QR blocking all middle J seats?
 

Looking at maybe booking an optimistic trip to the Maldives for late October and wanting to fly QR J RT. For each flight I look up on expert flyer, I see all middle seats in the J cabin are blocked (or a few booked). Is this normal or is this presumably a COVID-19 current measure?

If its a QSuite operated aircraft, it is normal to see the middle seats blocked.

M

Ah, interesting. Yep, all legs I’m looking at are currently scheduled to be operated by Q Suites aircraft. So then how does one book the middle seats (it will be my wife and I)?

You can call QR and they will releases the middle seats for couples, it is just to prevent a load of individual travellers selecting the middle seats and then people traveling in 4's/couples not being able to select the "quads" resulting in them being scattered around the cabin.

Cool, that makes sense. Thanks!

Contact the twitter team with your ref number and preferred seat numbers. They handle it very quickly, though they may not be able to do row 1 for yo .

I noticed on a ticket I had booked with 4 segments with qsuites on the app the center seats showed blocked. Logging on to the desktop website I could select them. Try that maybe?

Would those blocked middle seats become eligible for last minute cash upgrade and/or partner (AS, AA, etc) points reward redemption?

They're still for sale, just not available for pre selection for certain bookings.

We booked through an agent and I couldn't access seat reservation at all until they had ticketed the trips, then after a day or so the middle seats showed as bookable. But I was advised by QR that they reserved these for couples of families, so if they're not visible then it's just a matter of them ticking a box to say you are travelling together.

Myself and my partner aren't married, so the delay can be due to having different surnames.

I have a really weird DP:
I booked an award for 2 people with Qmiles last year for a particular flight in december, and I am able to select middle seats, and using that booking reference I can still change to other middle seats.
I booked a cash ticket for 4 people recently for the exact same flight, and I am not able to select middle seats.
ExpertFlyer shows those seats as blocked, and QR call center wouldn't assign middle seats for the cash booking.

Any other insight into this because this isn't related to load at all since I am able to select middle seats still on first booking

DP: Had two tickets booked on QR flight via AA, different PNRs. After multiple times was able to find an agent who booked my partner and I into two middle seats. Prior agents had told me alternately that the seats were booked, that they were unable to override the restriction in the system. Seems like the best thing to do is HUCA until you find an agent who's willing to help you.

I booked two award J seats via Qantas FF - same deal the whole middle row was blocked. I sent them a request on Facebook messenger to get seats in rows E and F - they fulfilled the request within 5 minutes :)

You mean Qatar FB?

Yes, the offical Facebook account of Qatar Airways