I look to select seats there isn't much available on the flight. My only concern is that we could be split up if I wait until 24 hours before. This is the first overseas flight that we have taken as a family and im just looking for some advice on what would be best to do.
 
They will try and keep families together, so if you decide you want to pay for seat selection you'd be doing so to get better seats, chances are you won't be split up.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

I wont worry about paying then, as the choices that I have when I look now aren't worth the extra $100, if that is roughly what I will end up with any way.
 
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I was in exactly the same postion as you in March this year. We'd booked last minute to attend a funeral so I was trying to keep the costs down and like you, there was limited choice anyway. I called Qantas to check we were all together and they confirmed we were. As it turned out, on the second sector of our journey, the plane was half full and the seats in the middle had been blocked off from selection to balance the plane, I was told.

We've travelled internationally as a family of 4 many times and we've always been kept together with all the different airlines, without choosing seats. Jetstar even fixed this up for us at check in once because due to circumstances, my husband made a separate booking. However, on the return part of the above journey, we flew with Emirates and even though we selected our seats beforehand, they split us up. I should have checked the seat numbers at check in but there had been a lot of delays and rebooking that day due to the bad weather, so I'd say that was probably not the norm.
 
What you may be seeing is blocked seats, not taken seats, big difference.
 
What you may be seeing is blocked seats, not taken seats, big difference.

Ok, I still think that I will wait until 24 hours before then and have a look.

Is it worth checking in then and selecting seats or should we just wait until check in?
 
Ok, I still think that I will wait until 24 hours before then and have a look.

Is it worth checking in then and selecting seats or should we just wait until check in?

I would checkin as soon as you can.
 
A few months ago, I was flying QF128 from HKG with my parents-in-law. I was in the exact same situation with QP as well as sit together without any cost.
I tried to online select seat at T-24, but none of the three seats in a row remaining. Oh did I mentioned we three were on three different tickets...
It was pretty full that day, but eventually after some "chat" with the lady check us in, she did find us three seats available together, and that was the last one.
 
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Any advice on what would be a good seat on this flight?

seatguru.com is a good start, although it only tells you very basic information. More specific reasons any seat is good or not will generally come from the experienced fliers here (of which I am not)
 
A few months ago, I was flying QF128 from HKG with my parents-in-law. I was in the exact same situation with QP as well as sit together without any cost.
I tried to online select seat at T-24, but none of the three seats in a row remaining. Oh did I mentioned we three were on three different tickets...
It was pretty full that day, but eventually after some "chat" with the lady check us in, she did find us three seats available together, and that was the last one.

You're not quite in the same situation as the OP of the thread as you had 3 separate bookings & the OP is in one booking. Staff look at the flight about 48 hours prior & pre-seat groups, families, WCHR pax etc. Sometimes last minute a/c swaps can throw a spanner in the works but they will always try to keep family groups together. Bookings with children where the kids have been booked as a child (not as adults) also carry a higher PCV. Booking your child as a "Miss" or "Mstr" does not mean they will automatically show up as a child pax on the manifest as the 'CHD' code is only visible if you have selected the 'child' passenger type code at the time of booking.
 
My 3 year old is booked as a Master, havent heard of that for ages. Being a international flight I had to confirm his birthday, not sure if this will show up. My daughter misses out being a child by 5 days, she turns 12, 5 days before.
 
A few months ago, I was flying QF128 from HKG with my parents-in-law. I was in the exact same situation with QP as well as sit together without any cost.
I tried to online select seat at T-24, but none of the three seats in a row remaining. Oh did I mentioned we three were on three different tickets...
It was pretty full that day, but eventually after some "chat" with the lady check us in, she did find us three seats available together, and that was the last one.

You were probably the cause of some lucky pax getting moved to J ;)
 
It was pretty full that day, but eventually after some "chat" with the lady check us in, she did find us three seats available together, and that was the last one.

If you're lucky and nice to them, there being no seats available may not prevent it from happening. I think it's been three times over the past few years I've been paged to see staff at the service desk or gate, to see if I would be willing to change seats so a family can sit together. I refused once because I was sitting next to my travelling companion (on separate a ticket), but generally don't mind changing. That answer could be different if it's a long haul flight and the new seat is much worse though.
 
My 3 year old is booked as a Master, havent heard of that for ages. Being a international flight I had to confirm his birthday, not sure if this will show up. My daughter misses out being a child by 5 days, she turns 12, 5 days before.

If you booked direct through the QF website you woul have had to specify whether the pax were either an adult or a child at the time of booking. Adding "Mstr" or a date of birth won't automatically change a passenger type code from 'adult' to 'child'.

I don't think this will adversely affect the chance of you all being seated together.

It's probably easier to be in the centre bank of 4 seats ie the DEFG seats with the parents being in the D & G seats an kids in the middle. It's easier for a parent to take a child to the bathroom when required without disturbing the other two or when one parents goes to the loo it's easy for other one to keep an eye on both kids than if they were seated in the row behind.

When kids are a bit older ie 8 and above two pairs of seats towards the aft section of a 747 are handy as you get two windows and you don't have to climb over a third person like you would when there are 3 seats by the window.
 
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