Qantas New Bassinet Policy
Apr 24, 2015, 6:03 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 4
Qantas New Bassinet Policy
We are traveling with a 3 month old and a 1 1/2 year old and requested a bassinet seat for the infant as they advised to do by phone AFTER you buy tickets. Previously when we did this we were assigned seats within a day, but now their policy is you don't get any seat assignments and when you show up at the airport is when you get your seats and if there is a basinet availabale they will accommodate. We are flying LON > SYD, so showing up to the airport even earlier than necessary is something Qantas didn't think through on this poilcy as no one wants to spend extra time in an airport with 2 young children AND before a very long flight.
I wish we didn't book Qantas now, but you also can't cancel a reservation within 24 hours without being charged for it so we are now stuck with them.
So I'm wondering if anyone has flown with Qantas recently and been through this process. We booked 3 seats plus our basinet request. Would they assign 3 seats together in bulkhead if available? Or would they only put 1 seat with basinet and 2 seats close by? And what are the chances of moving seats completely during the flight to open seats if the combination they give us doesn't work out? We have flown many times with our first, but having 2 small children now is a little different.
I wish we didn't book Qantas now, but you also can't cancel a reservation within 24 hours without being charged for it so we are now stuck with them.
So I'm wondering if anyone has flown with Qantas recently and been through this process. We booked 3 seats plus our basinet request. Would they assign 3 seats together in bulkhead if available? Or would they only put 1 seat with basinet and 2 seats close by? And what are the chances of moving seats completely during the flight to open seats if the combination they give us doesn't work out? We have flown many times with our first, but having 2 small children now is a little different.
About 5 times in two days and it was all the same answer and with a couple of them consulting managers.
Apr 26, 2015, 7:39 pm
#5
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: QF Gold LTG (ow Saph), HHon Silver, Marriot Gold
Posts: 2,927
Did they say it is a new policy??
From what I understood they used to only allow a certain number to be pre-allocated, rest had to be airport allocated (potentially this may have happened on this flight)
From what I understood they used to only allow a certain number to be pre-allocated, rest had to be airport allocated (potentially this may have happened on this flight)
Apr 26, 2015, 8:29 pm
#6
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: country Western Australia
Programs: QF SG(LTS) - AA LTG(1MM)
Posts: 2,771
One of the issues may be that there needs to be enough oxygen masks to support the number of passengers (including infants/children) in the row.
Happy wandering
Fred
Happy wandering
Fred
Apr 28, 2015, 2:59 am
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 4
They did say it was a new policy. I wish we knew beforehand because other airlines you can even book your seats online when you book your infant and the bulkhead seats become available online to select. MUCH more acceptable.
Apr 29, 2015, 4:04 pm
#8
Company Representative - Qantas Airways
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Sydney, Australia
Programs: Qantas Airways
Posts: 72
I'd appreciate an opportunity to follow up for you. Please send me a private message with your details as reference.
Apr 29, 2015, 5:01 pm
#9
In Memoriam
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Katoomba (Blue Mountains)
Programs: Mucci
Posts: 8,083
Apr 29, 2015, 6:47 pm
#10
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: NTL
Programs: a3G qf(nb) va
Posts: 46
Sounds like the old policy to me
This doesn't sound like a new policy to me. When our kids were bassinet infants 2007-12 we made "bassinet requests", but weren't guaranteed a bassinet seat till the airport, with younger babies trumping older ones in the
request for bassinet.
request for bassinet.
May 2, 2015, 5:14 am
#13
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Sydney
Programs: QFF Gold, Hertz Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 7
Flew with a baby 2 weeks back. We did the book online and phone to request bassinet process you explained. They said (as others did here) that they can't guarantee and the youngest baby would get priority. My bulkhead seats #'s showed under my booking, but you couldn't modify them yourself.
May 24, 2015, 7:13 pm
#14
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 1
Flew with Qantas on the weekend and very angry with the new conditions. We had no trouble with bassinet seats when my oldest was younger. We travelled with our 6 month old and 2 year old PER to MEL return got to check in counter and were told no bassinet guaranteed, and full flight, that was ok we accepted that there may have been a younger infant travelling and they were allocated the seat, we boarded the aircraft and there were 4 infants on board and not one were seated at a bassinet! We contacted Qantas to request again for our flight home and all was good, got to check in and told yes full flight but have bassinet seats, board the aircraft only to find out we aren't in bassinet seats and no one with infants are sitting in bassinets yet again! The cabin staff we spoke to weren't happy they said it is happening a lot and that Qantas are only looking after their "Platinum" customers and it's not right, that came from the customer service manager on board, she told us she was putting in a complaint and we have to too. We have other flights booked with them for the rest of the year too, they had better change there ways or we will be changing airlines.
May 26, 2015, 1:45 am
#15
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: London
Programs: AA Executive Platinum
Posts: 779
If that is the case, then it is an exceptionally poor effort on the part of Qantas and I wouldn't blame anyone with an infant for flying with someone else.