Quickcheck with bagdrop problem??
 

Interesting.....

I flew BNE-TSV today and noticed something that seemed unusual. Normally I travel K and I am automatically assigned something between rows 4 and 7 on the aisle. 9 out of 10 times I have a spare seat next to me. Today I was in 5D and rows 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 were FULL. When I looked back from row 9 there was hardly anyone in B or E seats. I asked the guy next to me (he was travelling with his wife) about his seat and he told me he had used Quickcheck with bagdrop about two hours before the flight and saw two available seats in row 5. In front of me were two businessmen in 4D and 4F and between them was a guy who was telling them about how he only flew once every couple of years and how Quickcheck was amazing. He got "a seat near the pointy end for the first time ever".

Is this a sign of things to come???

PP

Yep! Think so...

Am yet to fly after "drop bag'n'run" has been introduced, but fear that this will become regular practice.

QF will just have to block off the middle seat in the front few rows. Not going to happen, but will still help a lot.

I would have thought that the system would have automatically looked at the booked pax with status who had forward seat preference in their profile and blocked off all forward rows depending upon the numbers.

Seems that is not the way or it could just be teething problems?

As long as SSCI still has exit rows blocked out, Im happy. I'll stick to using real hoo manns

Dave

I am starting to think I would prefer to go to an exit row again. The pitch of the 733 must be getting shorter (or my gut is getting larger :( )

It is now impossible for someone 6' or taller to use a 15" laptop with the screen angled toward their face. Grrrrr :mad:

The last time I flew the bulkhead row was blocked off.

Most definitely.

When flying NZ domestic I like to pester the people sitting next to me about the awful priority luggage handling that us NZ flyers have to put up with and have also noticed that the middle seat would regularly have a non-status passenger who had no idea about what I was talking about. In the end I gave up pestering the neighbours and took instead to having 2 seats.

QF should only allow their premium customers to use QuickCheck to allocate seats towards the front of the aircraft. Problem solved.

Perhaps QF can learn from UA with their Y+ habit of blocking the seat next to a high tier passenger.

You have to call QF (or ask on the day) if you want a seat next to you blocked (from my experience) and they can't do unless the cabin is 10% empty?? (so i hear)

Quick-bag check would be cool if it printed your boarding pass, and spat out some priority/business/First tags based on your status so theres no hastles :)

I agree, would be very cool if it shot out baggage tags as well! If I was to ask for a blocked out seat next to me got any good tips for a reason? I think laptop work would have to work but any other ideas??

PP

Last I checked, having exclusive access to the front of the cabin was not a benefit listed for premium statuses

All passengers should have equal rights to all the available seats at check in

Dave

Agree somewhat, but how does this fit with the overnight allocation process that QF does, allocating seats according to FF preferences? Does this give an initial allocation, and then once a person goes to QuickCheck, any seat is fair game?

I've often used QC to move up from an assigned row 7 or 10 (I hate those with no windows) to 4 or 5.

Having said that I think it would be a neat benefit, and wouldn't be too noticable to the "infrequent flyers" if the system only allowed PS,SG & WP to allocate within the first X rows. Just show them as unavailable to a NB ior whatever. If you're a QC member then allow you to go forward too if you like.

UA's seat block is a good one and seems to work fairly well but obviously QF don't feel that is an appropriate way to go. If I was NB I wouldn't be unhappy if I couldn't access the first few rows....

Indeed , and seems perfectly reasonable to me

Dave

The only people who would get "screwed" by the overnight allocation then free-access QuickCheck policy that seems to be in place now is the last minute business flyers (who are likely WP or SG anyway). If they book after the allocation is done it's likely they'd get a not so good seat assignment.

I was always under the impression though that the first row or two (eg: row 4/5 on a 737) were held till some point prior to departure for just those sorts of pax. Of course, I usually show up fairly early for flights > 1pm (:D ) so it's not unusual to see a window or aisle available in row 4... which seems to nullify that theory. Perhaps of course QC is actually allowing me to see those since I'm PS and not totally to be ignored (only 80% ignored)??

I strongly disagree with this. Keeping unallocated forward seats empty on flights which have plenty of them at the rear of the plane would do wonders for loyalty.

As RichardMEL kindly pointed out what about those pax which change/book their flights at the last minute ? That is after Mr/Mrs No-tier have checked in. Is it right that those pax should have to sit at the back of the aircraft considering that they would be travelling on a much higher fare and statistically would be more likely to be a status holder.

For those who want a spare middle you shouldn’t really need to have a reason - just politely asking “How full is the flight” and then “Would it be possible to be allocated a window/aisle seat with a empty middle” at check-in/lounge/gate should do the trick. If that doesn’t work one could always try the “I’m me hear me roar” approach.

Now if only a baggage tag printer which could also attach the correct level priority tag to the baggage tag could be created….

QF have awful priority luggage system. When I was traveling within NZ. My luggage was tagged Priority. I think it was the 30th luggage with none priority luggage on the carousel first...
Auckland people was better. It came out 5th. I counted. The CX luggage system world wide still better then QF's system.

Called them this morning, was told that it is impossible, can only be done at check-in... Bummer...

PP

Putting into perspective though, how long did you have to wait for the luggage even with it being 30 pieces in?

I think QF does quite a good job with luggage tbh...just go try 3rd World US

Dave

I suppose QF staff also remember to actually attach unstrung priority/business tags to the routing tags... which is more than NZ seem to be able to manage to do.

Stil though - I would have though priority luggage handling was a valued enough service for premium pax to make it worth QF's while to have it run properly.

Maybe QF needs another preference to choose from. The I'd prefer not to sit next to anyone preference

As for needing a reason, you don't. Just ask them to block the seats next to you (chances are they will feed you some BS about the flight being rather full and not all passengers have checked in and blah blah blah we dont care about you....)

I have often checked in @international and changed my seat to be in the middle of a 1-1-1 (a seat either side of me) so that anyone being checked in would hopefully not be given one next to a WP!

Checked into my flight this morning. First flight to my destination today. Nearly didn't make it thanks to big problems getting a cab this morning! Made it by about 8 mins to the 30 minute checkin cutoff. (Checked in about 38 mins from flight. Sequence Number around 50)

Looked at the available seats on Quickcheck. Nothing free in the first 6 rows or so of economy.

Remembered this thread and expected to have 3 people in my row.

Entered plane. Sat down. Plane doors closed and I was wondering where my 2 "travelling companions" were.

First 6 or so rows had 1 or 2 people per side. There were no "3" seat blocks taken. Didn't see anyone in the middle seats in those rows. Plane actually looked a lot emptier than the Quickcheck map implied.

So. I'm wondering if a) QF is now blocking the middle seat off and not making it available for selection in Quickcheck if there are QFF members in that block, b) Magically people moved themselves into the middle seats and then moved themselves out c) The seats (all 16 or so!) were reserved for people that didn't show...

Looks like you got the "high tier" treatment of blocking off the middle seats this morning. Front 6 rows blocked means it was probably a trunk route and/or the others had already checked in (and you were the last??)...

COuld also be weight and balance issues - was any announcement made about remaining in your allocated seat for the duration of the flight?

Dave

thadocta's probably correct. Check your boarding pass sequence number and compare it to flight capacity. As you checked in late it should be appraoching the number of PAX for the flight.

eg 73H has a capacity of 168 PAX; if your sequence number is around 80 the whole craft would probably have a light load.

Don't recall it being a weight/balance issue, but have seen that happen before (actuallly checked in, then was paged to move back about 6 rows to balance the plane... along with other people of course, I'm not a sumo wrestler!)

Coming back today though, had pretty much exactly the same issue that Press Photog had.

Looks like it's a bit of a lucky dip these days with checking in. Maybe I'll have to start stealing Dave Noble's exit row seat! :D

Oih, you leave my exit seats alone :)

Dave