Two Australian frequent flyers booked their seats on QF82 from Singapore to Sydney nine months in advance. The day before departure, Qantas emailed to confirm their seat numbers. At the airport, their boarding passes told a different story: they'd been shifted to less comfortable seats at the back of the plane, with no explanation and no alternatives offered. An apologetic email after the fact, but no answers about why the seats went to someone else. The passenger's conclusion is blunt - there's increasingly little point picking a seat when you book with Qantas.
He's not alone. Another reader, a Qantas Gold member, booked return flights to Santiago with the leg home on LATAM as a codeshare. Despite repeated requests to both airlines, he and his wife couldn't select seats or use an upgrade, and ended up jammed in the rear for a 15-hour flight. LATAM's check-in staff kindly moved them forward - but the goodwill ended there. The LATAM lounge refused to honour Qantas status, even though the boarding pass carried a QF flight number. It's a sharp reminder that codeshares can leave your status perks in limbo between the two carriers.
Not everything in this week's reader mailbag is a gripe. The Tasman hotel in Hobart earned warm praise: when a guest mentioned she was in town for her mother-in-law's funeral, the hotel comped breakfast for the stay and looked after the couple throughout. Meanwhile, a swimmer made the case for Towradgi's 50-metre ocean pool in the Illawarra - easily reached, with views up and down the coast and a sunrise swim she calls magical, ideally followed by coffee on the grassy slope above.
There were practical tips for travellers further afield, too. A Romania trip highlight was watching brown bears from a remote hide in the Carpathian Mountains, arranged through a local guide - plus an overnight sleeper train from Bucharest to Chisinau in Moldova, with the writer calling Chisinau a beautiful and interesting city. On insurance, one reader raised a fair point: comparison sites rank insurers on how easy they are to buy from, not on how they behave when you actually file a claim - which is the only part that matters.
For anyone who's ever paid extra (or just planned carefully) to secure a specific seat, the Qantas and LATAM stories are worth heeding. Confirming a seat the day before means little if the airline can reallocate it without explanation, and codeshare itineraries can strip away both seat choice and lounge access. Check in as early as the airline allows, and if a seat matters to you - a long-haul flight, a mobility need, travelling with kids - chase any reassignment immediately rather than waiting to board.
