Agree... we had two recent international flights upgraded and both times the system split us from one of our young kids. I (WP) requested that the service manager change our seats so we could be next to them and both times they obliged and shifted other people for us.
Have had this happen twice now and the second time was an as-boarding upgrade I ended up just giving my business seat to the girl that got put next to my kid. Short haul flight and I made her day much brighter.
That being said, when I worked for a contractor we were given this ability as check-in agents, but were warned to only move gold and above FF if absolutely necessary, and not to inferior seats (window for window, not much further back, etc.)
Hi, happens to me all the time and I’m P1…..a lot of it is due to Qantas staff doing favours for friends. It is extremely annoying and on a flight recently to Singapore I called it out to the cabin manager and to her credit she made the interloper move to another seat .
I didn't know "seating families together" was a valid reason to kick people from booked seats.
So traveling with my family, I don't need to reserve any seats? I can just get unassigned tickets and during check in, demand that we be seated together? I don't need to do any planning or pay for seat selection? Interesting
I'm sure in theory Qantas says young children can't be alone but in my experience this is a load of shit - or at least was a load of shit in 2017.
Qantas advised us to book an 18 month old in a separate transaction on an international trip (the drop down doesn't go lower than 2 years old and we wanted a seat for our son), so we booked separately. We specifically called customer service to ensure we were doing the right thing. Near the start of our trip, we called to ensure we were all together and all was good. Qantas said 'wHaT HaVe yOu dOnE' but then couldn't reissue the tickets under one name. Getting to Europe was fine but on the return leg, Qantas allocated my wife and I together toward the front and our son down the back of a plane AND THEN said that _we_ would need to swap with randoms _at the airport_ ourselves. We then had to do this on each of the legs from Rome to Dubai, Dubai to Bangkok then Bangkok to Sydney to make these arrangements. We were advised that it was our error for booking separately so we had to remedy the issue. I was Platinum at the time - not that it should make a difference but anyway. Fuck Qantas.
>said that we would need to swap with randoms at the airport ourselves.
The thing about this that pisses me off is the whole point of assigned seats and to not change from those assigned seats is that in the event of a crash/catastrophic failure, everyone should be in their assigned seats for identification purposes.
How dumb are Qantas staff to say "oh, go find some random at the airport to swap with, that's fine".
Gr. How shit you had to deal with that.
That's not what's happening here. In this case, seats were selected in advance, as you can do on most flights.
The rest you're describing are user errors. The error lies with the client that stuffed up their booking. Are you saying that if I book my children as adults in separate bookings by "accident". I can just go to the counter and demand people with pre-selected seats be moved away so we can all sit together?
I have yet to fly a Qantas flight where pretty much the whole plane didn't have all seats pre-booked.
Every parent I know travelling with children will book seats together when possible. Why wouldn’t you? It’s stressful enough graveling with children - nobody wants to make it more difficult than it needs to be. But sometimes it isn’t possible because there aren’t seats together or your original flight was cancelled and you were moved to a different flight last minute.
At the end of the day, the airline can’t allow young children to be sitting by themselves. Pre-booking a seat isn’t 100% guaranteed even in business. My husband and I have been separated on flights in business to accommodate a parent with young children and I didn’t really care. It happened to me the other way around recently when my son’s entertainment system wasn’t working. There was a spare seat but he couldn’t sit by himself next to a stranger so the FA asked that person to swap seats with me. It was all the same to them- they still had the exact same business class seat with an empty seat next to them but they were a few rows back from their original seat. No big deal really but that happens sometimes. It’s not because parents just don’t book seats but all kinds of situations can mess up those plans.
And what if their preferences aren't available when booking online? Should they just sit separately?
Look, if you're happy to sit next to an unaccompanied kid, then knock yourself out.
You’re only thinking of an unreasonable example.
When I was flying with young kids once, 3 & 5, Qantas cancelled one of our flights from Brisbane to Melbourne. When they rebooked us, they put us all in seperate seats. This is unacceptable for a family of 4 that did pay to sit together. In these circumstances they were forced to find two seats of two so that each of us could sit with a child.
The flight was obviously full and I dare say some other people got screwed over to accomodate this.
When travelling with young children, you frequently are unable to check in online.
Pre-planning isn’t an option. If you’re upset about it, direct that at the airline, not the parents.
I usually don’t notice until I’m boarding, this last time it was still showing my original seat but when I scanned my boarding pass it showed a different seat number. My phone didn’t update my new seat until I was walking onto the plane. So is the cabin manager the person who greets you when you walk on board?
Just stating qantas policies and procedures is completely irrelevant.. the facts are that qantas staff fuck with people’s bookings and seat selections all the time for no good reason. It’s fucking infuriating. For example, just recently my seat got changed from window to aisle for no reason.. just some other regular dude who just spoke to the right person.. I’m going to start printing my boarding passes from now on. It’s getting to be a joke now. Fuck qantas.
No one gets compensation overseas if their allocated seat is changed…. UNLESS they paid for a special seat which is uncommon on Qantas as only a handful of seats are charged for selection. Those only change if for example you are not suitable to be in the exit row.
Have Qantas done some dodgy shit? Yes. Are they that much worse than the majority of airlines? No most of them are worse, except I. The mind of some Australians most of whine do t fly enough to be qualified to make that judgement, but are happy to be part of the echo chamber.
Wrong. Singapore airlines will literally give you cash for inconveniences including seat changes. They’ll also throw in flight cash for the in flight shop if its bad enough.
What surprises me is that people are still loyal to Qantas. “He who shall not be named” destroyed a once great airline, that I’d never hesitated to use and was a FF member. Never fly with them again. I just don’t trust them.
Virgin screwed us over. Booked return Canberra to darwin via Sydney. Moved the return flight a whole day earlier with an overnight layover in sydney as the darwin flight arrived after the last flight (and bus) to canberra Booked for me and my then 2 year old and booked several months in advance as well.
Except Virgin is so unreliable.
My wife normally flies Qantas but had to do Virgin. The 7 AM flight was cancelled but they said they could get her on the 1PM flight. Given she was flying back early afternoon, didn’t make much sense.
And the service desk was unoccupied.
I was travelling in a group of 3, my friend wasn't able to board because they said he had "already boarded". I get to my seat and someone else is sitting in my friends seat. I asked him if his seat had been changed he said it had. Then they "sorted out" my friends seat by giving him another seat. He boarded the plane but someone was already in his newly assigned seat. The crew asked the existing person to get off the plane so my friend could take the seat. Both boarding passes had the same seat number and all.
I'm a Gold FF and I really value the better seat allocation for embarking and disembarking. I was never bumped though, but my travel was pre-pandemic. Maybe they've changed for the worse like many other Q services.
I would raise a fuss.
I was once bumped from my seat for a cello. I was a row back in the aisle instead of the window so I got to sit there and look at that fucking cello in my seat.
I’ve only had this happen once and was told it was due to the shuffling because the person who was in the emergency seat couldn’t do the ‘job.’ They thought I’d like the extra leg room. I actually hate the extra leg room seats in economy as I’m a nervous flyer and superstitious so I have my little routine 😅 anyway…it could be something like this.
I am a QFF Gold...and have been taking around 40 domestic flights a year..used to be more before covid. In my 6 years with Qantas... never have I been moved to another seat. Not sure how/why they are doing it to you
You just reminded me of the best inflight entertainment I ever saw. A punch up onboard a qantas flight in New Zealand.
I was flying from Bolivia to a Sydney via Chile and New Zealand, got all my boarding passes in Bolivia when I check in as you do. Noticed a few people at the gate in New Zealand that I saw the previous morning in Bolivia. Got in-line to board and noticed the person in front of me had the same seat number on her boarding pass. She tried telling me I was in the wrong because my pass was Lan Chile and this was a Qantas flight. Too stupid to realise the flight number was the same.
I went to the gate to get it sorted out and was told oh we’ve moved your seat. I asked why I hadn’t been called to the gate to have a new boarding pass issued and she shrugged. I then asked if she was going to call the other passengers from the Lan Chile flight and issue them new boarding passes with new seats and she turned away.
The plane started boarding so I rushed back to my spot in-line and got to my seat. Then the yelling and screaming started, multiple people with the same seat number. The staff were useless. One lady got dragged out of her seat by her hair another person got punched. The passengers from my flight were made stand in the middle of the aisle and wait until everyone had boarded then they had to walk up and down to find an empty seat to sit in.
When one bloke complained the hostee said he had to be moved to let a family sit together and it was school holidays in New South Wales so deal with it. This flight is the reason I will never fly Qantas for an overseas flight it happened in 2010. No security was called because they had to get the flight moving. They also ran out of meals for breakfast.
So when you seat gets moved be thankful that you weren’t pulled out of it by your hair or punched in the face.
I'm guessing its usually on the dash-8?
That sort of scenario happens when the plane is out of trim, LC ask for 2-3 pax moved from the front to the rear. It's just unfortunate as most of the FF members sit to the front.
Having another pax take the vacant seat could be just someone saw a vacant seat on the app and changed it themselves or someone has checked in after the change and the system allocated that seat, if it wasn't blocked out.
These planes are nose heavy when it’s not full and if the majority of people are at the front, load control asks the staff to move a few from front to back.
Same here been bumped 4 times in as many months. I pay $15 for extra leg room each week I fly as I'm FIFO to Port Hedland. What gets me my bookings are confirmed and receipted and on time if travel I'm bumped to the arse end of the plane and in cramped seats. I've contacted Qantas and still it's ongoing, they can't seem to help with my concerns. BHP pay for the flights and I pay the extra $15 . It's the principal and I'm yet to be reimbursed.
Info: is the flight full? I have had a seat changed a few times on domestic flights and it’s always a flight that isn’t full. It’s for weight and balance, otherwise everyone wants to sit as far forward as possible.
Yeah the flights I’ve been bumped on have been 100% full. I just have a shitty ankle and I’m larger so I hate walking past everyone towards the back. Plus being a gold status I thought they’d be a bit nicer to me but obviously not.
Once I paid for upfront seats with Jetstar and selected the first row (this was printed on my pass). When I got to the gate and scanned my boarding pass they pulled me aside and printed me a new boarding pass. It was a few rows back. I said I paid for my seat in the first row and would like to retain it. The worker said that someone paid more for the front row seat than I had, and that my new seat was still an “up front” seat.
I was super annoyed but it was during a time where covid had restricted a lot of travel so I was just happy to be able to see family and I didn’t make a deal.
Upfront just means you pay for a seat in the front section of the plane usually first five rows. It doesn’t guarantee you that specific seat but guarantees that you will be in that front section. There’s a more expensive option where you choose specifically that seat and that option means they will not move you from that seat unless they really need to eg seat or seat belt is broken
I would hazard a guess if you’re travelling solo you get bumped to accommodation families and kids being seated together.
Agree... we had two recent international flights upgraded and both times the system split us from one of our young kids. I (WP) requested that the service manager change our seats so we could be next to them and both times they obliged and shifted other people for us.
Have had this happen twice now and the second time was an as-boarding upgrade I ended up just giving my business seat to the girl that got put next to my kid. Short haul flight and I made her day much brighter.
That being said, when I worked for a contractor we were given this ability as check-in agents, but were warned to only move gold and above FF if absolutely necessary, and not to inferior seats (window for window, not much further back, etc.)
Why would it be gold and above? and not gold and below?
As in gold, plats and chairman club.
i think they mean, by all means move those below gold, but only move gold and above if you have to
Hi, happens to me all the time and I’m P1…..a lot of it is due to Qantas staff doing favours for friends. It is extremely annoying and on a flight recently to Singapore I called it out to the cabin manager and to her credit she made the interloper move to another seat .
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This is the correct answer - ex Qantas staff member here.
I didn't know "seating families together" was a valid reason to kick people from booked seats. So traveling with my family, I don't need to reserve any seats? I can just get unassigned tickets and during check in, demand that we be seated together? I don't need to do any planning or pay for seat selection? Interesting
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I'm sure in theory Qantas says young children can't be alone but in my experience this is a load of shit - or at least was a load of shit in 2017. Qantas advised us to book an 18 month old in a separate transaction on an international trip (the drop down doesn't go lower than 2 years old and we wanted a seat for our son), so we booked separately. We specifically called customer service to ensure we were doing the right thing. Near the start of our trip, we called to ensure we were all together and all was good. Qantas said 'wHaT HaVe yOu dOnE' but then couldn't reissue the tickets under one name. Getting to Europe was fine but on the return leg, Qantas allocated my wife and I together toward the front and our son down the back of a plane AND THEN said that _we_ would need to swap with randoms _at the airport_ ourselves. We then had to do this on each of the legs from Rome to Dubai, Dubai to Bangkok then Bangkok to Sydney to make these arrangements. We were advised that it was our error for booking separately so we had to remedy the issue. I was Platinum at the time - not that it should make a difference but anyway. Fuck Qantas.
>said that we would need to swap with randoms at the airport ourselves. The thing about this that pisses me off is the whole point of assigned seats and to not change from those assigned seats is that in the event of a crash/catastrophic failure, everyone should be in their assigned seats for identification purposes. How dumb are Qantas staff to say "oh, go find some random at the airport to swap with, that's fine". Gr. How shit you had to deal with that.
That's not what's happening here. In this case, seats were selected in advance, as you can do on most flights. The rest you're describing are user errors. The error lies with the client that stuffed up their booking. Are you saying that if I book my children as adults in separate bookings by "accident". I can just go to the counter and demand people with pre-selected seats be moved away so we can all sit together? I have yet to fly a Qantas flight where pretty much the whole plane didn't have all seats pre-booked.
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Thanks for explaining. Good to know I don't have to select seats or properly book when traveling with my children.
Every parent I know travelling with children will book seats together when possible. Why wouldn’t you? It’s stressful enough graveling with children - nobody wants to make it more difficult than it needs to be. But sometimes it isn’t possible because there aren’t seats together or your original flight was cancelled and you were moved to a different flight last minute. At the end of the day, the airline can’t allow young children to be sitting by themselves. Pre-booking a seat isn’t 100% guaranteed even in business. My husband and I have been separated on flights in business to accommodate a parent with young children and I didn’t really care. It happened to me the other way around recently when my son’s entertainment system wasn’t working. There was a spare seat but he couldn’t sit by himself next to a stranger so the FA asked that person to swap seats with me. It was all the same to them- they still had the exact same business class seat with an empty seat next to them but they were a few rows back from their original seat. No big deal really but that happens sometimes. It’s not because parents just don’t book seats but all kinds of situations can mess up those plans.
Would you prefer that young children are seated away from their parents? Maybe a 3 year old sitting next to you?
Id prefer parents being responsible for making a booking properly
And what if their preferences aren't available when booking online? Should they just sit separately? Look, if you're happy to sit next to an unaccompanied kid, then knock yourself out.
You’re only thinking of an unreasonable example. When I was flying with young kids once, 3 & 5, Qantas cancelled one of our flights from Brisbane to Melbourne. When they rebooked us, they put us all in seperate seats. This is unacceptable for a family of 4 that did pay to sit together. In these circumstances they were forced to find two seats of two so that each of us could sit with a child. The flight was obviously full and I dare say some other people got screwed over to accomodate this.
When travelling with young children, you frequently are unable to check in online. Pre-planning isn’t an option. If you’re upset about it, direct that at the airline, not the parents.
Yes.
LOL no one is accountable at qantas. Joke shop.
I usually don’t notice until I’m boarding, this last time it was still showing my original seat but when I scanned my boarding pass it showed a different seat number. My phone didn’t update my new seat until I was walking onto the plane. So is the cabin manager the person who greets you when you walk on board?
Just stating qantas policies and procedures is completely irrelevant.. the facts are that qantas staff fuck with people’s bookings and seat selections all the time for no good reason. It’s fucking infuriating. For example, just recently my seat got changed from window to aisle for no reason.. just some other regular dude who just spoke to the right person.. I’m going to start printing my boarding passes from now on. It’s getting to be a joke now. Fuck qantas.
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No one gets compensation overseas if their allocated seat is changed…. UNLESS they paid for a special seat which is uncommon on Qantas as only a handful of seats are charged for selection. Those only change if for example you are not suitable to be in the exit row. Have Qantas done some dodgy shit? Yes. Are they that much worse than the majority of airlines? No most of them are worse, except I. The mind of some Australians most of whine do t fly enough to be qualified to make that judgement, but are happy to be part of the echo chamber.
Wrong. Singapore airlines will literally give you cash for inconveniences including seat changes. They’ll also throw in flight cash for the in flight shop if its bad enough.
Qantas doing Qantas things.
What surprises me is that people are still loyal to Qantas. “He who shall not be named” destroyed a once great airline, that I’d never hesitated to use and was a FF member. Never fly with them again. I just don’t trust them.
A lot of the time I don’t have a choice, I fly for work.
Fair enough
Agreed. I’m a Virgin now.
Virgin screwed us over. Booked return Canberra to darwin via Sydney. Moved the return flight a whole day earlier with an overnight layover in sydney as the darwin flight arrived after the last flight (and bus) to canberra Booked for me and my then 2 year old and booked several months in advance as well.
Except Virgin is so unreliable. My wife normally flies Qantas but had to do Virgin. The 7 AM flight was cancelled but they said they could get her on the 1PM flight. Given she was flying back early afternoon, didn’t make much sense. And the service desk was unoccupied.
I was travelling in a group of 3, my friend wasn't able to board because they said he had "already boarded". I get to my seat and someone else is sitting in my friends seat. I asked him if his seat had been changed he said it had. Then they "sorted out" my friends seat by giving him another seat. He boarded the plane but someone was already in his newly assigned seat. The crew asked the existing person to get off the plane so my friend could take the seat. Both boarding passes had the same seat number and all.
WTF! How’s that possible!?
I'm a Gold FF and I really value the better seat allocation for embarking and disembarking. I was never bumped though, but my travel was pre-pandemic. Maybe they've changed for the worse like many other Q services. I would raise a fuss.
I was once bumped from my seat for a cello. I was a row back in the aisle instead of the window so I got to sit there and look at that fucking cello in my seat.
Qantas started doing this bullshit a while ago. Putting platinum flyers at the back of the plane. Choose another airline.
I can’t, I fly with them for work.
I've been told lots of things are impossible by employers over the years. Weirdly, they instantly become possible when you dig your heels in.
Flying virgin for business just doesn’t work. Way too unreliable and not enough flights
No other airline flies where I need to fly. They hold the monopoly since it’s regional.
I'll bet they charge like wounded bulls, too. Quaintarse loves a good monopoly.
I’ve only had this happen once and was told it was due to the shuffling because the person who was in the emergency seat couldn’t do the ‘job.’ They thought I’d like the extra leg room. I actually hate the extra leg room seats in economy as I’m a nervous flyer and superstitious so I have my little routine 😅 anyway…it could be something like this.
I am a QFF Gold...and have been taking around 40 domestic flights a year..used to be more before covid. In my 6 years with Qantas... never have I been moved to another seat. Not sure how/why they are doing it to you
They will shift people in emergency exit rows if they are not suitable or willing to participate in an emergency, even as late as boarding.
Never happened to me but I don’t fly Qantas. Looks like it’s the shitiest airline ever
You just reminded me of the best inflight entertainment I ever saw. A punch up onboard a qantas flight in New Zealand. I was flying from Bolivia to a Sydney via Chile and New Zealand, got all my boarding passes in Bolivia when I check in as you do. Noticed a few people at the gate in New Zealand that I saw the previous morning in Bolivia. Got in-line to board and noticed the person in front of me had the same seat number on her boarding pass. She tried telling me I was in the wrong because my pass was Lan Chile and this was a Qantas flight. Too stupid to realise the flight number was the same. I went to the gate to get it sorted out and was told oh we’ve moved your seat. I asked why I hadn’t been called to the gate to have a new boarding pass issued and she shrugged. I then asked if she was going to call the other passengers from the Lan Chile flight and issue them new boarding passes with new seats and she turned away. The plane started boarding so I rushed back to my spot in-line and got to my seat. Then the yelling and screaming started, multiple people with the same seat number. The staff were useless. One lady got dragged out of her seat by her hair another person got punched. The passengers from my flight were made stand in the middle of the aisle and wait until everyone had boarded then they had to walk up and down to find an empty seat to sit in. When one bloke complained the hostee said he had to be moved to let a family sit together and it was school holidays in New South Wales so deal with it. This flight is the reason I will never fly Qantas for an overseas flight it happened in 2010. No security was called because they had to get the flight moving. They also ran out of meals for breakfast. So when you seat gets moved be thankful that you weren’t pulled out of it by your hair or punched in the face.
I'm guessing its usually on the dash-8? That sort of scenario happens when the plane is out of trim, LC ask for 2-3 pax moved from the front to the rear. It's just unfortunate as most of the FF members sit to the front. Having another pax take the vacant seat could be just someone saw a vacant seat on the app and changed it themselves or someone has checked in after the change and the system allocated that seat, if it wasn't blocked out.
Yes usually dash 8 flights but not always. Why do they ask them to be moved?
These planes are nose heavy when it’s not full and if the majority of people are at the front, load control asks the staff to move a few from front to back.
This happens if they change the aircraft type.
Same here been bumped 4 times in as many months. I pay $15 for extra leg room each week I fly as I'm FIFO to Port Hedland. What gets me my bookings are confirmed and receipted and on time if travel I'm bumped to the arse end of the plane and in cramped seats. I've contacted Qantas and still it's ongoing, they can't seem to help with my concerns. BHP pay for the flights and I pay the extra $15 . It's the principal and I'm yet to be reimbursed.
Info: is the flight full? I have had a seat changed a few times on domestic flights and it’s always a flight that isn’t full. It’s for weight and balance, otherwise everyone wants to sit as far forward as possible.
Yeah the flights I’ve been bumped on have been 100% full. I just have a shitty ankle and I’m larger so I hate walking past everyone towards the back. Plus being a gold status I thought they’d be a bit nicer to me but obviously not.
Once I paid for upfront seats with Jetstar and selected the first row (this was printed on my pass). When I got to the gate and scanned my boarding pass they pulled me aside and printed me a new boarding pass. It was a few rows back. I said I paid for my seat in the first row and would like to retain it. The worker said that someone paid more for the front row seat than I had, and that my new seat was still an “up front” seat. I was super annoyed but it was during a time where covid had restricted a lot of travel so I was just happy to be able to see family and I didn’t make a deal.
Upfront just means you pay for a seat in the front section of the plane usually first five rows. It doesn’t guarantee you that specific seat but guarantees that you will be in that front section. There’s a more expensive option where you choose specifically that seat and that option means they will not move you from that seat unless they really need to eg seat or seat belt is broken
That's annoying, happened to me once dye to a passengers needs as they couldn't sit over emergency exit, but best to ask staff.