Seat Selection - not very good for this WP

[medhead]

So I've jumped online and gone to chose my seat. Here's what I'm seeing for the 737 flight to SYD (_ represents vacant):

With this flight pretty good for CBR but it would pay to check again. I sometimes see seating move around a bit if I go back in after doing seat selection. Once I even progressive moved from row 10 to row 5 just by re-selecting about 3 or 4 times in a row.

The other important time is T-7 to redo check in as you may get a better seat then.

 

[Danger]

With this flight pretty good for CBR but it would pay to check again. I sometimes see seating move around a bit if I go back in after doing seat selection.

Interesting. Thank you.

The other important time is T-7 to redo check in as you may get a better seat then.

I wasn't aware of the magic seven, either. Thanks again.

One more thing. Exit row seating may be available to you; you can't generally get this on-line.

Do you have an E/F subscription? You can use that to check.

Yes, but only the month-by-month one which I think is a basic membership (USD5).

If so you can call Qantas Premium and ask them to make a request to seating for you to be allocated in an exit row seat.

I wasn't aware of that. Thank you.

 

[Boris spatsky]

OK so I did a trial to Perth and back yesterday and today, deliberately not allocating any seating to see what I got as WP.

On the way over, even though I called to request exit row with Platinum Line, I got 35G (!!!) on A332. So 12 rows back from front of economy, in the middle block, with a kid kicking my seat back for 4 hours. No exit row.

On the way back (B763) I got 34K (!!) once again a long way back, and in amongst all the JQ codeshare pax. It is an exit row, but has restricted legroom due to the bulkhead.

So all in all it was an interesting trial, but ultimately a complete failure - I will go back to allocating my own, but I still cannot ever get good exit row seats on the B763 or A332. They are always blocked at booking, T-80, and T-24, and I never get them if I ring Platinum line. So, as a WP, how do you get them?

 

[samiam]

MEL-PER this week with an NB (Silver Cusp) work colleague. Separate bookings, not linked.

I used seat selection after booking and allocated 24B (Row 23 on A330 blocked).

Rechecked at T-80, rechecked at T-24 'ish'. No improvement on original selection.

Colleague used OLCI (not certain at which T interval).

Met in lounge and colleague had been allocated 23A.

Not sure how seat allocation system works this out - go figure!

(Epilogue- selected/checked into 23B on a 767 for the return and got bumped to 24D by a family with a bub- understandable as this is a bassinet row).

 

[JohnK]

Here is what I do

- Select seat at time of booking
- Check again at T-80 or whatever time I remember
- Use OLCI as close as possible to T-24

I am never allocated a seat further back than 3rd row of economy (unless I change flights very late) and if I have remembered to check again at T-80 more than likely I have been able to pre-allocte row 1 of economy.

Occasionally I am still in the 3rd row of economy at T-80 but I will continue trying until I get row 1 of economy before boarding the flight.

Works for me....

 

[Leumas]

My experience is similar to JohnK. At time of booking, the first two Y rows are always blocked, so I grab whatever I can - typically, the 3rd row.

At T-80, I log in again and get the first row of Y. Typically, that seat will stay with you whether you OCLI or not, although I normally do.

That works 99% of the time for me. The only thing is when they have a late aircraft change then good luck to you. I've had a few times where a carefully selected 20-something seat on a 763 suddenly becomes a 737 and you end up all the way back at the back of the plane...

 

[reductionist]

I thought this was semi-relevant to this thread. I have a MEL-CBR booked in May. Here has been the seat selection availability as my status rose from Silver to Platinum.

Silver

Gold

Platinum

 

[Danger]

At rough glance, it appears you got a progressively better selection as your status improved. I'm impressed.

 

[Verde]

At rough glance, it appears you got a progressively better selection as your status improved. I'm impressed.

As I rose to silver and gold, I was tempted to record the changes in seat options available on the Qantaslink flights out of Albury (and how they varied between the 300 and 400s) but it all seemed a bit pointless (unless you are in the back few rows of the planes I don't think it really makes a huge amount of difference).

Though I think a third factor is route, as I seemed to be able to score better seats on a flight to Coffs than I can between Syd and Albury. My anecdotal evidence was approx Plat get about the first two rows (guessing since I'm only Gold), then about three for Gold, add about another row or two to those numbers for the Q400 over the 300.

Since the Qantaslink flights don't allow advanced seat selection, only OLCI 24hrs before departure, it would be interesting to know if the seats are shuffled dynamically rather than with generic allocations. That would probably explain why I did better on the CFS flights, though I also got bumped from a really good seat at one stage (rechecked it online a few hours before departure and had no seat allocated anymore and could only get row 4 instead of 2 I think).

On regular Qantas flights I'm more interested in having an empty middle seat beside me than being in the front row (except if I am worried about a tight connection). I often wonder if I should deliberately pick the last gold row (as best as I can estimate it) in the hope anyone taking a middle seat takes the front few rows over mine.

 

[russ]

At rough glance, it appears you got a progressively better selection as your status improved. I'm impressed.

Are you sure?