GoldenWinger
Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2007
- Posts
- 215
I am still trying to understand QF’s logic of basically blocking the release of any P (First) or U (Business) award seats to destinations such as LAX, SIN and LHR. You may find a scattering of seats throughout the year mid-week (Tu/We/Th) but that’s about it. LAX is the worst culprit – and in a lot of instances award seats are never released – even the day before departure on the day of departure even if as in the case of First class it virtually unsold and empty. Here are examples I have personally experienced recently as a Plat One…I had a paid booking in First Class recently on the SYD-SIN…I thought I would try to see just how useful the “access to a greater choice of award seats” is for P1s…I requested a classic award First Class seat for my partner about a week before for my partner – it was denied. Flight at that time only had me and one other unticketed pax on the flight (I have a friend at QF who can check loads in Amadeus)…fair enough I understand QF needs to give priority to commercial bookings…thought I would try my luck again for the request at 1600 the day prior to departure – at this time the flight had me and the other pax who was now ticketed – there were 2 waitlist upgrades too. My request was denied and I advised to try again – P1 special services was very nice and tried again sending to the “business analyst” – it was declined once more. When I finally did travel it in the cabin it was me and on other pax – along with 4 non-rev tech crew…so obviously it seems QF like to ensure there is adequate space for non-revenue staff. As for the waitlisted upgrade pax – they were declined as advised my friend.
Same situation again when trying to request a classic award to LAX in First for myself – I did this the day prior – the QF107 has no seats sold and QF11 has 5 seats sold. The request was declined once again by the “business analyst”. In terms of upgrade requests for P1, I did one from Economy to Business – it only cleared about 5 hours before departure on a SIN-MEL. Flight was pretty wide open – this also goes against the P1 benefit that it may clear well ahead of time.
Not sure if anyone else experienced this, but there was also a small “window of opportunity” where P and U inventory would open up for these flights as long there were still “A” class inventory for First and “D” and sometimes “I” inventory for Business – I found this out while playing around with availability on the QF website and also directly on QF’s Amadeus system which I have access to…times are based on SYD local times…this has been the situation for the past few years but has recently changed in the last month or so.
For SYD-HKG on the QF127 P/U inventory would open up day prior around 1600 up until around 1740.
For BNE/SYD/MEL-SIN (QF51/31/5/9) P/U would be available day prior from around 2100 to 2330.
For SYD-BKK (QF1) it would be same time frame as SIN flights.
For LAX-AKL/BNE/SYD/MEL P/U inventory would show up around 2200 to 2330 for flight day prior local time – ie. If it was 27FEB in SYD it would be available for 26FEB (USA time).
The trick on the search engine at QF.com was to ensure “flexible with day” was ticked and then once the availability would come it would show “no seats” but all you had to do was click on the date (eg. You request search on 27FEB – you then clicked on 28FEB) and you would get the seats.
Maybe the above was during the time upgrades were being processed? There were possibly other flights but these are the ones I had found. Now all of the above doesn’t work – maybe QF has picked up on this possible “loop hole”? What a shame – it was good way of securing seats. Maybe not so convenient for LAX flights but for the rest it was good.
It’s unfortunate that QF can get away with basically not offering decent access to Premium cabins for award seats – well maybe they can get away with since there is very little government regulation on them in terms of frequent flyer award seats. So basically they are conducting in misleading and deceptive practices. British Airways on the other hand under UK law has to follow stricter conditions in the provision of award seats. You will notice BA generally within 48 hours of departure will have Z (First) and U inventory available if the flight is not physically full.
This can just be added to the list of things that QF does so well to alienate their customer base and in particular anger their top tier frequent flyers.
Same situation again when trying to request a classic award to LAX in First for myself – I did this the day prior – the QF107 has no seats sold and QF11 has 5 seats sold. The request was declined once again by the “business analyst”. In terms of upgrade requests for P1, I did one from Economy to Business – it only cleared about 5 hours before departure on a SIN-MEL. Flight was pretty wide open – this also goes against the P1 benefit that it may clear well ahead of time.
Not sure if anyone else experienced this, but there was also a small “window of opportunity” where P and U inventory would open up for these flights as long there were still “A” class inventory for First and “D” and sometimes “I” inventory for Business – I found this out while playing around with availability on the QF website and also directly on QF’s Amadeus system which I have access to…times are based on SYD local times…this has been the situation for the past few years but has recently changed in the last month or so.
For SYD-HKG on the QF127 P/U inventory would open up day prior around 1600 up until around 1740.
For BNE/SYD/MEL-SIN (QF51/31/5/9) P/U would be available day prior from around 2100 to 2330.
For SYD-BKK (QF1) it would be same time frame as SIN flights.
For LAX-AKL/BNE/SYD/MEL P/U inventory would show up around 2200 to 2330 for flight day prior local time – ie. If it was 27FEB in SYD it would be available for 26FEB (USA time).
The trick on the search engine at QF.com was to ensure “flexible with day” was ticked and then once the availability would come it would show “no seats” but all you had to do was click on the date (eg. You request search on 27FEB – you then clicked on 28FEB) and you would get the seats.
Maybe the above was during the time upgrades were being processed? There were possibly other flights but these are the ones I had found. Now all of the above doesn’t work – maybe QF has picked up on this possible “loop hole”? What a shame – it was good way of securing seats. Maybe not so convenient for LAX flights but for the rest it was good.
It’s unfortunate that QF can get away with basically not offering decent access to Premium cabins for award seats – well maybe they can get away with since there is very little government regulation on them in terms of frequent flyer award seats. So basically they are conducting in misleading and deceptive practices. British Airways on the other hand under UK law has to follow stricter conditions in the provision of award seats. You will notice BA generally within 48 hours of departure will have Z (First) and U inventory available if the flight is not physically full.
This can just be added to the list of things that QF does so well to alienate their customer base and in particular anger their top tier frequent flyers.
