The Operational Upgrade Thread

[Mal]

I thought it would be nice to have a thread where people recount their op-up experiences. Would save multiple threads on getting upgraded and also provide fact points and trending for people to look at.

PS - it isn't meant to be a "boast" thread!

 

[Mal]

SYD-HKG 22 Jun 09

Was upgraded from Economy (Award) to Premium Economy.

While the seat maps and availability of fares showed plenty of availability in Y, the cabin was completely full.

Was op-up'd at the gate. Both Economy and Premium Economy were full, so looks like Qantas oversold both classes.

QF Plat btw.

 

[JohnK]

Nice start to the trip Mal.

I better get a post in early as I may not get to post in this thread for a while. No planned op-ups this year.

 

[serfty]

MEL-SIN 09 APR 09 QF9

We were upgraded from Economy (Award) to Premium Economy.

The seat maps and availability of fares showed no availability in Y, the cabin was completely full.

Was op-up'd at check-in. Economy was full, but not Premium Economy.

QF WP / QF PG

 

[serfty]

AKL-LAX 05 JUN 09 QF25

I was upgraded from Economy (O) to Business.

The seat maps and availability of fares showed no availability in Y, the cabin was completely full.

Was op-up'd at check-in. Economy was full with only J matching availability in B/H. (initially allocated 12K, asked for lower deck aisle)

QF WP

(Note: I was in 23F, PAX beside me in D/E were both QP members and had been called to the QP service desk for upgrade BPs)

 

[serfty]

MEL-HKG 05 FEB09 QF29

I was upgraded from Economy (O) to Premium Economy.

The seat maps and availability of fares showed no availability in Y, the cabin was completely full.

Was op-up'd at check-in. Economy was full with only J matching availability in B/H.

QF WP

 

[rocket]

In May we were flying ur first trip on the A380 as QF31 SYD-LHR.
We had booked in PE, and upgrade requests in for Business at the 90 day point, which didn't come through as the aircraft seemed completly full.
Enjoyed the flight up to SIN, then as we passed throught the gate lounge in SIN about to reboard, our Boarding Passes 'beeped' and the staff handed us new ones, just saying our seats had been changed - Nice surprise to see we had been upgraded to J after all.
The 380 J seats are great - so much space compared to Sky Bed Mk1
We thoughts to ourselves, at least we'll save some points on the SYD-SIN sector, however it now appears it was an op-up - No points have been deducted!
Happy days....

 

[pblackm]

LHR-BOS 11 June 09 BA215

From PE to J. Had flown JFK-LHR, LHR-JED, KWI-LHR all PE, then saw that the seat allocated was different to the booking - got 17J, front row of Club World. I looked at the boarding pass issued in Kuwait and it said J - I had not noticed!

More information in my soon to be posted trip report "The Long Way Round" SYD/JFK/LHR/JED/KWI/LHR/BOS/MIA/MCO/JFK/SYD.

BTW, the day after left, mail arrived from Qantas saying I'd been renewed for WP, even though I'd not done enough flying to qualify. Thanks but now am 50% over the SCs required and another six weeks to go be fore my rollover date. They obviously didn't look at my bookings.

WP

 

[JohnK]

Jenny and I were upgraded from Economy (Award) to Premium Economy.

That is encouraging. Most people on these forums claim that if you are on an award ticket you are not eligible for an op-up.

 

[oz_mark]

That is encouraging. Most people on these forums claim that if you are on an award ticket you are not eligible for an op-up.

I don't believe op-ups discriminate much in the way of what sort of ticket you are travelling with. If the gods smile on you while you are holding an award ticket then toward the front of the plane you go.

 

[NM]

That is encouraging. Most people on these forums claim that if you are on an award ticket you are not eligible for an op-up.

A bit hard to substantiate that claim with so many reports here of it happening. The evidence of people's experience show that it certainly can happen.

I still believe that one of the factors in determining op-ups is often where you are seated. If they need to find space to seat a family group together and your seat would make that easy, then you have a good chance. It seems that op-ups are often a very manual process with the selection of the lucky passenger often being handled by the airport staff. They may have some guidelines as to who to upgrade, but it would seem there is also some discretion able to be applied.

 

[serfty]

In EVERY one of the case I noted, I had been pre-allocated in exit row seats -|) and the op-up became apparent on check-in.

I have been op-upped this year on a greater frequency then ever before.

I'm calling 2009 "the year of the op-up"!

 

[anat0l]

I still believe that one of the factors in determining op-ups is often where you are seated. If they need to find space to seat a family group together and your seat would make that easy, then you have a good chance. It seems that op-ups are often a very manual process with the selection of the lucky passenger often being handled by the airport staff. They may have some guidelines as to who to upgrade, but it would seem there is also some discretion able to be applied.

This is why op-ups have as much chance as happening as lightning strikes at most times.

Having status does help, but don't expect one at any time, even if you look like you're on a roll, or you've been WP for 10 years and never had an op-up in that whole time. serfty is particularly skilled at estimating the chances of an op-up based on loadings, but again - no where near ironclad guarantees there either, and this is only the chance of op-ups occurring, not you actually getting op-up'ed.

I read a substantial post on FT once of a US gate agent's view of how operational upgrades work. It was very interesting. Not a lot of new stuff for many people here, but it does really boil down to (a) some status/loyalty (however that is measured, be it internally or externally), (b) seat (price, type, location, number in same booking) and (c) luck (how can the staff member handling the op-ups - if required - clear them as fast as possible, and do you happen to be in the right place at the right time). The account recalls that there have been quite a few cases where status and fare type seem to get thrown out the window for the sake of convenience (it was easier operationally to upgrade the lesser-status person than the higher one who was in a spot that "fit"); from a loyalty stance that probably annoys people to bits, but that's the nature of the beast. Even if they got a computer to organise this for them, this is also almost impossible to perfect. Op-ups need to occur at a time when the OTP is fully at stake - this is not like putting three red rat monkeys in a room and giving them 24 hours to work out the optimal distribution of pax in an aircraft based on fares purchased, status, and yield.

Having said that, just like people have theories on how to win the lottery, people have their own theories as to how they can increase their chances of an op-up. Having status is one factor; for me the other ones are (shaddup in the peanut gallery!):

• Selecting a seat in the front row, particularly the A or first aisle position.
• Selecting a bassinet position, preferably near the front of the cabin.
• Arriving as late as possible at the gate - this is balanced off with various factors, e.g. don't want to get a personal page, don't want to p*** off the gate agents, if you board later you might miss out on overhead locker space... admittedly this probably should not make any difference at all (if you're op-up'ed, it shouldn't matter when you arrive, because when boarding starts the final manifest will have been printed).

As I don't often purchase better than Red e-Deal fares when travelling Y, I have yet to see the effect of having a better fare class.

As it happened, I had four op-ups on my smattering of flights in May. Four out of 13 eligible flights......and these are not on mainline triangle routes...... :shock:

 

[JohnK]

In EVERY one of the case I noted, I had been pre-allocated in exit row seats -|) and the op-up became apparent on check-in.

Aah the good old days. :-|

 

[Voyages]

First op-up in 2009, thanks to AFF

I am sitting in the ADL QP, feeling particularly pleased. Heading to LAX on QF15 this morning, and have just received an op-up to J at check in, seat 3A. Yipppeeee

This is one of the several benefits that I've experienced since joining AFF in April . Thanks to the expert opinions on here I actually took a gamble and cancelled my upgrade request from wHY to J last week. Got even more confident after serfty's tip that I've got a good chance for an op-up with this flight.

 

[samh004]

Re: First op-up in 2009, thanks to AFF

I believe a dedicated op-up thread was created just the other day.

As for me, sat in the SYD QP and didn't get upgraded at check-in, but just had a great shower!

 

[serfty]

I am sitting in the ADL QP, feeling particularly pleased. Heading to LAX on QF15 this morning, and have just received an op-up to J at check in, seat 3A. Yipppeeee

This is one of the several benefits that I've experienced since joining AFF in April . Thanks to the expert opinions on here I actually took a gamble and cancelled my upgrade request from wHY to J last week. Got even more confident after serfty's tip that I've got a good chance for an op-up with this flight.

It's playing the odds ... one should always expect to travel in the cabin booked, so any such operational upgrade should always be treated as a bonus.

Note that these may drop off to some extent Jul-Oct as Qantas are redefining the cabins on many flights - especially trans-pacific.

e.g. 4 Class Pacific configurations are having their cabins reallocated to give an additional 28 Economy class seats.

See here: http://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/flying/inTheAir/ourAircraft/744ER-14P66J40W187Y.pdf

• First Class is still 14 seats in Zone A
• Business Class is Zone B and Zone F with the 14 SkyBeds in Zone C allocated to Y+
• Premium Economy is Zone C with 14 SkyBeds and 12 Y+ seats.
• Economy is Zone D & E including the 28 Y+ seats in zone D.

So instead of having a 14F 66J 40W & 187Y configuration we have a 14F 52J 26W & 215Y.

 

[medhead]

ADL-DRW 9 Jun 2009 QF (can't remember, there is only one direct flight a day)

No op up for me, got a points ODU offered by the Quik Check.

But knew multiple people on the same flight (10+) and one of them got an op up when checking in at the desk. The other person on the same booking also got the op up when checking in later.

Perhaps I should have checked in with a person instead of a machine

 

[JohnK]

e.g. 4 Class Pacific configurations are having their cabins reallocated to give an additional 28 Economy class seats.

...

So instead of having a 14F 66J 40W & 187Y configuration we have a 14F 52J 26W & 215Y.

Does this mean that you could pay for WHY but end up in premium economy or pay for premium economy and still end up in a skybed?

When the cabins are re-allocated are all seat allocations going to be adjusted or would all new bookings on existing flights have first bite at getting a better seat?

 

[serfty]

Does this mean that you could pay for WHY but end up in premium economy or pay for premium economy and still end up in a skybed? ...

You get the good seat, not the good service.

... When the cabins are re-allocated are all seat allocations going to be adjusted or would all new bookings on existing flights have first bite at getting a better seat?

All these 'good seats' appear to be Q-blocked but some are showing as allocated so I'd assume WP's would have a good crack at them, maybe SG and PS/QP as well.

I have some bookings for November but currently the seating reverts to normal after Oct 31.