Very interesting to read. Thanks for posting. I've had the good fortune of travelling on a friend's Qantas staff travel and have gone to and from Australia a few times and it's not always "plane" sailing - especially when your taking connections that don't leave for 14 hours so loads can change while you're mid air. Or other airlines have issues that throw pax onto your flight so your position gets downgraded. I won't travel unless I know I have a seat at least in Y. W or J is always a bonus.

I've had to buy back up tickets from Singapore to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to ensure I can get a seat. I've been in my seat once, on the top deck of a 747 when an agent came and asked me to move to the lower deck as they had a VIP of sorts that wanted to be up there. I ended up in a row of 3 seats to my self. It was still J so fine. I've been at the gate at Singapore coming back to London with a confirmed Y seat, but waiting to see what would happen when the gate shut. The agent was going round and a few got J, most Y, and she came to me last and I got the middle of the front row of PE. I've been checking in at Brisbane connecting in Melbourne with the agent asking if I was sure I wanted to connect there as they were loading pax from another airline onto the flight. I went and after a tense 2hr wait I got a J seat. The IFE screen was dead but I did manage to get a different seat from Dubai which had a working
one. It only seems to be when I'm in J that meal choice is an issue. In W and Y they just dish it out accordingly.

However, it doesn't always work out. My friend came to visit with her then boyfriend and on the way back spent 3 nights at LHR trying to get on one of the 4 daily flights back to Australia (only 2 QF flights now) Nothing even in Y. They had to buy an expensive last minute ticket on SQ because one of the conditions of staff travel is that if you don't get back in time, you could lose your job. So it's not always easy to use, but if you can, it certainly is a cheap way of travelling. Just have back up plans!!