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

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 ( ) 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)??