Originally Posted by
lazy_flyer
Hi ExpertFlyer Voice
I have two questions regarding inconsistencies in what I'm seeing in EF and what I see on airline seat maps.
First, on LA801 on April 6 (but I think it is every date as I had the same issue on LA800 on my outbound flight) not every seat shown as available on the EF seat map is available for me to actually select on Lan.com or via their call centre. As an example, seat 12L appears available in EF but I can't actually select it. The same for the middle row aisle seats in rows 15 to 17. My QF (gold) frequent flyer number is entered in expert flyer and is included in my reservation. One possible explanation I have is the perhaps Lan is only offering preferred seats to its own frequent flyers, even though this is a published benefit for OW sapphire. What do you think is going on here?
Since we don't know what city pair you are flying (LA 801 goes from SCL-AKL-SYD) and we don't know what your QF FF# is so we can't try to send that to LA, we can't replicate what you are looking at. Questions like these should be emailed us at
[email protected]
However assuming for the moment AKL-SYD, you can see that 12L is indeed marked as Available by LA:
Code:
1 - AKL 2 - SYD
NO SMOKING-AKLSYD
A C D E F H J L
12 / / / * B 12
13 / / / / / / 13
14 / / / / / / / / 14
15 / / * M * * * M / / 15
16 / / * M * * * M * * 16
17 * H * * * H 17
18 * H * * * 18
19 / / / / / / 19
20 * * * * * . 20
25 / / / / 25
AVAIL NO SMK: * BLOCK : / LEAST PREF: U BULKHEAD: BHD
AVAIL SMKING: - PREMIUM: Q UPPER DECK: J EXIT ROW: X
SEAT TAKEN: . WING: W PAID : P LAVATORY: LAV GALLEY: GAL
PREF ACCESS LAV: PAL DOOR: DOR SCREEN: SCR CLOSET: CLS
PREF ACCESS : H BASSINET: B UMNR: M REARFACE: ¤
If you look at the QF version of the seat map, that seat doesn't even show up. It would appear that LA isn't allowing certain seats to be allocated by codeshare partners. Same thing with the middle row aisle seats in rows 15 to 17. Clearly Available on LA but nowhere to be found on QF. When flying codeshares, only the seat map of the airline you're buying the ticket with matters.
Second, LA801 is a codeshare with QF322. But EF shows different aircraft (Aircraft: 340 vs Aircraft: 343). I don't know much about the difference between these aircraft, maybe it's just a different configuration, but the issue is that the QF codeshare is showing row 26 to be an exit row, which, having taken this flight multiple times, I know is not true (row 25 is the only exit row). This may not be an EF issue though as I was allocated row 26 on my outbound when I asked for an exit row at AKL, and I was disappointed that it was not one, despite the agent's assurances at check-in.
There is no difference, it's an A340-300 as LAN only flies that and 763's. Some airlines publish equipment codes generically, some specifically. Some even make up their own.
LA doesn't mark exit rows on their seat maps, however if you look at this:
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/LAN...irbus_A340.php It's easy to see why QF could think that row 25 is an exit row. Either way QF thinks 25 is an exit row, and that's why you got it. It looks to be a problem with LA communicating the seat map layout to QF and everyone else sees that mistake, QF agents included. Either way, ExpertFlyer shows exactly the same seat maps the airlines show to everyone else.