Y+ in Sky Bed BNE-LAX?

[Katie]

I'm flying BNE-LAX next month (and LAX-SYD-BNE return). By the seat selections on QF015 on the way over, it seems Y+ is in skybeds downstairs. There are two rows of Y+ - 23 & 24. I know from my handful of BNE-LAX-BNE in the 2-class QF 747s over the past 3 years that it's not often even a 3-class plane, nor is Y+ even being advertised as available from BNE yet.

So ... it looks like a SkyBed ... should I try to spend 45k in points upgrading for the flight? Or suck it in? I 'scored' a Y to J upgrade on LAX-BNE back in May (for 'just' 78k points), and that was lovely compared to regular Y, and a very empty front cabin!

Thoughts appreciated ...

 

[samh004]

If you're in the seat, do you need the food too? From what I've read all that you'll be missing out on is the J service, so is 45k points worth it for some slightly better food and champagne?

Or have I misread somewhere?

 

[chrizzz14]

i agree with samh004 - is J food really worth 48k of points. ( and as for the 78K for your last upgrade - ouch!!! )

I did notice on a recent flight from AKL-LAX on dreaded QF25, that a two class plane was used, but their were Y+ passengers, which were given skybeds.
As far as im concerned, id rather pay the 2k less to just fly Y+ and get the same comfy seats!

 

[serfty]

I would request the upgrade, but keep an eye on the seating.

If the seating does not change, you can cancel an upgrade request. You'll need to do this before it is granted at least 24 hours before your flight - I would do it 2 days prior.

 

[Katie]

i agree with samh004 - is J food really worth 48k of points. ( and as for the 78K for your last upgrade - ouch!!! )

Yeah, that's the cost of anything less than a Y ticket upgrading to J on that route/distance. I had an upgradeable ticket, but "discount" economy. Expensive, but worth it for the sleep and leg room. (And real champers, and PJs, and ...)

 

[Katie]

Thanks for the ideas! I might wait it out, and hope that an early upgrade doesn't come through. My LAX-BNE upgrade in May came through at least 2 or 3 days before my flight.

 

[straitman]

Thanks for the ideas! I might wait it out, and hope that an early upgrade doesn't come through. My LAX-BNE upgrade in May came through at least 2 or 3 days before my flight.

Just as my Y+ to J upgrade came through 5 days before the flight (MEL-LAX) a few weeks ago.

 

[serfty]

Thanks for the ideas! I might wait it out, and hope that an early upgrade doesn't come through. My LAX-BNE upgrade in May came through at least 2 or 3 days before my flight.

Just as my Y+ to J upgrade came through 5 days before the flight (MEL-LAX) a few weeks ago.

I was thinking about that. The T&C's state the following:

16.3 Flight Upgrades - for International Travel (on flights QF1-399)

16.3.1 Flight Upgrades can be requested for a specific flight and date by phoning Qantas or, if you hold an E-Ticket at this website, between 90 days and 24 hours before scheduled departure from the first port of the flight. Requests for Flight Upgrades will not be accepted within 24 hours of scheduled departure from the port of origin.

16.3.2 Once an upgrade has been requested, all PIN changes between the time a Flight Upgrade is requested and the time the flights departs, must be advised to Qantas reservations, otherwise the Flight Upgrade request will not be processed.

16.3.3 If a Flight Segment is cancelled or changed, the Flight Upgrade request will be cancelled, and a new Flight Upgrade request must be made.

16.3.4 Qantas will determine which requests for Flight Upgrades will be awarded, if any, during the 24 hours before the scheduled departure of the flight from its port of origin. Members who do not have sufficient Points at that time will not be eligible to be awarded a Flight Upgrade.

16.3.5 Flight Upgrades will be awarded to Members according to their Qantas Frequent Flyer status levels in the following order: Platinum Members first, then Gold Members, then Silver Members and then Bronze Members.

16.3.6 When passengers are travelling together but have separate bookings, the awarding of the Flight Upgrade is processed for each booking separately. Qantas cannot guarantee that both requests will be Awarded.

16.3.7 Once a Flight Upgrade has been awarded, the passenger will lose their previous seat allocation, and a seat may no longer be available in the original class if they wish to cancel their Flight Upgrade.

16.3.8 Members who have lodged requests for Flight Upgrades will be advised whether or not they have been awarded a Flight Upgrade when they check in for their flight.

16.3.9 If a Member:
(a) cancels a Flight Upgrade after it has been awarded; or
(b) fails to board a booked flight for which the Member has redeemed Points for a Flight Upgrade,
then the Flight Upgrade will be forfeited, along with any Points used to redeem that Flight Upgrade.

16.3.10 A Member may cancel a request for a Flight Upgrade at any time prior to the time at which Qantas awards the Flight Upgrade without penalty.

The blue parts are contradictory if the upgrade is awarded more than 24 hours "before the scheduled departure of the flight from its port of origin.".

Cancelling in these situations is problematic.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

...so is 45k points worth it for some slightly better food and champagne?

... in fact it's supposed to be the same champagne as biz class. That extends to the whole J class wine and beverage list.

 

[serfty]

Actually, the PE food is supposed to be a subset of the J food.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I was thinking about that. The T&C's state the following: The blue parts are contradictory if the upgrade is awarded more than 24 hours "before the scheduled departure of the flight from its port of origin.".

Cancelling in these situations is problematic.

I was just thinking the same thing about the contradiction between the member being able to cancel within 24 hours.

Of course that is how the system always used to work when bookings in premium cabins were solid - you'd never know until around 24 hours before through some detective work on checkmytrip atc (and the well documented dance of 'upgrade not successful' etc etc).

Qantas made it very clear that the outcome of upgrade requests would not be known until checking in. This is in their main blurb.

As such, the right to cancel within 24 hours should apply (they'd have a hard time arguing otherwise).

However - here is the snag... if they did upgrade you early and you had a paid Y+ fare but were seated in a skybed - that seating allocation would be lost.

If you cancelled the upgrade (to go back to Y+) there is a very real possibility that you could find yourself in standard Y+ seating and all skybeds taken.

I guess the recommendation then is that if you currently hold a skybed with a Y+ fare it is better to cancel any upgrade request (unless of course you are after the better meal and a pair of PJs )

 

[cmon0005]

On a slightly off-topic question what is the website you can go on to check seat availability based on ticket class?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

On a slightly off-topic question what is the website you can go on to check seat availability based on ticket class?

seatcounter (dot com) is one option that you can access without subscription.

 

[Mal]

On a slightly off-topic question what is the website you can go on to check seat availability based on ticket class?

Probably the one you're after is Seatcounter SeatCounter - The Booking Class Availability Machine
Expertflyer (paid) will also give similar information (including award classes too)

 

[straitman]

Our flight from LAX-MEL (QF94 10 Oct) is kind of full also.
A6 B1 C9 D9 F7 I0 J9 K1 L0 M0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 T0 V0 W2 Y2 so I hope the upgrade works again.

 

[Katie]

Thanks all for the links and thoughts. If I don't want to risk getting an upgrade for business, then I'll need to cancel well and truly beforehand. The BNE-LAX leg only has two rows identified for Y+ seat selection, so as long as there isn't a plane change, it sounds like the usual BNE-LAX 2-class 747, with the two rows of Business between the galley and Y going as Y+.

 

[Katie]

I cancelled my upgrade request for tomorrow's QF 15 late last week. My seating has stayed firmly the same, and showing the same 2 rows for Y+.
I checked in online this morning (seq 17), and had the option to change my seat - it seems there are two spare seats in Y+ tomorrow?
Seatcounter is showing 9 seats in most classes.

Y+ is still rows 23 & 24.

Will happily report what the food/bevvies are like in comparison to whY/J.
A colleague flew this with his wife in August/Sept; they flew over in Skybeds, but then the flight home was oversold and they got upgraded to J for free (no points, no money!) on the way home. Their status had just kicked over to PS on the flight over.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I cancelled my upgrade request for tomorrow's QF 15 late last week. My seating has stayed firmly the same, and showing the same 2 rows for Y+.
I checked in online this morning (seq 17), and had the option to change my seat - it seems there are two spare seats in Y+ tomorrow?
Seatcounter is showing 9 seats in most classes.

Y+ is still rows 23 & 24.

Will happily report what the food/bevvies are like in comparison to whY/J.

Well congratulations!!

Glad it all worked out in the end and you'll have a fantastic flight.

Can tell you now the bevvie list is the same as J - and the food (I think) is comprable to domestic J.

All the other amenities are the same as business class (noise cancelling headphones and nice blankies). Only difference is no jammies or amenity kit!

So all in all with that great seat you'll be set to enjoy!

 

[Katie]

Had a lovely flight over on Friday. The two rows of Y+ were fairly empty - total 9 pax. I was sitting next to some bloke - 24A - and noticed that 23 J/K?? pair were empty, so moved after take off to give us each some more space. I think we had the CSM as our devoted flight attendant.
There was a wee accident when the cargo was loaded, so we didn't take off til 60/90mins after we were meant to, and with winds and then fog in LAX, ended up only making up 30mins or so. Fine for almost everyone, except those connecting to QF107 to JFK at TBIT (we landed at T4). With the fog, we could not see T4 from the tarmac!!
Lovely sky bed, same blankie and pillow as J. Service was lovely, definitely J-. Champers was same as in J - Charles Heidsick NV (so, not worth spending the points on the same champers!!). Two reds, two whites on the trolley - both in full bottles and from the J/F list. Meals were served on proper plates, definitely J-, not Y+. Except dessert - that was a Splice ice block, served on a china plate!! Definitely Y.

Only odd things I could complain about - we were asked as Y+ pax to use the Y loos, not the J loos in front of us (we had the bonus of the skybeds, so had to use the "pleb" loos). Reckon the pax in the front rows of Y would've been wondering why these what-looked-like-J-pax were coming back to use their loos ... not an issue, but it does make one wonder what the 9 of us were meant to do to those so very special J loos ...

Also, we were not offered amenity kits - really wanted to see what the Y+ ones were like. I asked about 60-90mins before landing, and the three ladies in our Y+ cabin were all given J amenity kits! Maybe they didn't load the Y+ ones?? Or had put them away at that point?? Happy for that, as I managed to leave my toothbrush at home. And with being seated in the J cabin, I wasn't sure where we were meant to go to get the Y+ snacks. After dinner I asked the J FA for a Baileys and chocolate bar (from the snack list in the Y+ menu), and I got them, (Lindt milk choc bar). No big deal, and didn't really detract from the experience, I was just curious where we could get our shortbread and chocolate if we wanted them ...

Flying back LAX-SYD on the 747 on Weds night ... still seated in a Skybed, but I've requested an upgrade on points; the method in my madness is that if I get the upgrade AND I get to LAX on time AND there are spare J seats on the A380, I might get to fly on it ... if not, oh well!

 

[MelUser]

Thank you for the report - good to hear and amenity kit is a bonus.

Did you ask for a mid flight baguette?