woppy101

Hi does all the X in seats mean my flight is full, I know that in coloured in blue means the seats occupied but what does the X mean?

I’m on Edinburgh to Doh on the 21st flight 032

babyg_wc

where are you seeing this X? if in expert flyer it just means blocked (could be next to a status Pax).
if its all seats often that means they are shifting the curtain/or swapping planes

woppy101

In the rear half of the plane it’s all blue, in the front half quite a lot of seats have an X

woppy101

My flight from DOH to Brisbane is pretty full with next to no X in any seats

woppy101

what is a status Pax?

woppy101

Here is a screen shot

babyg_wc

they are BLOCKED (as per the expert flyer KEY)... which means they could be blocked to help balance the plane etc... or for many other reasons... but not because its sold out.. status pax = status passenger..

KingCanute

Usually around 72 hours before departure, the flight is placed under "airport control", and the system will start to indicate blocked seats on expertflyer for those passengers who have tickets but who have not yet selected seats, as well as any spare seats that may be blocked next to status passengers if the flight is not actually full. It may be that your second flight has not yet crossed that deadline, hence no widespread X's shown yet.

What you see today on expertflyer will change a lot between now and departure as people select, change or are allocated seats at check-in (or book last minute, cancel or no show). Both flights could be full (or not), there is usually no way to know for sure from the seat maps until just before departure.

scottishpoet

Qatar uses ALTEA. ALTEA has a feature called Theoretical Seating , at T-72 hours it blocks lots of seats for various reasons, trying to allocate groups of seats to allow families to sit together being one, block seats next to status customers, or beside passengers on high cost tickets

check the thread on the BA forum, this talks about some of the BA rules around seat blocking. QR will do similar but may not be exactly the same.

Theoretical Seating master thread: Blocked seats and status

As more people check in ALTEA will slowly open up blocked seats.

phuket_j

Interesting thread about blocked seats and teh ALTEA system. I read the BA thread and it made me curious about my upcoming QR flight and I was wondering if perhaps someone has some insight.

I am a silver status holder and I am flying with two family members. Currently I have selected the two aisle seats and one middle seat in the center section of 4 seats. Currently the flight in 2 weeks looks to be less than 70% full with 3 empty seats being across the aisle. I was wondering if anyone had insight to if I moved myself to the aisle seat across the aisle, and left my family members with the two aisle seats in the center section, if the system would leave the middle seats in the center section open and also leave me with 3 seats on the side section?

KingCanute

Firstly of course, current seat maps are not an accurate indicator of how full the flight may be when it departs. More tickets may be sold, some may cancel, and many already ticketed passengers may not have advance seat selection included or want to pay for it.

Also, QRPC platinum and gold members (and their oneworld equivalents) will be a higher priority for seat blocking by the system unfortunately.

The system would also only block one seat next to somebody, not two. So the 3 seats to yourself scenario seems unlikely.

The worst case scenario with your suggestion is that the flight goes out full or almost full, and none of you have blocked seats and end up with people next to you. Even with your current choices, there is a chance that the one seat of the 4 may have someone sat in it. I am also not sure if one member of a party having status would apply seat blocking to each of you if the others have no status (especially when not sitting next to each other), but others may know better.

In summary then, your suggestion seems risky unless you like strangers