Standby on D class fare?
 

My sister is on a D class fare on QF from MEL-SYD (part of a multi segment ticket). Her fare allows free date and flight changes. Currently there is no D class availability on the flight she wants, but there is J class availability. Can she standby for the flight? If there are seats in biz close to the time of departure, will QF confirm her? BTW she is BA gold. Thanks.

Only if they decide to release D availability. I wouldn't think QF would do that at the last minute, but they might a week before departure if still plenty of business seats available.

I wouldn't assume that QF will release D seats for SYD-MEL. They WILL sell so they won't give them away cheaply. AND if there is anything big on in town (such as a G20 meeting), Business Class (the Upgrade class in some countries :) ) will sell out even before the cheap WHY fares.

Go off peak
 

What flight does she want (time & day)? Bus in peak times (early morning and late afternoon) sells easily. Will have more chance if trying to travel out of peak times

What time is she trying to fly and when. As posted, peak times have little discount Business.

However, the good news is there are plenty of flights MEL-SYD every day. Tomorrow there are 35; of these 7 have D availability. These are at early-morning, mid-morning, early afternoon and late evening (as well as two international positioning sectors).

Wait-listing is only possible if it is in the fare rules.

If the flight is part of an international ITN you could also check availability on the BA and AA codeshares that operate on specific flights.

Not all D class permits waitlisting, for example the new special J fares for domestic and trans tasman do not permit waitlist.

I still recall my last D SYD-BNE - it was needed move to 2105 SCs late October 2005.

Turned up at the airport on waitlist for a 17:05 flight (Y-9, D0, J1) and the CityFlyer desk immediately issued a boarding pass.

Keep in mind - I had no baggage, and there was D availability later that evening.

YMMV - as always - and the CityFlyer desk is the one with all the power...

i think it depends on the qantas ground staff. I have tried changing at city flyer and wasn't successful. Told that D class can only go into D class. Some of the staff even have bad customer service attitude. One girl forced me pay the standby fare when i had the cheaper fare in D class and then wanted to make me pay extra to change flights. If i wasn't alert, i would have paid the extra to change.

QF428 departing MEL at 11:30 AM on Thursday, 23 NOV

Strange thing is that there is I seat in I class but none in D class:
J2 D0 I1

QF428 departing MEL at 11:30 AM on Thursday, 23 NOV

She is waitlisted.

Currently showing J0 D0, don't like your chances. Both QF 426 and QF 430 (11.00am and midday) have some seats left in J.

No D to be seen; however the14:00, 10:00 and 9:30 flights have some U (J Award) availability so there are plenty of seats on those. It seems the only flight with any D class fly's at 20:30.

It all look very sold in J from 11:00 thru 12:30.

She got confirmed at about 7:30 AM NSW time (4 hours before her new flight and 3 hours before her original flight). ^ It was lucky that I kept checking the reservation online every few hours up unto the day of the flight and then every 30 minutes. Because QF cancelled her confirmed booking on the 10:30 AM flight and confirmed her on the 11:30 AM flight but did not bother to call her even though she had a mobile number and a Melbourne landline number listed in her PNR. I called her and alerted her about 30 minutes before she was ready to leave for the airport.

Strange thing is 3 days before her flight, I could get an award booking on the exact same flight in biz but QF would not confirm her in D. Also, on several flights there was availability in I class but not in D class. I am not sure how that can be! :confused:

Award tickets are different beasties to domestic discount business tickets. I can understand I class being available since that is not used for domestic bookings, only international , so they are making availability to those on international trips . With the D class, it seems like they were waiting till they were sure that they had all the J sales they expected before releasing more Ds

Dave

This was part of an international D class ticket.