Hints on best seats on QF 747-400 prem economy? Booked SYD-LAX in September, and the layout is not exactly the same as the one mentioned in AusBT guides. Specifically Rows 34,35 are now only 2 seats each - and the toilets replaced by galleys. Anyone recently flown this config and recommend best seats? Are the bulkhead seats still ok for the average height bloke? Cheers
Hi Ozkid, I added another post but it is awaiting moderation as I referred to the seatguru website.
If you go there and choose the Qantas boeing 747-400RR version 2 (it will say lie flat for business class seats and that is how you know it is the refurbished bird), you can see that the best seats are on row 31 (both A and B) althought they have mixed reviews. I read some random reviews and in general they are not too positive about the refurbed 747 in all classes.
Yes, sorry KG — one of the anti-spam measures we have is to block comment links, and when we're busy it sometimes takes us an hour or so to approve them.
But I see you've been understandably confused by SeatGuru's impenetrable information. You'd be looking at what SeatGuru unhelpfully calls 747-400GE 3-class rather than something useful like "refurbished" or similar.
Don't worry — when I put together our Best Seats guide I'll make sure that everyone knows how to pick between the currently existing seat maps, because it's a bit tricky (though not inexplicable!).
Thanks John! What is keeping you so long from presenting us an article with the latest info by the way!?!?!? :)
One other unknown still lingering is the info of which planes are refurbished and what exact routes they are flying. Do you have an insider at QF who can give you a heads up?
A quick note on our publication schedule: the answer to your question mainly revolves around the fact that we have rather a lot of news about Qantas, being an Australia-focussed site.
To ensure that we don't overload people on Qantas (or Virgin, or Emirates, etc) news, we pace out our articles on different topics when they're not time-critical.
Best Seats, similarly, are a bit of an art rather than a science. Once Qantas had a decent number of the refurbs complete around the end of the year (and had updated their seat maps website so I could peer more closely at them), I slotted the refurbed 747 Premium Economy best seats article into our schedule. (On which note: how has it only been a couple of weeks since we came back from the Christmas hols? Seems like there's been a torrent of news!)
Oh, and believe me, we've been asking for route specificity on these and several other airline configurations. So far we've got Dallas, Joburg, and occasionally some others, but that's just observed rather than an official policy statement, so we've held back on making pronouncements like that.
Thanks for the insights in the publication schedule John, that is stuff I do not really think about but I can imagine it is important as the last thing we want is overload. It is the variety which makes the site such a good read!
....sorry, forgot to add that I was under the impression at the article was up to date with the current refurbished planes flying around, else seatguru is the best source of truth for most up to date info (they list all versions of the 747 flying around with QF)
Sorry, KG — SeatGuru is, as ever, wildly inaccurate.
Ozkid, if you're seeing the two-seat rows 34 and 35, you'll either be on the refurbished 747-400ER or the refurbished 747-400 (the seat maps are the same either way).
As it happens, I'm already researching this for next week's Best Seats guide!
I'd go for 36K because I'll take the "nobody reclining in front of me" over "can't stretch legs out all the way".
I'd then pick through 34A, 36J, 36G and 36D.
Note that window seats behind row 37 have some missing windows, and that the bassinet is at 34AB.
Ozkid
Ozkid
Member since 02 Dec 2011
Total posts 26
Hints on best seats on QF 747-400 prem economy? Booked SYD-LAX in September, and the layout is not exactly the same as the one mentioned in AusBT guides. Specifically Rows 34,35 are now only 2 seats each - and the toilets replaced by galleys. Anyone recently flown this config and recommend best seats? Are the bulkhead seats still ok for the average height bloke? Cheers
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
AUSBT did an article on this (of course!!!): http://www.ausbt.com.au/the-best-seats-in-premium-economy-on-qantas-boeing-747-400
Ozkid
Ozkid
Member since 02 Dec 2011
Total posts 26
Hi KG yes I know but like I said the config on the QF website is different from any of the configs listed in AusBT.
The closest is the -400ER but missing the right rows and the toilets replaced by galleys.
So...anyone flown this one recently and can comment?
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
Hi Ozkid, I added another post but it is awaiting moderation as I referred to the seatguru website.
If you go there and choose the Qantas boeing 747-400RR version 2 (it will say lie flat for business class seats and that is how you know it is the refurbished bird), you can see that the best seats are on row 31 (both A and B) althought they have mixed reviews. I read some random reviews and in general they are not too positive about the refurbed 747 in all classes.
John Walton
John Walton
Member since 03 Jan 2011
Total posts 86
Yes, sorry KG — one of the anti-spam measures we have is to block comment links, and when we're busy it sometimes takes us an hour or so to approve them.
But I see you've been understandably confused by SeatGuru's impenetrable information. You'd be looking at what SeatGuru unhelpfully calls 747-400GE 3-class rather than something useful like "refurbished" or similar.
Don't worry — when I put together our Best Seats guide I'll make sure that everyone knows how to pick between the currently existing seat maps, because it's a bit tricky (though not inexplicable!).
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
Thanks John! What is keeping you so long from presenting us an article with the latest info by the way!?!?!? :)
One other unknown still lingering is the info of which planes are refurbished and what exact routes they are flying. Do you have an insider at QF who can give you a heads up?
John Walton
John Walton
Member since 03 Jan 2011
Total posts 86
No worries, KG. :)
A quick note on our publication schedule: the answer to your question mainly revolves around the fact that we have rather a lot of news about Qantas, being an Australia-focussed site.
To ensure that we don't overload people on Qantas (or Virgin, or Emirates, etc) news, we pace out our articles on different topics when they're not time-critical.
Best Seats, similarly, are a bit of an art rather than a science. Once Qantas had a decent number of the refurbs complete around the end of the year (and had updated their seat maps website so I could peer more closely at them), I slotted the refurbed 747 Premium Economy best seats article into our schedule. (On which note: how has it only been a couple of weeks since we came back from the Christmas hols? Seems like there's been a torrent of news!)
Oh, and believe me, we've been asking for route specificity on these and several other airline configurations. So far we've got Dallas, Joburg, and occasionally some others, but that's just observed rather than an official policy statement, so we've held back on making pronouncements like that.
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
Thanks for the insights in the publication schedule John, that is stuff I do not really think about but I can imagine it is important as the last thing we want is overload. It is the variety which makes the site such a good read!
KG
KG
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 May 2011
Total posts 249
....sorry, forgot to add that I was under the impression at the article was up to date with the current refurbished planes flying around, else seatguru is the best source of truth for most up to date info (they list all versions of the 747 flying around with QF)
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Qantas_Airways/Qantas_Airways_Boeing_747-400GE.php
John Walton
John Walton
Member since 03 Jan 2011
Total posts 86
Sorry, KG — SeatGuru is, as ever, wildly inaccurate.
Ozkid, if you're seeing the two-seat rows 34 and 35, you'll either be on the refurbished 747-400ER or the refurbished 747-400 (the seat maps are the same either way).
As it happens, I'm already researching this for next week's Best Seats guide!
I'd go for 36K because I'll take the "nobody reclining in front of me" over "can't stretch legs out all the way".
I'd then pick through 34A, 36J, 36G and 36D.
Note that window seats behind row 37 have some missing windows, and that the bassinet is at 34AB.
Ozkid
Ozkid
Member since 02 Dec 2011
Total posts 26
Great advice guys thanks heaps! Look forward to the updated article