Many people dream of one day flying to Europe in Business class, but think it is impossible to afford unless they win the lotto. However with some frequent flyer points, and a bit of sage advice, the dream doesn’t have to remain forever as just a dream!
One member this week wants to use points for their family of four to fly with Qantas in Business class to Germany.
My life long dream is to fly once in business class (first class is totally out of reach…unless I win in Lotto..lol)
We recently decided to get a credit card that is connected with the fly buys and our goal is now to buy our normal seats for our next overseas trip to Germany but trying to upgrade the seats to business class (even if only for one way).
It sounds simple enough, but the world of earning and using frequent flyer points can be complicated, and our member discovered that trying to upgrade an entire family on a single flight could be more difficult than expected. Upgrade requests on international flights are like a lottery and even if successful, are not confirmed until 24 hours before the flight. Although the chances of a successful upgrade are still higher than actually winning the lotto, most of our members agree that trying to upgrade 4 passengers with no elite status on a single flight is likely to end in disappointment.
Upgrade waitlist requests are serviced by Frequent Flyer status level. That means that any Platinum One, platinum, Gold or Silver members who have also submitted upgrade requests will always be ahead of you in the upgrade waitlist priority queue. This makes it even harder to find 4 seats unless you hold a high status level in the program.
Despite the potential difficulties, our members offer plenty of advice and suggestions to help this family get that dream flight in the pointy end. One suggestion is to accumulate a large amount of points and try to book classic award seats in Business class. Classic award seats, although they can also be difficult to obtain, are guaranteed once booked. For the best chances at finding seats, our members recommend booking as early as possible – in the case of Qantas, this means booking 353 days in advance.
Another left-field suggestion is to book a cheap flight to Asia and to take advantage of some exceptionally good Business class fares to Europe departing from there.
You can always fly to SIN on a cheap Y ticket and then SIN-CMB-FRA in J on UL for AUD 2,000. No need to win the lottery.
Do you too dream of one day flying to Europe in the pointy end of the plane? Or maybe you have some advice for our new member. Why not join the discussion HERE.
