Same PNR, seats upgraded together to Business, but seats separated?

[Pushka]

How could the system let this happen? I purchased two seats in the same booking, then upgraded them with points a few days later. To seats 4A and 4B. They remained 4A and 4B in the email Qantas sends the day before the flight. Checked in ok, using the Qantas card and Q tag. Get to Sydney's Business Lounge and my details are checked. The Qantas lady calls me back because she noticed that my seat was still 4A but the other seat was 2J! How did that happen? Fortunately she reverted the allocation when she took a look at my 85 year old vision impaired mother :shock: and decided it was best if she didnt sit alone.

I didnt think Qantas could separate two seats with the same PNR?

 

[aplmac]

How could the system let this happen? I purchased two seats in the same booking, then upgraded them with points a few days later. To seats 4A and 4B. They remained 4A and 4B in the email Qantas sends the day before the flight. Checked in ok, using the Qantas card and Q tag. Get to Sydney's Business Lounge and my details are checked. The Qantas lady calls me back because she noticed that my seat was still 4A but the other seat was 2J! How did that happen? Fortunately she reverted the allocation when she took a look at my 85 year old vision impaired mother :shock: and decided it was best if she didnt sit alone.

I didnt think Qantas could separate two seats with the same PNR?

We've currently got a flight to NY in October, booked in January, 3 pax, one PNR. Mrs APLMAC has status, so she's sorted out the seating (all together) as you would expect. QF have changed the metal twice since, and we get the advisory emails. When we go back in to check on the booking, the seats are scattered to the four winds! Each time it takes a call to resolve, and the decent seats pre-allocated have gradually go 'worse' with each change, as by the time we call up to fix things, the good seats have all be allocated out to others! So yes, they can and will without due regard for the consequences!

 

[markis10]

Seats being split despite being on the same PNR does happen, although not to often.

 

[Pushka]

by the time we call up to fix things, the good seats have all be allocated out to others! So yes, they can and will without due regard for the consequences!

That would make me more than a little cross. That could backfire on them in a big way. Imagine travelling with a young toddler and a baby and not being able to sit with a companion to help. Or worse yet, allocate the toddler to a separate area. Almost like they try to bump people from the good seats.

 

[Fruitcake]

That would make me more than a little cross. That could backfire on them in a big way. Imagine travelling with a young toddler and a baby and not being able to sit with a companion to help. Or worse yet, allocate the toddler to a separate area. Almost like they try to bump people from the good seats.

I was on a domestic flight with my wife a couple of years ago where a family had managed to achieve this, apparently intentionally. Mum, Dad a couple of other adult friends were in the first row of economy, with a seemingly unaccompanied Annoying Five Year Old sitting three rows back in the window seat - with my wife & I occupying the aisle and middle. He was driving us nuts within two minutes of sitting down (tray table up and down, constantly trying to chat to us). The child was able to annoy us in good English, but when the FA was finally successful in identifying the parents (the child was very evasive about pointing them out, although he had a boarding pass for the seat he was in) they apparently could not understand her. We managed to escape across the aisle and back a row shortly after takeoff.

It didn't surprise me too much when we came across the group again at baggage claim that the child was running rampant, trying to climb onto the carousel (not to mention that his parents had obviously taken English lessons during the flight...).

 

[spudseamus]

I think all airlines only (in the small print ) promise to get you from point A to point B somewhere in the plane

 

[Shelf]

Wife, youngest child and I have had a couple of flights recently with QF, where we've not been allocated seats together. The wife and I 'rock, paper, scissors' to see who will have a relaxing flight

Only once has the seat allocation not been fixed.

 

[richie9x]

There could be several reasons why you were moved, but you may never know for sure.

You could have had an equipment swap. You didn't say what type of plane you were on. But if you were originally on a domestic 767 that has B seats in business class, you could have been swapped to an international 767 that has no B seat in business. So the person in B would have to be moved. Of course that happened it would be good if both passengers were moved, but sometimes that is not easy.

Ultimately seat assignments are not guaranteed. And occasionally they do get changed.

 

[drron]

In my experience it is more than occasionally.Happened on our 2 trips together last year and has already occured on our upcoming trip in July.

 

[Pushka]

In my experience it is more than occasionally.Happened on our 2 trips together last year and has already occured on our upcoming trip in July.

Hmm, we have a trip to Heathrow in July and now I am more than paranoid as the seats were booked separately - mine through Award points and my hubby's through normal booking. We have booked premium economy and booked as soon as tickets came out, so we scored the best seats on the A380 there and back. Given my experience above, where the seats were together less than 12 hours before we flew, but somehow got separated in the last couple of hours, there will be blood split if they mess with the long trip. In the flight above, there was no equipment change as the seat configuration was exactly the same as on the seat map on the internet when I booked.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Given my experience above, where the seats were together less than 12 hours before we flew, but somehow got separated in the last couple of hours, there will be blood split if they mess with the long trip.

Please check the T&C of your tickets - seating requests are requests only - QF doesn't guarantee that you can sit in the seat you requested. It's unlikely that you will be moved, but it's entirely possible and QF reserves the right to do so.

 

[aplmac]

Hmm, we have a trip to Heathrow in July and now I am more than paranoid as the seats were booked separately - mine through Award points and my hubby's through normal booking. We have booked premium economy and booked as soon as tickets came out, so we scored the best seats on the A380 there and back. Given my experience above, where the seats were together less than 12 hours before we flew, but somehow got separated in the last couple of hours, there will be blood split if they mess with the long trip. In the flight above, there was no equipment change as the seat configuration was exactly the same as on the seat map on the internet when I booked.

Probably worth your while giving them a call and linking the two bookings if you haven't already done so - it won't guarantee the seating, but it'll be easier to keep track of you both if and when it comes down to the wire.

 

[Berlin]

Each time it takes a call to resolve, and the decent seats pre-allocated have gradually go 'worse' with each change, as by the time we call up to fix things, the good seats have all be allocated out to others! So yes, they can and will without due regard for the consequences!

I think we all know that you don't have a written right for those allocated seats. However, that doesn't change the fact that as an otherwise mostly Qantas-happy customer this kind of stuff makes me ANGRY each and every single time :evil:

 

[Pushka]

Of course there will be terms and conditions which state that passengers are not entitled to the seats they have selected, but on the other hand, it makes no sense to separate passengers booked together because Qantas do not know the circumstances under which those bookings are made. If you are not a FF then they dont know how old you are, just that you have a seat. And while some gladly separate from their younger offspring, doing so represents a safety risk and makes a mockery of their age requirements for unaccompanied passengers, because if you are not sitting next to or adjacent to your child, then they are unaccompanied if something should go wrong during the flight.

And why unnecessarily irk your customers by doing this, especially in Business class?

 

[ozmille]

I've had this happen as well, apparently it was due to our seat preferences in our profile, when upgrading the system tries to allocate seats according to the preferences stored in your FF profile. So as me and my wife both have window as a preference we got 3A and 2F as those were the only 2 window seats left.

 

[awilcockson]

I didnt think Qantas could separate two seats with the same PNR?

Now this was AA metal with a QF flight number, but still a valid and scary tale ...

We had a flight LAX-MCO, with myself, SWMBO and my two kids (aged 6 & 7) booked on the same PNR. All 4 of us were allocated seats in different rows!!!! We were told that once we were on board we'd have to find people to swap seats with. And that's what we had to do, lickily we found a couple of people that understood our situation and were happy to help. Absolutely ridiculous.

 

[drron]

Now this was AA metal with a QF flight number, but still a valid and scary tale ...

We had a flight LAX-MCO, with myself, SWMBO and my two kids (aged 6 & 7) booked on the same PNR. All 4 of us were allocated seats in different rows!!!! We were told that once we were on board we'd have to find people to swap seats with. And that's what we had to do, lickily we found a couple of people that understood our situation and were happy to help. Absolutely ridiculous.

This maybe,and I stress maybe,because of the new closer relationship.On our upcoming July trip I am on an Aaward and mrsdrron a paid J ticket.Got our travel agent to link the PNRs and we were allocated seats together on all flights except JL.Now on the SYD-BKK sector we were initially 24A,B.But of course there was the equipment change.Mrsdrron was changed to 2A but I was left at 24B-an absolute shocker of a J seat on the airbus!Rang AA and it was ~1645,got an Aagent in Texas who told me the AA allocated seats were 3A,K and 4A,K so she could only move me to one of those-naturally the aisle seats in those rows are showing up occupied so mrsdrron couldn't move back.2B though is showing as free.
So rang QF using mrsdrron's number so the plat line.I recounted none of the conversation with AA just said mrsdrron is in 2A and I am in 3A so could I be moved to 2B.She said sorry but you are on an AA ticket and their seats are 3A,K and 4A,K so I cant move you.So instead moved mrsdrron to 2B,I remain in 3A and hopefully either 2A or 3B will swap.
Found it very interesting that the same story came from AA and QF independently.So maybe the same occurs on AA with QF codeshares and individual seat are allocated to QF.Think it is crazy if so but it just might be.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Of course there will be terms and conditions which state that passengers are not entitled to the seats they have selected, but on the other hand, it makes no sense to separate passengers booked together because Qantas do not know the circumstances under which those bookings are made.

Which is why it rarely happens. Sometimes things happen (e.g. equipment change), and pax are automatically re-assigned seats. So it pays to keep a tab on what you have.

There is a big difference between "QANTAS can, but shouldn't change seats" to "QANTAS isn't allowed to, and if they do, blood will be split". QANTAS abides by the former. There is no entitlement to the latter.

 

[Pushka]

Which is why it rarely happens. Sometimes things happen (e.g. equipment change), and pax are automatically re-assigned seats. So it pays to keep a tab on what you have.

There is a big difference between "QANTAS can, but shouldn't change seats" to "QANTAS isn't allowed to, and if they do, blood will be split". QANTAS abides by the former. There is no entitlement to the latter.

Keeping a tab on my seats did not help. The seats were together until less than 6 hours before departure. My mum isn't a ff member so she had no preference or even a profile. I have a profile that says aisle and I was allocated the window, 4a. And our seats for July had better stay right where they are as we paid additional for these exit row seats.

The metal didn't change. There was no reason for them to change seats. But which they did less than 6 hours before the flight. It seems unnecessary to mess with bookings like this.

 

[serfty]

This maybe,and I stress maybe,because of the new closer relationship.On our upcoming July trip I am on an Aaward and mrsdrron a paid J ticket.Got our travel agent to link the PNRs and we were allocated seats together on all flights except JL.Now on the SYD-BKK sector we were initially 24A,B.But of course there was the equipment change.Mrsdrron was changed to 2A but I was left at 24B-an absolute shocker of a J seat on the airbus!Rang AA and it was ~1645,got an Aagent in Texas who told me the AA allocated seats were 3A,K and 4A,K ...I .

I am confused about the aircraft configuration and/or booking class!

Airbus? 3A, 4A,3K, 4K, 24B??
Presumably this is all Business Class?

Did you get swapped from a 388 to a 744, vice-versa or something else?

Posted on a wing and a prayer