When booking an airline ticket, you will usually select a seat at some point during the process. The seat map will show what is free for you to choose from. These do not necessarily show the seats that are occupied with people though, as there are blocked seats as well.
Certain popular seats, such as those towards the front or exit rows, are blocked off to keep them available for frequent flyers. A little known trick is that often these are unblocked a certain amount of time before departure for everyone to avail of.
Blocked Seats At Qantas
Qantas in Australia block seats, reserving them for their best customers. On their Boeing 737 fleet, domestic business class contains three rows of four.
Row one is blocked off for super elite Platinum One people and the invitation only Chairmans Lounge clientele. Row two is blocked off for these people and Platinum frequent flyers along with their oneworld Emerald equivalents. You can see this below.
At 80 hours before departure, the blocked seats become available to all. Why 80 hours? Your guess is as good as mine and if anyone knows, please feel free to answer in the comments.
Overall Thoughts
Having blocked seats is not unique to Qantas. British Airways do the same, with the front seats becoming available 72 hours before departure.
For those that like to have a specific seat on board, this is good information to know. You may be able to move to your actual preferred seat closer to flight time.
What do you think of airlines blocking certain seats and do you think it’s fair? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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