Hi there,

I booked a flight from Perth to Doha with Qatar, and I'll be flying on Virgin Australia metal, in business class with my baby. The Qatar app can't show me the seat map and informs me I'll need to choose seats at check in. I'm a little worried as I'm not even sure if bassinets exist on this flight, and if they do I'm concerned check in will be too late to secure a basinet. The flight is on a Boeing 777. Does anyone have any info about basinet availability and if it would be possible for me to request ahead of time? I'm not even sure if I would contact Qatar or Virgin Australia! Thanks in advance :-)

Most definitely not VA metal.
Will be VA marketed (flight number) VA operated, by a (sham) QR wet lease arrangement. The flight will also have a QR codeshare flight number..
The AU govt has declined QR requests to operate more flight from the major AU airports.

Are you buying from VA or QR? What flight numbers? Codeshares can be problematic
Would be better to have a real QR flight, purchased from QR when wanting something out of the basic.

Hiya. I purchased from Qatar. It's listed as QR8406 and on the seat map it informs me that the flight is operated by Virgin Australia. After some rooting around I found VA21 seems to have the same departure/arrival cities and leaves at the same time.

It�s not VA metal.

It�s a wet lease so while everything looks like VA, the actual plane is a QR plane.

VA does not have any aircraft with sufficient range to fly PER-DOH.

https://www.accc.gov.au/media-releas...-and-australia

This is one of the strangest flights in terms of airline operations. It's driven by AU government restrictions on QR - if not for that they would never structure it this way.

So, unfortunately unless someone has specific experiences on this exact flight, you probably won't get an answer. I would try calling both airlines and see which one seems to offer the most help. But your best bet is to arrive extra early to get the best shot at the arrangement you want. I'm sure arriving with a baby early isn't ideal; if you are flying with others they could possibly drop in earlier. You could also drop by the airport sooner (even days before) and talk to the agents that run the flight in person; they may be able to help as well

Another seating thread on these VA marketed (flight number) VA operated, by a (sham) QR wet lease arrangement flights. The flight will also have a QR codeshare flight number and VA prime flight number. Has a quote by a very experienced AU travel agent. Cazmantis is booked on the codeshare so another complication.
Air Canada forum Seat selection Virgin Australia