lb2112

Told at check-in a few nights ago that I would be the only one in J, and so chose a seat in the 30 seat forward cabin of 777. Then boarded an hour later to find 29 people op-upped into the cabin.

This resulted in a reduced service, they ran out of the meal I wanted even though I was the only one in full-fare (or any fare!) J. It was also a night flight, so I couldn't get any sleep due to the others eating at ridiculous hours, lights on etc.

Is this normal? I really felt like a mug that I paid about 4x as much for the same flight when I probably would have been op-upped anyway...

zehbra

It depends. On most routes it isn't normal, but I hear on the DOH-Philipines flights are generally a safe bet to have plenty of op-ups.
Maybe some other destinations get that effect as well.

Sixth Freedom

QR will overbook the Y cabin, but I would be surprised if they upgraded 30 Y passengers purely due to overbooking. They understand that if they sell everything they are too cheap.

But the Philippines flights are an interesting example of staff travel.

QR has many employees from the Philippines, almost all of whom are not senior enough to be allowed to buy rebate tickets in J.

They will be accepted for travel if there is a seat, but QR will upgrade a regular Y passenger and seat the staff member in Y rather than seat the staff member in J.

I think that the most likely explanation is that QR was actually 11 seats undersold in Y and accepted 40 staff travellers, causing 29 Y passengers to be upgraded. Or similar numbers.

Firstclasser

They do take status into account though. Sorry for the long flight.

remdk

On both QR159 and QR161 both DOH-CPH at check-in I was the only passenger in J. All 22 seats were occupied at take off! It looks as though there will be a repeat early next month as well.

Firstclasser

Those were 21 very lucky pax.

chiefwiggumpi

I did FRA - DOH - AUH in April.

FRA- DOH on the A350 in J. Cabin seemed a reasonable mix of leisure/business maybe less than half fullm with pax, then just before boarding closes in troops about 5 or 6 i assume pilots with the white shirts, epillettes missing all sat in J and all immediately got settled and slept most of the way.

No issues with them at all but we had an 18 month old who wanted to wander and would occasionally stop near one of them i would never let my child deliberately touch or disturb any fare/non fare paying pax but the second they saw him they kept chuntering and turning over for sleep i guess. Made me feel like i was the one disturbing this group so would try and keep our son away from those seats out of respect. The second he began any kind of crying which we try and get on top of straight away they would all just stare at us. I then i thought sod it its public transport you're on a freebie so if you don't like a toddler wandering about were on holiday...get your own private plane...cheesed me off a bit

impeymac

I certainly don't want to start an argument & I completely agree with your comment that it's public transport. I also genuinely appreciate your efforts to control the little one's crying; I have complete sympathy with parents when it starts, especially with babies as it's just about uncontrollable, & as a light sleeper I'm eternally grateful for your efforts ^.

However, precisely because it's public transport, as a matter of basic safety I believe toddlers shouldn't wander around a plane. Unexpected turbulence can occur, crew & pax can be walking around with hot food & drink & younger children don't always understand the concept of 'do not disturb'. Maybe they were repositioning crew who needed to rest, who knows?

Perhaps you could hire a private jet to enable unhindered wandering during your holiday flights...

Firstclasser

Having travelled with a toddler severally, I know not to let my baby go more than one seat away from me. We usually got bulkhead seating until she was 2 so peek a boo with the curtains was a favorite and I guess I am lucky but pax in the back row always seemed to want to make faces at her which she enjoyed a lot. Lastly, I tried to sleep deprive her right before the flight and give her a teaspoon of piriton as soon as we checked in (something I regret now) so she can sleep through the flight when I was too tired to run around.

Sixth Freedom

If they were QR pilots and they were in uniform then they certainly would not have been on a freebie. It would have been duty travel for repositioning, and although the tickets have a 'zero' fare value they are not really any different to any other business travellers whose employer has paid for their ticket.

Pilots repositioning are accommodated in J on a firm basis whilst staff on holiday only get J on a 'space available' basis. QR will also displace a fare paying passenger to accommodate a positioning pilot. Together these indicate to me that positioning flight crew should not be considered to be on a "freebie".

I think that you are a bit unfair in your assessment.