Maybe if one can compare seat maps for a flight's exit rows at T-8 days with those at T-6?

Might try that suggestion. Thanks Serfty.

I just tried checking my flight next week SYD-SFO and the Y seat map is gone (has been for the last few weeks). Likewise, my LAX-MEL flight in a few weeks is gone (but that's heavily over-sold in Y so I'd expect that to be gone).

CMT won't show blocked vs allocated/sold exit rows either.

KVS, Expertflyer or a mate with GDS access spring to mind ...

Expertflyer is not showing the seat map:



That's obviously not going to show me the seat map.

I don't have KVS (Am on a Mac). I can punt it past my friend who's my TA though of course.

Yep, Qantas do tend to block seat maps well before the flight when loads are high.

I guess one will just have to do statistics on lightly loaded flights.

That brings up another thought i've had. My SYD-SFO flight next week still is showing as...

Yet the seat map has been closed for some time now. CMT still has it, but EF hasn't for the past week and a half. I know that loads on SYD-SFO have never been as good as LAX, so I can only assume that QF are just opening up every fare class at 9 in the hope they can get 'bums on seats', or am I totally wrong in my thinking?

*apologies for quasi-thread hijacking*

Concur with "bums on seats"; J/W seat maps tend to be sparsely populated in these situations. D9/T9 a week before is quite the giveaway as well.

Thanks for that. I'm happy (I'm in Y+ seating for the flight anyway, so not going to bother if offered a paid/points upgrade to J on that route).

on the LAX-MEL sector, i'll jump though, being a possibly over-sold flight

Cheers serfty

On my economy flight recently I paid the $80 for the exit. I am quite happy with the new system since it means that even if I do v little travel a year and just maintain the gold status with QF whilst crediting miles to AA I can get the exit row. The exit access was the one real benefit that made platinum useful, now I can do it with just gold, t'is excellent

Dave

You can now select and pay for exit seating online on some flights. I can see this for a QF11 388 flight I have in January, but not for a 744 AKL-LAX flight, nor for QF133 MEL-AKL.

The available seats show with a red hue:



After selecting one you are asked for CC details to pay for these seats later in the process.

So this 7 day thing seems to be side-stepped.

Another interesting thing I've noticed - am stuck in whY with an approximately 0% chance of an upgrade for next Friday's QF11 - is that the bulkhead seats on the A380 exit row appear to be not considered "exit row" seats for the purpose of purchasing.

Am currently looking at row 66 and I see on the Qantas MMB:

66A - available for purchase
66B/C - taken
66D/E/F/G - not available
66H/J/K - available for purchase

EF shows 66D/E/F/G as Q-blocked, not taken. Now, given that all the "good" economy seats are gone already (and I'm not paying $160 for the pleasure of sitting in an exit row) - these look like a pretty decent option to me. They're not bassinets and the legroom is not entirely unreasonable. QF Premium wasn't open when I called to ask, and the lady I spoke to was super friendly but completely unsure whether I could request the seat or not. I'll call back tomorrow, but in the meantime does anyone know if these are "free" seats?

I would take 66A/K before 66B/C on an 388 - hasn't someone told them?

66/D/E/F/G are resonable seat with OK legroom; at least no-one will recline into you.

An update:

Called QF Premium, got my usual dose of exceedingly poor customer service (agent talked over me when I asked about the status of 66 D/E/F/G, told me I had to call the exit row purchase number 1300 799 798, haven't had training, not interested in finding out, goodbye..)

Okay, I'll quit ranting now

So I called the exit row number, was advised that 66 D/E/F/G were not for sale but are blocked - unfortunately not able to put in a seating request, recommended that I ask at the airport.

They do have a dedicated number for dealing with exit row requests and the agent probably has no access to assign them ( before they were offered for sale, the agents used to have to send a request for the assignment )

Dave