Who changed my pre-allocated seat and why?

[pagingjoan]

Interestingly, the infant position on the 767 is more commonly on the JK side.

A330-300 - Bassinets both sides, Row 1.

 

[LiamR]

Balanced? Is that how it looks from your end? :confused


My original point, which is now lost, was being moved out of my pre-allocated for no good reason.

Then people started comparing experiences and I mentioned my 3 very minor issues on VA in 3 days

- Lack of service when wanting to purchase a drink on Friday night
- Amongst other things luggage took ~25 minutes to come out
- Losing my pre-allocated seat for no good reason

I am not comparing VA to QF but simply commenting on my 3 very minor issues on VA in 3 days and the most important of the 3 very minor issues is losing my pre-allocated seat. Guaranteed or not on any airline it is simply not good enough....

Got it. Perhaps you should take you business elsewhere?

Excuse my childish behaviour, but I can't help but find this shirt relevant at the moment.




""Fine, Go Back To QANTAS"" T-Shirts & Hoodies by chrisjrn | RedBubble

 

[LiamR]

Virgin aren't out to catch every Qantas Frequent Flyer serfty, only 10-20% of the market IIRC. So they certainly don't need to please the entire market (But the sure as hell are trying!)

Some people will never switch to Virgin Australia, no matter what.

 

[serfty]

Excuse my childish behaviour, but I can't help but find this shirt relevant at the moment.

""Fine, Go Back To QANTAS"" T-Shirts & Hoodies by chrisjrn | RedBubble

How does that help the issue; DJ wants the custom of regular fliers.

Virgin aren't out to catch every Qantas Frequent Flyer serfty, only 10-20% of the market IIRC. So they certainly don't need to please the entire market (But the sure as hell are trying!)

Some people will never switch to Virgin Australia, no matter what.

I don't believe you get it.

The OP did DJ as well as QF before the status match and is likely to continue. He does commute between BNE and SYD at least 80 times per year.

When issues such as this (a common one) occurs, perhaps they feel they'll get more traction by expressing it here.

I would suggest the OP will quite likely retain at least DJ SG with their travel should the issue raised be addressed. That is why I have suggest up thread he contact DJ directly as well.

 

[777]

Really??!!

If 90ish% reliability of seat allocation (seems roughly right baed on the average of comments in this thread) at threat of being moved a metre away is "not good enough!" (repeated how many times in this thread so far?) then the logical thing to do is move yourself to another airline where nothing that is totally unacceptable by JohnK's high standard ever happens. Given where the bar is set I wish him luck with that.

If is not actually enough to make him move his business elsewhere (either because he is otherwise happy with the product or because the alternative is "not good enough" for some other reason) then it is, in practice, good enough to retain his business. Perhaps if he just dialed down the drama a few notches the genuinely constructive feedback hiding somewhere beneath all the hyperbole would actually be clearer.

 

[medhead]

Balanced? Is that how it looks from your end? :confused


My original point, which is now lost, was being moved out of my pre-allocated for no good reason.

Then people started comparing experiences and I mentioned my 3 very minor issues on VA in 3 days

- Lack of service when wanting to purchase a drink on Friday night
- Amongst other things luggage took ~25 minutes to come out
- Losing my pre-allocated seat for no good reason

I am not comparing VA to QF but simply commenting on my 3 very minor issues on VA in 3 days and the most important of the 3 very minor issues is losing my pre-allocated seat. Guaranteed or not on any airline it is simply not good enough....

In fairness to your points I singled out 1 issue that is experienced on both major domestic airlines. IMO it is not balance to say that slow luggage is limited to one airline. I also think it is not beyond reasonable to say the preallocated seats might be lost on both airlines. But I will stick by my opinion that you will cane VA for anything, even if it is something that also happens on QF...

Maybe I should add that I am a strict BFOD day flyer and what I've learned is that each airline is different. The OP seems keen to apply qantas standards to VA, whereas what I'm finding is that those standards are irrelevant, these are different airlines. As with all domestic flying you take the good with the bad.

 

[777]

How does that help the issue; DJ wants the custom of regular fliers.

There's constructive feedback and there's "being moved from 3D to 4C totally proves you are incapable of running an airline". While i think all feedback should be taken on board and used to refine the product and services, I would suggest that VA are best to invest their efforts in the 90 odd percent of flyers capable of being pleased.

 

[serfty]

There's constructive feedback and there's "being moved from 3D to 4C totally proves you are incapable of running an airline". While i think all feedback should be taken on board and used to refine the product and services, I would suggest that VA are best to invest their efforts in the 90 odd percent of flyers capable of being pleased.

Maybe I have been spoiled by Qantas, but it would severely annoy me to be moved out of row 3 on a DJ 737 for row 4; just like it would annoy me to be moved out of row 4 on a Qantas 73H for another row further down.

If that seem precious, then maybe I should no longer fly DJ.

Some years ago I had a Friday flight on a 737 MEL-AKL with a return the next day.

In both case I had 4C preallocated.

I was contacted about 3 hours before the Friday flight by Qantas to apologise to the fact I that I had been moved out of the pre-allocated seats and they could only offer me 4B or an exit aisle seat each way - I chose the exit aisle.¹ When checking in 90 minutes later at the MEL First check-in I was again apologised to.

Now, while that is unlikely to occur these days with the official advent of ÜWP, it illustrates the importance Qantas puts on avoiding moving elites from their pre-allocations.

¹ FWIW, I was very interested in the occupants of "my" seats - as it happened the guy was a bigwig of the ARU and was on the same flights each way - J was sold out (as he is an ex rugby player I was glad I did not take the 4B options).

 

[medhead]

¹ FWIW, I was very interested in the occupants of "my" seats - as it happened the guy was a bigwig of the ARU and was on the same flights each way - J was sold out (as he is an ex rugby player I was glad I did not take the 4B options).

So Kerns-ie or Dunning? Any other ARU types are rather small.

 

[JohnK]

But I will stick by my opinion that you will cane VA for anything, even if it is something that also happens on QF...

To be fair it is not like I am defending Qantas at every opportunity.

Far from it.

- Their on-time performance is shocking
- Their cabin crew are inconsistent just like the service
- I am still bitter about losing anytime access (yes I will keep saying it)
- I am still bitter about losing my ability to pre-allocate exit rows on long haul

Unfortunately I commute regularly and I do not have much choice other than QF or VA. In my situation QF suits on price and where possible I will switch to VA. I already had an opinion on VA before the status match and unfortunately not much has changed. Yes they are trying hard but can be just as inconsistent as QF.

So why should I stick with VA when they cannot compete on price or service? And I am only interested about my situation commuting SYD-BNE and not someone who is commuting BNE-SYD and VA has the better airfares not QF.

Perhaps I am too picky but I just wish some people would stop coming down on me like a tonne of bricks everytime I say something.

And perhaps we should only post on AFF when we have something nice to say....

 

[medhead]

To be fair it is not like I am defending Qantas at every opportunity.

Far from it.

- Their on-time performance is shocking
- Their cabin crew are inconsistent just like the service
- I am still bitter about losing anytime access (yes I will keep saying it)

ATA - don't mention the war, I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.

- I am still bitter about losing my ability to pre-allocate exit rows on long haul

Unfortunately I commute regularly and I do not have much choice other than QF or VA. In my situation QF suits on price and where possible I will switch to VA. I already had an opinion on VA before the status match and unfortunately not much has changed. Yes they are trying hard but can be just as inconsistent as QF.

So why should I stick with VA when they cannot compete on price or service? And I am only interested about my situation commuting SYD-BNE and not someone who is commuting BNE-SYD and VA has the better airfares not QF.

Perhaps I am too picky but I just wish some people would stop coming down on me like a tonne of bricks everytime I say something.

And perhaps we should only post on AFF when we have something nice to say....

I think most of the rest of your post is covered by me saying that I'm strictly BFOD. That was VA at the end of last year and it is QF so far this year. I also commute and I don't see any need to mention the differences so much. They are different airlines and they do different cough. You're not too picky, but from where I sit QF needs some picking as well. Priority boarding from ADL anyone?

 

[Reg Reagan]

FWIW last weekend I had pre-allocated 1A only to be advised by the lounge angel that I was seated in 1C... she could see that I had pre-allocated but could only say that it must've been allocated to another pax. Anyway on board I discovered that 1A was vacant so ended up sitting there after all. Last minute cancellation or gremlins in the IT system. :?:

 

[serfty]

So Kerns-ie or Dunning? Any other ARU types are rather small.

Those guys are too young - this was a board member. No names, no pack drill, but the guy wore an akubra in flight.

 

[medhead]

Those guys are too young - this was a board member. No names, no pack drill, but the guy wore an akubra in flight.

Kerns - young? I remember Farr-jones hold up a cup, I remember Richard Lowe standing on someone, but I might have to consult the video to work out the Akubra wearer.

Edit: Molly Meldrum oops, Alan Jones?

 

[notzac]

My goodness me - the VA fanboys and girls are out tonight! JohnK has some perfectly valid feedback (bracketed by some beautifully-written flamebait material, I'll grant you) - I maintain that VA needs to understand that moving elite pax for non-operational reasons is going to piss them off. It's frankly irrelevant that QF does or doesn't do the same thing.

 

[medhead]

My goodness me - the VA fanboys and girls are out tonight! JohnK has some perfectly valid feedback (bracketed by some beautifully-written flamebait material, I'll grant you) - I maintain that VA needs to understand that moving elite pax for non-operational reasons is going to piss them off. It's frankly irrelevant that QF does or doesn't do the same thing.

Maybe. But then the relevance might be because there seems to be an absence of noise when QF does the same cough. NB I've said nothing about DJ401 always being delayed but QF 730 is never delayed, because JohnK has many valid gripes when it comes to delays.

 

[haydensydney]

In my situation QF suits on price and where possible I will switch to VA.

This made me laugh JohnK. Why "where possible" will you switch to VA when you say they can't possibly compete in Service or Price? Whats in it for you if you just get angry when things go wrong?

 

[Major]

Kerns - young? I remember Farr-jones hold up a cup, I remember Richard Lowe standing on someone, but I might have to consult the video to work out the Akubra wearer.

Edit: Molly Meldrum oops, Alan Jones?

Perhaps Bob Katter

 

[777]

My goodness me - the VA fanboys and girls are out tonight! JohnK has some perfectly valid feedback (bracketed by some beautifully-written flamebait material, I'll grant you)

I agree. You're actually saying exactly what i'm saying. JohnK has legitimate points wrapped in over-the-top rhetoric. I'd just go one step further and argue that the "flamebait" (your words not mine) undermine and drown out the legitimate points he is attempting to make. If that makes me "fanboy" so be it. You seem to be saying much the same thing though.

 

[markis10]

Fanboi or fanboy is something of an overused or misused term in this forum, given its definition is "someone who shows irrational support", from my point of view there is rational arguments from both the "for" and "against" camp, placing neither in the fanboi category. All I can say, is those that have discovered choice are enjoying it!