Flying international economy with Qantas and want to choose your seat in advance? That'll be an extra $20 please.
The Aussie flag-carrier has added a $20 'advance seat selection' fee to its roster of costs. The charge applies to all international economy bookings as of today, Australian Business Traveller has learned.
Silver, Gold and Platinum members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer scheme are exempt from the advance seat allocation fee, but Bronze members and casual flyers who don't belong to the QFF program will have to pay $20 to book a specific seat, otherwise they have to take whatever seat Qantas assigns to them.
Passengers flying in premium economy, business and (of course) first class can still choose their seat for free.
Ironically, the move comes the same day as Qantas appears to have dropped the $160 fee for allowing its most frequent flyers to book exit-row seats on both domestic and international flights.
Qantas has also flagged a series of cut-backs to services, fleet and staff, as well as the likelihood of increased ticket prices.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
30 Mar 2011
Total posts 1
Few corrections:
- you can't pay for your seat when you make your booking. Seats can only be requested after the booking is created.
- Exit Row fees have not been abolished. The rare scenario in the previous story was for a customer who selected Exit Rows in the premium economy cabin. These seats (if available) are offered free of charge.
- Exit Rows are offered free of charge on domestic services.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Hey FreqFlyer, thanks for sharing that - we're still waiting for QF to get back to us with the official line on exit rows (but we're getting interesting feedback from others as well.)
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