Aussie Disneyland Planners come on in and lets plan together :)

[keptwoman]

Goodness we are all having issues at the moment aren't we!!!
Thanks for the "insider info" I thought that was probably the case, but good to know the supervisors can send through a request. I also now plan to get to the airport an hour earlier than we had initially planned to to see if we have any luck at check in.

We are checking in in Melbourne for the through flight, so the booking is MEL SYD LAX NYC. Do you think Melbourne Check in will be able to alter seating on the SYD LAX section?

I'm just peeved that I booked 6 months out and took the time to reserve seats when we had a whole aircraft to choose from, and some plonker who probably booked two weeks ago gets to steal my seats, how on earth does that work???? People who book late should get crappy seats.

We booked a non-direct flight because to fly direct would have doubled the price, but I totally get the frustration with taking the care to book direct and have it all thrown in your face anyway, very annoying!!

 

[Jade+3]

Are you on a United flight MEL-SYD? They should be able to look at the seating for you. I would also check again in SYD, to allow for any no-shows. It looks like your seating map is available on-line so I would be checking that all the time too.

I have read so many complaints on the Transportation board here on DIS about how the US airlines cancel seat requests. With have flights from LA to Orlando with Delta and I am paranoid about them separating us.

 

[keptwoman]

Yep, it's UA all the way. Thanks for your help

 

[dollarmite]

I have read so many complaints on the Transportation board here on DIS about how the US airlines cancel seat requests. With have flights from LA to Orlando with Delta and I am paranoid about them separating us.

I've booked a Washington DC-Orlando flight with Southwest and am paranoid that all 4 of us will be scattered around the plane. I will not allow my 8 and 12 year olds to be seated with strangers!!! I picked SW as it was only 1 of a couple of US airlines that don't charge for checked baggage (yet).

Getting a decent flight from Orlando to NY is proving tougher than I thought though. At the moment Delta is the chepest but due to having to pay for checked bags I will spend the entire trip worrying that it's going to cost us a fortune in bag fees for that one flight.

 

[keptwoman]

Well I found out what happened. Apparantly because the flight is booked MEL LAX but actually changes planes in Sydney, the seat requests for the SYD LAX portion sit unconfirmed in the booking until system picked up the seat requests (for that SYD - LAX flight) on 18th July the seat request was automatically reaccommodated. This is done through the system automatically apparently!! Reservations only have access to some of the seats, I've now got a priority request in the system to check in staff who will have more seats available to them than reservations. So I'll keep an eye on the seats regularly until I go and check in early to try to get better ones.

 

[kylieh]

I just checked our Qantas home flight and it too has been redirected. Instead of direct LAX-BNE we are now going via Auckland. We leave LAX 2 hours early (which is actually good as it's now 10pm instead of about midnight), but we arrive home at noon instead of 6am.

Ouch. That is the worse re-routing I've heard about.

 

[keptwoman]

I've booked a Washington DC-Orlando flight with Southwest and am paranoid that all 4 of us will be scattered around the plane. I will not allow my 8 and 12 year olds to be seated with strangers!!! I picked SW as it was only 1 of a couple of US airlines that don't charge for checked baggage (yet).

I've had that happen on Jetstar, 5 family members and 5 seperate seats. When we got to the airport we were the last family in the line from the Club Med boat and so the absolute last to check in on the flight, too late to do anything about it. Utterly ridiculous! Fortunately one very very kind lady agreed to swap with one of us so that DD who was 4 at the time could sit with a parent. Long story, Qantas stuff up ending with a last minute flight booking and an extra night at Club Med.

 

[Andona]

I just checked our Qantas home flight and it too has been redirected. Instead of direct LAX-BNE we are now going via Auckland.

I always think one of the worst things about flying is that lack of control that we lowly passengers have.

Last year we also ended up flying home to Sydney with an emergency stop in Auckland - we were on that Qantas flight that lost it's radar system early in the flight.

We "piggybacked" our way across the Pacific by flying within 1000 metres of an Air NZ flight the whole way.

I just hope for a less eventful trip this time

Andona

 

[Andona]

I've booked a Washington DC-Orlando flight with Southwest and am paranoid that all 4 of us will be scattered around the plane.

Dollarmite,
Last year we flew Southwest from Buffalo to Orlando. I don't know if they've changed since then but at the time they did not have pre-allocated seating at all. At check in you were given a seating Class ( A, B or C) and within each class you were given a number.

When it came time to board the plane you had to line up in order of your Class. The A class people were allowed to board first and then once, on the plane, you just grabbed a seat wherever you could find one. So the C class people tended to get the worst seats.

The earlier that you checked in the "higher" your class was - i.e. if you checked in online 24 hours in advance you'd generally get an "A" seat. That's what we did.

Will you be able to do online check in 24 hours before your flight?

I also seem to remember that people with young children were also given priority over the other people boarding. Our 11 year old didn't qualify as young so we didn't get that.

We flew SW because they had the best price at the time and were one of the few airlines that had direct flight from Buffalo to Orlando. Once we were on the plane I was happy with the service etc - the flight was right on time too

Andona

 

[Andona]

Well I found out what happened. Apparantly because the flight is booked MEL LAX but actually changes planes in Sydney, the seat requests for the SYD LAX portion sit unconfirmed in the booking until system picked up the seat requests (for that SYD - LAX flight) on 18th July the seat request was automatically reaccommodated. This is done through the system automatically apparently!! Reservations only have access to some of the seats, I've now got a priority request in the system to check in staff who will have more seats available to them than reservations. So I'll keep an eye on the seats regularly until I go and check in early to try to get better ones.

Keptwoman,
I really hope you can get better seats for your flight - I know exactly how awful the thought of a long flight with non-reclining seats is

A few years ago we were flying to London and I discovered only a few weeks beforehand that we'd been allocated non-reclining seats. When I rang them the Qantas and the Frequent Flyer people wouldn't do anything for us - I was not happy.

Luckily at that time my BIL worked for Qantas - he was able to pull a few strings and get us better seats.

I don't suppose you know anyone that works for United?

Andona

 

[dollarmite]

How do I find out which seats are non-reclining? If possible I'd like to sit directly behind those seats. I hate it when the people in front of me recline. I thought it was only the very back (maybe last two back) row/s that couldn't recline?

 

[Jade+3]

keptwoman - glad you got some answers. Keep checking that seat map, and hopefully you will be able to make some changes.

dollarmite
Getting a decent flight from Orlando to NY is proving tougher than I thought though. At the moment Delta is the chepest but due to having to pay for checked bags I will spend the entire trip worrying that it's going to cost us a fortune in bag fees for that one flight.

We went with Delta because it was direct. The only other direct were United and American and they have the same bag fees. I have brought some baggage scales to take with us so we can keep the bags under the weight limits. I am planning to do all our shopping once we get back to California and will buy an extra case to take home.

 

[keptwoman]

How do I find out which seats are non-reclining? If possible I'd like to sit directly behind those seats. I hate it when the people in front of me recline. I thought it was only the very back (maybe last two back) row/s that couldn't recline?

www.seatguru.com

 

[dollarmite]

Dollarmite,
Last year we flew Southwest from Buffalo to Orlando. I don't know if they've changed since then but at the time they did not have pre-allocated seating at all. At check in you were given a seating Class ( A, B or C) and within each class you were given a number.

When it came time to board the plane you had to line up in order of your Class. The A class people were allowed to board first and then once, on the plane, you just grabbed a seat wherever you could find one. So the C class people tended to get the worst seats.

The earlier that you checked in the "higher" your class was - i.e. if you checked in online 24 hours in advance you'd generally get an "A" seat. That's what we did.

Will you be able to do online check in 24 hours before your flight?

I also seem to remember that people with young children were also given priority over the other people boarding. Our 11 year old didn't qualify as young so we didn't get that.

We flew SW because they had the best price at the time and were one of the few airlines that had direct flight from Buffalo to Orlando. Once we were on the plane I was happy with the service etc - the flight was right on time too
Andona

I read about the ABC system and it didn't sound too promising. I'm hoping we can check in 24 hours beforehand. If we check in at exactly 24 hours do you think we stand a good chance of getting A class boarding? DS2 is a very small sized 8 year old - maybe if I carry him we'll qualify for early boarding that way? (worth a try???)

This whole open seating and paying for baggage on airlines these days is just so utterly ridiculous. The airfares haven't come down in price dramatically to compensate for it - all it's done is create higher stress levels amongst travellers.

I hate the fact that I'm going to spend the weeks leading up to the SW flight worried about seating and the whole time in WDW wondering if we should buy this or that in case we end up with a huge baggage bill when we arrive at the airport.

At least I can relax whilst we are at DL - on the way home (with Qantas) between us we can have 8 checked bags (plus hand luggage) and I already know our seat assignments. If previous trips are anything to go by, we'll probably need all 8 bags, lol.

 

[dollarmite]

I'm considering booking our Orlando-NY flight through Expedia, as it's all in Australian dollars.

The best deal I can come up with is with Delta. I just can't find out how to prepay the baggage fee. Has anyone else had experience booking a flight with Expedia and prepaying the baggage fee?

 

[Andona]

I read about the ABC system and it didn't sound too promising. I'm hoping we can check in 24 hours beforehand. If we check in at exactly 24 hours do you think we stand a good chance of getting A class boarding? DS2 is a very small sized 8 year old - maybe if I carry him we'll qualify for early boarding that way? (worth a try???)

I'm pretty confident that if you check in 24 hours beforehand you'll get an A class seating group. We did and it was a pretty full flight. I was also obsessed about the SW flight because I really didn't like the idea of fighting for seats on the plane I really prefer allocated seating but just couldn't pass up the price/convenience of the SW flight.

I also think you should try the carrying-the-8-year-old-on-your-hip idea The worst they could do is send you back to your spot in the A B C lineup.

The A B C system really seemed to work quite well but it's definitely worth a bit of extra effort to get that big A on your boarding pass .

Andona

 

[Jade+3]

I have booked direct with Delta, and have no idea how to pay the fees. There is not anything on the website that I can find that explains it. I will figure it out at the airport. BTW, if you book direct, Delta convert the booking to AUD on the payment screen.

 

[dollarmite]

www.seatguru.com

Thanks, keptwoman, for that link.

 

[Andona]

How do I find out which seats are non-reclining? If possible I'd like to sit directly behind those seats. I hate it when the people in front of me recline. I thought it was only the very back (maybe last two back) row/s that couldn't recline?

The usually seem to be the ones in front of the galley/toilets sections in each cabin. Sometimes the seats are listed as "limited recline" rather than non-reclining. I've often wondered just how "limited" the recline was ? As Keptwoman posted, Seatguru is a fantastic resource for this info.

And I agree 100% about the problems with reclining seats in front of you. I have no problems with people reclining when the lights go down after the meal , but the ones who really bug me are the people who recline right in front of you straight after take-off ( and noone has reclined in front of them!). When that happens I can't focus on the screen in front of me and have to recline as well - it sets off a chain reaction that ripples down the cabin. Then I feel guilty about encroaching on the space of the people behind me - I've even thought of printing up a little note to pass back to them, that explains I've only reclined because the person in front of me did - how paranoid is that!

Isn't it weird how many stresses/worries are associated with flying! I wish I could afford to fly Business and skip some of the worries.

Andona

 

[keptwoman]

Since we are on the subject of luggage. Ages ago I said we were going carry-on only. Well we've changed our minds. I've rung United a couple of times and because our domestic tickets are in conjunction with our international ones we definitely will not get charged for check in. So we will check in. Much easier! We are still sticking with the smaller check-in size suitcases (which are not really very small at all!!!) as we have 5 people and luggage to fit in a rental car so we will have to pack smart but it makes it a little easier.