We’re in Denver at the moment (Web Directions North is all kicking off) but had a very interesting chat with the Qantas check-in staff in Sydney on our way.
They have had a new system since October which is a more fair but really shitty system. Basically seating allocation is now done by the price of your ticket, not how early you show up to the airport. So if you bought one of the two-for-one fares, the system will pretty much guarantee you’re stuck in a middle seat if people who bought full fares are also on board.
The check in staff cannot override the system, which is a terrible human experience as apparently they need to deal with the abuse and stress of passengers realising they have a 24 hour flight stuck in the middle seat.
The system has a bunch of complicated algorithms, one of which caused us a problem. When we fly we’re a bit cheeky and try to get seats on the same row, but with a seat in between us (ie we try to get the window and aisle) - it raises the odds of not having someone in between us, whereas if we get aisle and the one in the middle there is ALWAYS someone in the window seat and I spend 20 hours stuck in the middle seat.
But with this new system, it would not separate us. Our check in lady couldn’t override it, the computer basically said “they booked their ticket together so they must sit together as well”.
I think it’s interesting that Qantas are taking the human interaction out of seating. The check in staff now only really take bags, and can’t offer a service - which means that job now becomes hideous as they will constantly be disappointing people and dealing with cranky customers and not be able to fix anything.
I guess the system is now “fairer” in that people who pay more get a better seat, and the people with cheap tickets get cheap seats. And we can’t “scam” the system by getting a seat between us.
But I think it just makes it really sucky to fly with Qantas.
This post is tagged under: customer experience
Hope you are having a good trip -
Yeah - this happened to us on our last trip. I normally am able to pretty much get the seat I want (even on trips using points) but this trip on some flights that were pretty chockers it was “no, you can only get where you are allocated” (we were using points, which I guess is fair’ nuff) and even pulling out my “special card” got no where… surprisingly it was BA who pulled out the upgrades for us between Heathrow and Tokyo - the flight was pretty full, but she said “as an emerald one world flyer we will have a set for you on this plane” and we got upgraded to premium economy - sometimes the British class system and it’s respect for tiers and levels rocks!
You are right - it’s fair I guess, but as a fairly frequent flyer with Qantas, I like to get the benefits all the time.
This system would be more fair if airlines were transparent about ticket pricing. You have no idea if you’ve paid more for a ticket than someone else. You don’t get a choice to pay more for a better seat beyond the standard economy, premium economy, business & first.
[...] Anyway, you’ve been warned. Qantas expects you to know about this, deal with it yourself, otherwise they will take your points away from you. ‘cos, y’know, it was too hard for them to put something in place, and you’ve got time to find out what to do, and they don’t. (more nutso decisions from Qantas on molt:n blog) [...]
This is currently only applicable to international flights. Provided you know your own surname, and have a Qantas booking reference number, you can check in online (and allocate your own seat) up to 24 hours prior to departure. Alternatively, use the kiosks provided at the airport to do the same thing.
Ultimately, under this system Qantas has no control over which seat you choose for yourself, and it will soon be introduced on international flights.
Peter - yeah you’re right, it is only for international flights.
We did try to check in our seats online but for some reason we couldn’t, the qantas site only offered us the choice of “aisle” or “window”, not specific seats.
I wouldn’t mind so much if we could do it from home… it takes away the need to get to the airport 3 hours early in the hope of getting an ok seat.
Just wondering if you’ve found a good plugin to show two pages of comments. I remember you mentioned something about it a couple months ago.