How does Qantas discriminate in seat allocation in first class? (ie between award seating & fare paying pax)


[This message has been edited by roho (edited 11-07-2003).]

Only positively. I have an award ticket to HKG and check my trip is showing seat 1A in each direction.

Thanks GF

Likewise for my past experience.

You could be moved out your assigned seat prior to, or on the day of travel if a higher status flyer wants it - happenned to me a couple of years ago, got booted out of 1K and had to endure the indignity of 4E !!!

speaking of first... I had my first QF F experience two days ago on syd->lax .. and i must say it is the most uncomfortable seat to sit in when its not stretched out.

I am 6'6 and find the dreamtime seats much better....

Seats 1A and 1K on both sectors for our SYD-HKG-SYD flights in Jan. Might change but I doubt it. The only bad seats in F are the middle ones as they have no airvents and get way to hot.

Have only had 3 sectors in First with QF, SYD-LAX, SYD-AKL and AKL-SYD and each time i was not impressed with the quality of the cabin. Seats are uncomfortable (rock hard), grotty interior (food crumbs stuck in gaps around cabin, etc) and the service on SYD-LAX was terrible (forgot to serve my g/f breakfast, ignored call buttons). I prefer the BA J beds to QF F. Only reason I am doing F again is because no reward flights where available in J.

Seat allocations in Frist are done in the same way as any other class cabin - based on FF preference in order of status. But as was mentioned previously, this can be changed for a number of reasons, I think normally becuase someone knows someone who has the access to do it.

Seat allocations are not based on fare paid. So a paid full fare passenger and an award passenger are allocated in the same way - and just a likley as each other to be moved!

Nonce,

I thought that both QF and BA have the very same product in F. Others here have also complained about the seats. Can't say I found them that bad, maybe a few more drinks would have fixed that problem.

My observation in flying BA and QF is that BA has 3 different versions of their F seat in service, while QF has 2 versions. The newest generation of seat is more comfortable, but neither is as comfortable as the CX seat (yet all 3 are the same design from the same manufacturer, just tweaked to the individual specifications). Thus your seat comfort varies from aircraft to aircraft and it is a surprisingly wide range. BA is upgrading their F seats much faster than QF (presumably the delay at QF was due to their decisions on enhancing service, sadly it looks like QF has not chosen to spend the money to get the CX type of seat even though it is a plug replacement for the current one.

Further to this - I am flying to LHR at Christmas in F.

I am currently seated in 1A, but a work collegue has mentioned that 2A or 2K is better.

Last time I spoke to Qantas both were still available - what is better - stay in 1A or go further back into 2K?

Cheers,

Stuart

Stay in 1A if you are travelling alone. there are no distractions from those around you.. but the view is a little warped

Thanks - may as well just stay where I am

1A and 1K are fine. You might condsider which side will cop most of the sun as things can get pretty warm when trying to sleep with the sun on the other side of the lowered window shades. The cabins are too warm and I cannot see how anyone can sleep with the sheet set and blanket over them. Only slight drawback of row 1 is the lack of overhead bins for carry on luggage. We had to "impose" on the nice people in row 3 to share their overhead bins last night. At least this was not the land of the free (AA territory) with everyone with roll-on luggage that absolutely filled the bin space!

As for seating, we were on paid D but used UC to get Z seats. We got what we asked for (but this was a few months out from flight date.