Do QANTAS hold seats for platinum in f'ward J cabin on A380?

Do QANTAS hold seats for platinum in f'ward J cabin on A380?

Yes, they do. It's nicknamed Emerald City for a reason.

Have a read of http://www.ausbt.com.au/the-best-seats-in-business-class-on-the-qantas-airbus-a380

Thanks! I had a read of that earlier. Its a somewhat late reservation and they told us - 2 platinum travellers - there's no chance of forward cabin. Not sure if the seats marked taken are held for closer to departure or have all been snapped up. Ahh well might have missed out.

Have you used Expertflyer? It makes a distinction between blocked and occupied seats. If seats are blocked, with the correct status, the seats may be unblocked for you. 

TRB, can you elaborate on Expertflyer??

J

Note the distinction between occupied and blocked seats in the pictures below: 

- Somewhat late meaning 7 weeks until travel!

Check the seat map again at ~T-80 as there may be unoccupied seats released then.

This close to a flight it's quite possible that enough fliers with WP status have probably already grabbed most/all of these prized seats. Whilst they reserve the seats for WP and above you still have to book early to get them and as always the seats you've selected are not guaranteed. I think I read somewhere row 12 may in some cases be made available to fliers with SG status but that might be at T80 or even closer to the flight.

On flights between DXB and LHR some upgraded passengers will get seats in Emerald City as some WP/OWE connect with flights to/from other places in the world. This is less likely to happen between Australia and DXB or the USA.

It's possible someone may cancel leading to seats already taken becoming available again. There are some sites that will track seat availability for you (not sure if it's O.K. to mention them here, but you can certainly ask about them on communities relating to flying) with paid options to send you an alert if a seat you are interested in becomes available.

If flying between Australia and LHR, whilst seats may be available between DXB and LHR in Emerald City when you get a boarding pass you will have the same seat for the whole way between Australia and LHR, so you will only be able to pick seats available for both legs.

Oops, I meant row 13 being available to Gold in some cases.

In my experience all J seats on international flights would be available to select for a Platinum frequent flyer at the time of booking, so if they're not available now, they are probably taken. 

It seems to be a different story on domestic fights where the front row of business (and front two rows of economy in B737 at least) are blocked and are not available to platinum FF until T-80 (presumably they are available for selection only for P1/Chairmans prior to T-80).

Having said that - there's a  chance that seats become vacant in 'Emerald city' in international J in the 3 days prior to departure as First  upgrades come through for pax who have requested them from J (and those pax are more likely to be platinum and booked further in advance and so otherwise occupying the seats at the front of J). So worth keeping an eye out. 

Thanks for the replies. We might put in an upgrade request, F is basically empty on our flights! There's four free seats in Emerald City but not next to each other - i've had success at the gate previously, requesting that cabins be 'rationalised' to create two seats next to one another so we shall see. In row 17 for now

mos your presumption is correct. For domestic flights all rows are available for P1 at any time.

AJstubbs

IMHO start checking the Emerald City seat maps 7 days out from your fight. If there is currently 4 free seats I would assume there are solo travelers who have selected that they prefer. Also assume there are a number of travelers looking to points upgrade so seats may free up 7 days out after the P1 upgrades commence. Upgrade requests are generally first in first served basis, based on status however There are quite a lot of factors used for up grade requests, it is not just status. Examples include high tier solo take priority over 2 or higher in the same booking, special meal requests, linked bookings etc.

Seat availability may change in the next 7 weeks, most like in the week leading up to your flight.