Upper deck reserved on 744s?
 

This is my first time on QF, so apologies if this is a dumb question. I asked my corp travel agent to reserve me a J seat on the upper deck of a 744 from LAX to MEL. Although they saw seats available, the agent said they couldn't allocate one to me. I did get a seat on the lower deck. She mentioned something about QF reserving the upper deck for frequent fliers. Does this make sense?

Yes, QF does a good job of reserving the better seats for its premium pax. Status does matter. But I've never heard of the entire upper deck being reserved, more likely it has reached the allowed percentage of pre-assigned seating (roughly half). There is no way around this, except to gain QFF status.

Assuming you are booked on the QF flight number (rather than a codeshare) it doesn't. If you want to sit upstairs then give Qantas a call directly and request a seat on the upper deck and if there are any available, you can get them. The only blocked seats upstairs will be those in the exit row

As mentioned by #6, there is a max allocation limit before they stop allocating seats to non status FF members, but as long as that hasn't been reached , then in business, you should be able to select from nearly any seat available ( other than exit row 16 )

In economy, the 1st few rows are limited for preassignment to those with OW status

Dave

I am flying lax-syd on the 2nd of Jan with my mother, girlfriend, brother and his girlfriend, dont ask long story. I am silver on IB and gold on AA, im a few thousand miles short of reaching plat on AA again this year. Last year was plat aa and gold IB. I called QF as my agent put me on the lower deck, they had 3 seats left on the upper deck and my Gold AA (which isn't much) got me and my gf on the upper deck.

The look on my mothers face at check in will be priceless, she is very controlling and when I travelled with her before always wanted to sit us in a row. Not this time.

By any chance, does she work as a Lounge Access Desk Dragon? :D

My mother brings new meaning to the word difficult, having to spend 14.5 hours next to her no no no. Small doses of her for me. On a side note, she doesn't work she does as she pleases and doesn't think the world revolves around her but is void of most forms of logic.

That is the same for me on MH, 767-322

If the OP has AA Plat status (OW Sapphire), assuming a seat is available, the OP should be able to access the upper deck.

Just call QF, confirm your status is entered correctly and get them to put through the request to seating control who should be able to sort the problem out pretty quickly.

I'm hoping to score 16A tomorrow night with an M upgrade, like I did last time. That was with a NB gate points upgrade, after everyone else was checked in..... strange..
Could someone with an ITN tool help me out with numbers for QF 25 on the 15th Dec? Apparently there's no one on the upgrade request list, and an oversold WHY section. Ta.

thanks mate, fingers crossed as my back is badly twisted, and 18 hours flying id love a little extra room!

Well, the wonderful folks at Qantas have upgraded me yet again, on a cheapie ticket, after requesting it just 3 days ago. Now all I have to do is try for 16A again and I'll be sorted! Anyone got any helpful hints to snag it? Will an early check in help?

In that case, you should have stuck her in the back corner, saying there were no other seats :D

Though (no offense) she sounds someone who would squat a seat next to you and tell the legitimate occupant that they have to switch with her.

As early as possible; there is only one 16A; unless it has been already snaffled by a QF CL or a QF WP you may have a good chance at it if you are on deck when airport check-in opens

Nice one serfty, thanks for the info. I'll give them a buzz later on, and head out early if it's still available. :D