QF737 domestic: Rows 4/5 often unavailable?

Don’t be offended “mere gold”.... it was meant tongue in cheek. My work (AU govt) makes me fly economy only on un-upgradeable WOG tickets, i.e. cheapest fare available, which usually ends up being discount economy fares. I go from zero to platinum every year in 6 months flat. Sometimes less. That should tell you how much time I spend in QF airplanes. I admit that occasionally I am irritated enough to question my seat neighbours on their experience with the QF FF programme, that’s how these conversations come about.

"What? free wine? They don't publicise that!"

I never asked outside the "normal" drinking times (evening flights). QF have never charged me for that. Except on that woeful easter Monday, where the purser and I ended up in a very public altercation about me dumping tens of thousands of dollars on their business annually and them skimping by not even offering me 1 (one) red wine.

If they fired the person who came up with that rule about weekdays only drinking, they'd have enough money left over to cover for the holiday flights to include wine service.

You DO NOT charge your most loyal customers for wine or beer. That is a non negotiable, and despicable loco carrier behaviour. Period.

Perhaps all of us should send a complaint about this particular topic to bring it to the attention of management (assuming they care/keep some kind of frequent complaints tally). I certainly have lodged my share of emails about that very subject.

To add: Flying from airports where there is no lounge, which usually is on flights operated by e.g. Network, or QL, they always make you pay for wine or beer. I've never received a response to my complaint that if there's no lounge, at least the libations on board for G/P members should be included.

If you're a QF Platinum and flying domestically on QF in Australia you can access a lounge on arrival to have free wine/beer where a lounge is available at your destination.

Originally Posted by Doktor

The rule actually came from a time when alcohol was chargeable across the board on the domestic network. When they were going down the Citylink branding (which ended up being most inter capital services), they added complimentary alcohol after 4 pm.

Even now, it is pretty much confined to just the inter capital routes. Go to regional centers (mainline operated), and you will be charged,

I am a QF P/WP and seem to get access to rows 4 and 5 on the 737. Have had no issues. Will remember the T-80 hours as I can't recall this ever being a problem. Booked 2 weeks ago for an end of Feb trip to NZ and got row 5 with ease. Fly on row 5 a lot.

A couple of commenters said early on in the thread that row 4 and 5 seats were blocked but ExpertFlyer showed nobody seated there. I think the explanation for this is that even after T-80 there may be CL or P1 Y reservations who haven't sought seat allocation, but the system knows that it must keep the seats for allocation at check-in.