ZQN-BNE "Individual seat selection isn't available for this flight."

[andy2015]

Trying to select seats (economy) on this flight and get the "Individual seat selection isn't available for this flight." error message. Now the reason I'm asking about it here is because I'm trying to book for myself, wife and 3 kids (2 in seat, 1 inlap infant) where as normally if it were just me I wouldn't care. Now the question is would they split us up if I go ahead and book the flight with no seat selection or keep us together?

 

[AIRwin]

Any status with QF?

 

[andy2015]

Any status with QF?

Sorry I should've mentioned that in post - no status and also fare is a sale with seat selection costing extra which I was planning on paying.

 

[RichardMEL]

It's likely the flight has reached its preallocation limit - specially for those without status.. and with that number of pax in the PNR it's a fact they can't find the free seats to allow you a selection option.

You could *try* calling and play the "family flying together with young kids" card and see if there's any joy. If not you may have to wait till t-80 to get some more potential options.

if you want to give a flight number/date one of us can verify how the seat map looks, but I suspect that this is the case.

 

[Quickstatus]

myself, wife and 3 kids (2 in seat, 1 inlap infant)

I suspect the problem could also be here.
A travelling party like this may require manual seating input by checkin.

 

[snabbu]

Not exactly the same as the OP where it seems the issue is due to multiple pax on the same PNR but I have a booking where up until the last week or so I've recieved the below message when attempting to access seat selection:

The three flights are all QF marketed and operated.
Seems strange to see Flight 0 of 3...

 

[RichardMEL]

Not exactly the same as the OP where it seems the issue is due to multiple pax on the same PNR but I have a booking where up until the last week or so I've recieved the below message when attempting to access seat selection:
View attachment 318754
The three flights are all QF marketed and operated.
Seems strange to see Flight 0 of 3...

Hmm. Are they dash8 flights?

otherwise it may be the same issue of preallocated seat limit being reached for the particular cabin on specific flights.

some more info may yield some answers

 

[andy2015]

It's likely the flight has reached its preallocation limit - specially for those without status.. and with that number of pax in the PNR it's a fact they can't find the free seats to allow you a selection option.

You could *try* calling and play the "family flying together with young kids" card and see if there's any joy. If not you may have to wait till t-80 to get some more potential options.

if you want to give a flight number/date one of us can verify how the seat map looks, but I suspect that this is the case.

That sounds very likely in a "how much have you paid us recently" Qantas world but what is confusing me is that "sale" fare bucket is still available if the flight is already getting heavily booked.

Flight would be: 30 July QF 186 ZQN-BNE

 

[snabbu]

No DH8 sectors, 738/738/789. I'd alrady selected my seats months ago however was going to switch a window to an aisle a week or so back and saw this error, and have seen the same error since.

 

[love_the_life]

No DH8 sectors, 738/738/789. I'd alrady selected my seats months ago however was going to switch a window to an aisle a week or so back and saw this error, and have seen the same error since.

I have seen that from time to time where I have already selected seats but if I wanted to change it was that message - original seats still remain though so no big deal.

 

[RichardMEL]

That sounds very likely in a "how much have you paid us recently" Qantas world but what is confusing me is that "sale" fare bucket is still available if the flight is already getting heavily booked.

Flight would be: 30 July QF 186 ZQN-BNE

yep, you're right. the flight is very lightly loaded in terms of allocated seats in Y, and the open availability. There's many empty rows currently with nothing allocated (which doesn't mean, of course, that reflects the actual numbers of pax booked)

With this in mind, it may well be related to the complex nature of your mix of pax (infants in lap, etc) that may be causing the issue.

I certainly don't think you being on sale fares is a factor either. I was only thinking of a status issue preventing allocation of more seats for no status pax, but this clearly isn't close to a situation on that particular flight.so imo I'd phone.

 

[SYD]

the flight is very lightly loaded in terms of allocated seats in Y, and the open availability.

Is possibly an understatement and therefore wouldn’t appear to be an issue of party size v available status allocation availability (although I don’t recall where the NB boundary is pre T-80).

 

[Viridis]

I’ve just booked a domestic flight in Business Class at an above-average fare (close to travel date) and received the

Individual seat selection isn't available for this flight. Select a seat preference

error message. It will allow me to choose a window/aisle preference although I’m guessing that this will be ignored.

The outbound flight was even more expensive (suggesting a higher load factor) but individual seat selection was allowed.

I have no idea but I wonder whether the flight home is full and I am over-sold thereby being unable to select a seat as they are all allocated to passengers. It is a B737. I have no QF status.

I’m sure there’s a legal ‘out’ somewhere but doesn’t QF advertise free individual seat selection as a competitive selling point?

 

[RichardMEL]

I’ve just booked a domestic flight in Business Class at an above-average fare (close to travel date) and received the

error message. It will allow me to choose a window/aisle preference although I’m guessing that this will be ignored.

The outbound flight was even more expensive (suggesting a higher load factor) but individual seat selection was allowed.

I have no idea but I wonder whether the flight home is full and I am over-sold thereby being unable to select a seat as they are all allocated to passengers. It is a B737. I have no QF status.

I’m sure there’s a legal ‘out’ somewhere but doesn’t QF advertise free individual seat selection as a competitive selling point?

Almost certainly not oversold. Just your status level does not give you access to the whole cabin to allocate. Eg you may only have access to row 3 on a 737 with one seat free, thus nowhere to move.

You may get more joy at T-80.