teddyflyer

We have four paid adult seats in PE from SYD - SIN. We have put in for an upgrade for all. We have an infant travelling with us

We have another award booking in Business on the same flight (adult).

The award flier is no longer travellling. I want to take up that seat for our travelling party (I understand you can request a name change).

In practice assuming the PE upgrade does not come through the plan is for one of the PE adults to take the Business award seat and the infant to take the PE seat.

My question is can I book the award business seat in the infant's name? I am assuming not as he will not have any adults in the cabin with him. Therefore the only other option is to book a second seat for one of the adults already travelling. Is this possible?

I have heard one way to get around it is to make the booking with a middle initial so it differentiates?

Thanks

og

I be very surprised if you could change the name after ticket issue.

teddyflyer

On my recent review of award ticket rules you can make name changes.

14.7.4 Subject to this clause 14.7, the following changes are permitted to a Classic Award after ticketing and prior to commencement of any travel and will incur a Change Fee (see the Fee Schedule) per passenger:
(a) change to flight number;
(b) change to date of travel;
(c) change to class of travel;
(d) change to any Segment routing or airline;
(e) change to name (only for Flights with a Qantas (QF) flight number on the ticket that are operated by Qantas); and
(f) request to cancel ticket and re-credit Points. Please note that only Points that would not have expired will be re-credited.

og

Thanks - I stand corrected! That opens up ideas for an upcoming trip

nux

Are the paid PE tickets one way or return? Each passenger will only be able to board with one boarding pass, so if one boards with the J pass then they will be a no show on the PE ticket and have the remaining sectors on that ticket cancelled. If they board with the PE pass the J seat will be a no show and the manifest will show no passenger sitting there. You won't be able to scan the two passes as you can't have the same passenger occupying two seats.

teddyflyer

Return tickets.

I guess my only option is to call Qantas and see if they will change the award ticket to the infants name.

I just wondered though what happens when a larger person wants to buy two seats on a plane. I assumed that was possible?

Similalry if you wanted to buy the seat next to you because you preferred not to have someone not sit next to you. I can't imagine an airline would be averse to accepting your money?

nux

Then there is no way to have an adult take the J seat without risk of losing the PE return segment(s).

You can purchase an extra seat by paying the base fare excluding taxes, although I'm not sure of the relevance?

I doubt you can have an infant booked in J on their own.

I don't see any way you can make this work. I would cancel the J seat and hope for an upgrade.

Dave Noble

There is no chance that the award will be changed to the infant. The infant cannot be travelling alone in the business cabin

You could change the name to one of the adults and then pay appropriate change fees to change that passenger's PE booking to a one way ticket

lokijuh

The other option is to actually call the airline and see what is possible. Who knows they may be able to do something with the PE ticket to ensure that the return sector won't be cancelled.

Dave Noble

That would be , as I said, paying change fees and fare differences to change one ticket to a one-way ticket. The airline isn't going to permit just the inbound to be flown

lokijuh

I've had an airlines (in the dim distant past) convert a sector that I couldn't fly to a "surface sector". Really, you don't know until you ask, probably the answer will be as you describe, but is there any harm in ringing and asking? At worst it's a waste of a phone call.

Dave Noble

If not having decent status it is can also be a waste of a long time sat on hold calling Qantas

I would put the odds on being able to convert a r/t to a single without paying change fees and fare differences as about zero

Depending on fare paid it may not cost much to do though looking at base fares ( add fuel fines and taxes ) a r/t SYD-SIN in T is $968 with a $300 change fee whilst the cheapest PE fare sellable in Australia is a W fare at $1576.

This could lead to quite a fee being needed to make the change , though if in W class could just be collecting a refund between the SYD-SIN r/t $2350 vs $1576 for one way SIN-SYD

Unless there is a very good reason ( e.g. service disruption occurs ) the airline is not just going to allow the passenger to buy a $1576 ticket for $968 .

When having a sector changed , I doubt that that was the whole of a 1 way journey changed?

teddyflyer

Thank you for the responses.

The point is that I want both seats as I want my son to have a seat (although he will sit in PE and one of the adults will move to Business if the upgrades don't come through).

I am willing to forgo 60,000 points for the privelege (plus taxes) - we were the ones that made the award booking for the adult passenger. Plus the PE fare we have already paid

Hence, the question is focused on why Qantas shouldn't allow us to effectively purchase two seats on the same plane. Commercially I just can't understand why they wouldn't allow it if they are being paid for it.

Blackcloud

Have you rung QF?
As far as I know you can buy more tha one seat for the same passenger, sometimes QF does call the passenger, I know as I mistakenly purchased two lots due to internet issues. This is most commonly used for economy passengers who wish for extra space for whatever reason but I cannot see why not for other cabins.
Now I do not know but I thought if you were upgrading, via points, an infant you still needed to pay the upgrade points at full rates. I could be mistaken but definitely for Child fares.

Dave Noble

If you want a seat for the infant , then you will have to pay for it in the cabin where the parent is. The infant cannot be in a different cabin to the parent

If you upgrade such that the infant is to travel in a higher cabin, have you verified anyu extra cost for the ticket for the infant, since the infant without a seat will be charged at 10% of the adult cost

What was paid for was for a specific person to travel in business and specific people to travel in Premium Economy, not just a set of seats to use at will

You cannot have 1 person travelling twice at the same time. What is allowed is to purchase an additional seat in same cabin if wanting to have an empty adjacent seat, not an empty one in another cabin