I have offered to swap out of the bulkhead seat for a PAX w/ infant when travelling in J and have then been promptly lectured about the swap by the CSM as PAX cant just organise such things amongst themselves.

I probably wouldn't volunteer a swap (yes for SYD-LAX, no LAX-SYD) if I had managed to score a bulkhead in Y however as these are blocked by yield management and cannot be preallocated by res, only becoming available in the last 48hrs. I however wouldn't ask for an upgrade in return but do feel that something would need to be offered to entice me to move further back down the plane (a spare seat next to me perhaps). Yes, I do understand that you must follow a FA direction while on an aircraft but to score a bulkhead is a rare treat especially to or from LAX. I have never had a Y bulkhead seat and I have done the trip no less than 32 times in the last 6 years.

Back on topic I havent had an op-up from QF in 3 years. My last up-up was J to F on LA from SYD-AKL last year.

One op-up from J to F on QF 93 on a day when QF 25 was cancelled.

One op-up from Y-J on BNE to MEL.

And thats it.

HAve had a few on CX and NZ.

Only if it is a direction that the Flight Attendant is authorised to make

Dave

Your assuming the young child required a bassinet in the first place..... :)

I would have thought that anyone who asks for an upgrade would have less chance of getting it to someone who hadn't asked for it!

Plenty of the older FAs seem to think they are authorised to do anything bar actually fly the plane themselves...

True. BTW my no op-ups comment was on QF. I do (sometimes) get op-upped on other airlines.

Oh puh-lease... I can think of so many ways that families can sit together without inconveniencing anyone - and most of them involve getting to the airport in enough time to be allocated seats together.

We've all heard some sob story from someone at some point about why you should let them go before you or give up something you took the effort to secure for yourself... I'm afraid it just doesn't wash with me anymore.

My most recent experience of this I posted a while back - a woman with baby asked if she could push in front of me because her flight was about to close... I thought it a little strange as I'd not heard any flights being called forward in the few minutes I was standing there - but since I had plenty of time to spare didn't mind...

Suddenly her husband and his golf clubs appeared out of nowhere, and the couple proceeded to take forever checking in - no doubt wrangling over which seats they "deserved"...

Yes compassion and consideration are one thing - but I'm no longer about to just hand everything to people who expect people to treat them differently because they are too lazy to get to the airport on time!

/rant

Yah - my most recent experience was disembarking last night in perth, family in row 5 biz class (2 adults, 2 children) were mucking around and holding up the left aisle (the right biz aisle had cleared and eco pax were well and truly going). Got to the stage where people were saying 'excuse me can we get past you please?' and the guy turns to us (the aisle full of pax), raises his voice and askes if we could all just calm down a little and give him and his family time to leave the plane. No one did, of course, but the simple solution would have been for him to wait until all the rest of us had disembarked.

Anyways - back on point, last op-up for me was last night (see other post on 'what happened to Qf 776 :) ). Last op up for my partner was a goodie - they scored a Y-J upgrade ex MEL to LAX on QF25 because of school hols and the flight was full on the MEL-AKL sector.

regards

lme ff

:D ^

THe family only needs one of the seats at the bassinet position. Why ask the platinum to move ? One of the benefits of being a FF is being assigned the best seats.

Soooo if I understand correctly you're suggesting one member of the family + the infant gets the bassinet, while the rest of the family has to sit elsewhere?

As a Platinum, when you rang to pre-assign your bulkhead seat, you would have been told (as I have time and again) that your seat allocation is not guaranteed. The advantage of being Platinum is that you can select another "best seat", and not suffer the inconvenience of being moved from a seat you were told this was likely to occur in. Or having to argue "I'm Platinum and I deserve/earned/am owed this seat".

I'm sorry to hear someone pushed in on you on a false premise. However, please help me understand what does your post have to do with the bassinet seat?

I am still curious at the rationale for the argument that a family may be less deserving of a bulkhead/bassinet seat than a Platinum...

I've had 3 or 4 upgrades domestically in the last 3 years or so. None from Qantas internationally, although BA and CX have both upgraded me.

I don't like the bulkhead behind J (747) as it is legroom restricted. Give me the seats on the other side just behind crew rest.

Isn't the point being that it's first in, first served? As a plat you can request better seats, these include bulkheads with no one in front to recline and slightly more leg-room. If I happen to call Qantas before a family with an infant, then why shouldn't I get that seat? Qantas probably knows that if I miss out too many times on the better seats as a frequent flyer, I'll go to an airline that can accommodate me.

My friends flew recently with a baby to Europe and had a choice between SQ, MH and QF. They (a) checked the bassinet weight allowance for each airline (SQ won at 11 kgs) and (b) rang the airline to see if the bassinet seat was free before finalising the booking on-line.

All families can do this (or do it through their agent). So the point is that if I have requested a seat and been granted it, why should I move to a worse seat in economy once I am seated? Move to biz class, sure, but not to a worse seat.


regards

lme ff