Is Qantas diluting the benefits of status?

[JohnK]

It would appear that Qantas is removing certain privileges associated with higher status with recent announcements regarding allocating seats at time of booking, paying for exit rows coupled with the implementation of allocating seats weighted more heavily towards customer value to Qantas.

I know it is not easy to define "preferred seating" and Platinum may still be able to pre-allocate exit rows (although this is not a published benefit it was still honoured by Qantas) but I feel that Qantas is slowly chipping away at privileges once taken for granted. Are we likely to see further announcements or changes?

Also I was pre-allocated 27C for last Thursday night's BNE-SYD flight on an international configured 767 and I have been pre-allocated 37D for tomorrow morning's SYD-BNE flight on the international configured 767. I hope this pattern does not continue. Yes it is only a SYD-BNE flight but it could just as easily be a SYD-PER, MEL-BNE flight. If you are a Platinum would you be happy with these seat allocations? Is this happening to any other Platinum, because I know most of you are on cheap red e-deals, or is it just me?

Would appreciate to hear your recent experiences....

[flyer4703]

Nine flights last week, all red-e-deals allocated rows 4 or 5 for all flights. Status still seems to be working. Even before the new system started I would occasionally have a seat allocated much further back in the cabin than usual. I don't think anything has changed; QF computer system just makes some interesting allocations sometimes.
.

[moa999]

A recent SYD-BNE-SYD,
28K out (30J config), 28A back (25J config)
worse than more recent flights although I always seem to do better with and prefer 738s

But given seat allocation was only working for 24hrs I don't think we can blame that (just yet anyway)

[Homer]

I am flying BNE-SYD this evening with Marge and Maggie and we are all on Red E-Deal tickets. I checked OLCI this morning and we have been allocated row 40. We are all WP (even Maggie and she is just three). This has happened to me quite a lot in the past few years. I don't think I will have any luck getting moved based on past experience with the QF check in staff in BNE...they don't seem to recognise status any better than the QF computer system...

[SnowYeti]

...We are all WP (even Maggie and she is just three). ...

I love that Maggie is WP !!

[Homer]

I love that Maggie is WP !!

Thanks SnowYeti. That was courtesy of a DONE4/vacation/status run that we just completed in April.

[Bundy Bear]

I am flying BNE-SYD this evening with Marge and Maggie and we are all on Red E-Deal tickets. I checked OLCI this morning and we have been allocated row 40. We are all WP (even Maggie and she is just three).

Would a 3 year old be Qantas youngest WP.

[NM]

Are we likely to see further announcements or changes?

Over the 18 years I have been a member of the Qantas Frequent Flyer program, there has been many changes to the benefits available to members. Each time there is a change there seems to be some whose benefits are perceived to be improved and some whose benefits are perceived to be involuntarily downgraded (enhanced ). The benefits available to members are continuously evolving, and that is not just for top-tier statue members. The evolution happens across the program and affects people in different ways. While these latest changes are seen by some members as bad, they are seen by some as good and by others as neutral. Just look back at some of the discussion about overcrowding in lounges and the creation of domestic Business Class lounges with Platinum status members having access to see how different members were affected in different ways and the passion that showed through in the discussion.

I certainly do expect to continue to see changes to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program. Some changes will be seen as good and some changes will be seen as bad by different members. How they affect you may be different to how they affect other members, even other members of the same status tier. Each person has different travel patterns, spend models, redemptions goals and benefit values. Predicting what changes will occur, when they will be implemented and how they will affect individuals is the part that requires either a crystal ball or inside knowledge, neither of which I have available at this time.

[JohnK]

Either I am having extreme bad luck or there is something seriously wrong with Qantas or the new seating allocation system (ALTEA) that has been in place for ~12 months has been tweaked again recently.

I could not get past 29J until I got to the airport this morning. Still only 2 other seats vacant so check-in and go to the lounge. Could not access OLCI again as it is now <1 hour to the flight. I waited until almost everyone had boarded and asked at the Customer service desk if there was an aisle seat further forward. She looked and looked and gave me a boarding pass for 28B.

After I boarded I noticed vacant seats at 23E (aisle), 26B, 26F, 26J, 28J, 29J, 30JK and 5 other middle seats that were not available earlier. There was even a frail old buddhist monk seated at 26D and I do not believe he had any status. What is going on? And this time it is not last minute op-ups or upgrades to business class that freed up those forward aisle seats.

Qantas is playing games and I do not expect it to get any better....

[NM]

And this time it is not last minute op-ups or upgrades to business class that freed up those forward aisle seats.

How do you know that to be the case? As soon as someone relinquishes a seat (ODU, changed flight etc), that seat may be snapped up by the next person checking in. It may only be available for a matter of seconds before said monk checks in and is presented with a nice seat.

You asked for an aisle seat further forward that your original 29J and were given 28B. That does meet the request. But it would seem strange that you were not offered one of the more forward aisle seats when requesting at the gate . I guess there is not really any way to know if the gate agent was able to see those empty aisle seats further forward and chose only to offer you row 28 or if the system blocked them from you for some reason (perhaps blocked adjacent seats for other status passengers??).