SYD-LHR Bus U/G with points, best method & how?

[dhein]

Hi, I'm a Qantas Frequent Flyer newbie, just getting my head around points & upgrade options. As I've never used points I'm hoping you can help me with a few questions. My goal is travel to Business by upgrading my fare.

• Do I need to purchase an Economy fare first, then use the points upgrade area to request an upgrade? Or can I do the whole thing and just pay the dollar balance after applying points. I'm hoping the latter as I don't want to buy a more expensive Qantas Economy fare and then find out no Business upgrades are available via points.

• Is it generally better value to upgrade from Economy or Flexible Economy as I noticed the points required is less for the latter, but obviously the fare a bit higher.

• How far ahead do you recommended booking to get the best reward availability. This is a holiday so I can be flexible.

Any feedback or tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

With QF, I don't think you won't earn any SC on upgraded class.
You only get SC for the whY/Y/PE fare paid.
So, to get the max SC for J, and some on here disagree with it, P+P where you pay to sit in J, but reduce the fare by paying by the points balance in your QF FF account.
I fly to NZ a lot, and want to retain SG, so will be going F with P+P.
To succeed at the QF FF upgrade game, you need to be quite high up in the status game.
Australian QF dom fares/seats, you can know as soon as you put in a request, using QF FF points, if successful or not, apart from the upgrade me system.
Au to LHR, is a high demand route.
Sometimes you might even get that your seat in part of the journey is in Y.

 

[RooFlyer]

Hi, I'm a Qantas Frequent Flyer newbie, just getting my head around points & upgrade options. As I've never used points I'm hoping you can help me with a few questions. My goal is travel to Business by upgrading my fare.

• Do I need to purchase an Economy fare first, then use the points upgrade area to request an upgrade? Or can I do the whole thing and just pay the dollar balance after applying points. I'm hoping the latter as I don't want to buy a more expensive Qantas Economy fare and then find out no Business upgrades are available via points.

• Is it generally better value to upgrade from Economy or Flexible Economy as I noticed the points required is less for the latter, but obviously the fare a bit higher.

• How far ahead do you recommended booking to get the best reward availability. This is a holiday so I can be flexible.

Any feedback or tips would be greatly appreciated!

There is getting an Award seat (Economy, Premium Economy , business or first!) via using points and then there is upgrading a seat using points (for instance, Economy to PE). The issues with using points to get an award seat are:

* Qantas will charge you quite a bit of 'extra charges'. Often on long haul flights these can be almost as much as buying a cheap economy ticket. Regarded as not a good use of points.

* Business seats on long haul are very scarce and often only pax who have high status (Platinum and above) get access to them, in practicality. Shorthaul (ie domestic) is easier, but west-east coast is hard.

Upgrading is a better route (and yes, you buy the ticket in the base class first, then apply for the upgrade), but make sure you buy an upgradable fare class. Upgradable J seats are also scarce on long-haul. Basically Qantas assign X number of seats able to be upgradable or bought with points. And X is a small number!

Book as soon as you can!!!! Often upgrade seats 'go' as soon as they are released (almost a year beforehand).

You may be disappointed looking for an upgrade seat if you are going to LHR and don't have high-ish status on Qantas.

[deleted - I missed the title of your post!]
Edit: I don't believe AustraliaPoochie's comments re status credits are relevant to your query.

 

[Mattg]

To add to RooFlyer's helpful comments:

• If you want to book a classic reward (aka. Award) seat, your best bet will be to check at 10am AEST, 353 days before the flight. This is when the small number that are released are actually released.

• If you end up buying an economy fare with cash, with the intention of upgrading with points, it does not matter what type of fare you purchase as long as it's upgradeable. What I mean by that is that Qantas are unlikely to consider whether you bought a Saver or Flex fare when distributing upgrades. The most important factors are your status with the airline, and how full the business class cabin is on your flight.
• You're more likely to find an award during off-peak travel times (e.g. not during school holidays).
• When looking for award seats, be creative. Search for multiple routings and remember that you can use your points on Emirates and other partner airlines.
• Sydney to London return in business class costs 256,000 points. For an extra 24,000 points (280K in total) you can fly around the world in business class, so keep that in mind.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Any seat Awards & Points Plus Pay as most members of this forum would inform you, are not an effective use of your QFF points.

Rooflyer & Mattg have wrapped this question up with a solid answer, in a nutshell.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi, I'm a Qantas Frequent Flyer newbie, just getting my head around points & upgrade options. As I've never used points I'm hoping you can help me with a few questions. My goal is travel to Business by upgrading my fare.

• Do I need to purchase an Economy fare first, then use the points upgrade area to request an upgrade? Or can I do the whole thing and just pay the dollar balance after applying points. I'm hoping the latter as I don't want to buy a more expensive Qantas Economy fare and then find out no Business upgrades are available via points.

• Is it generally better value to upgrade from Economy or Flexible Economy as I noticed the points required is less for the latter, but obviously the fare a bit higher.

• How far ahead do you recommended booking to get the best reward availability. This is a holiday so I can be flexible.

Any feedback or tips would be greatly appreciated!

If you are looking to upgrade an international flight, you chances of success are slim unless you are a top tier frequent flyer (Qantas Platinum or higher).

If you are not platinum or above, you should expect to fly in the class you have bought... and may quite possibly have paid extra for an upgradeable fare just to enter the lottery.

 

[blu]

. a Classic Award at T-353 days is locked in (if you can find one, for your travel dates).
. an Upgrade request without elite status, is a lotto win.
. there's also bid for an upgrade: http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/upgrade/global/en

 

[love_the_life]

I'm not sure if you have enough points for J all the way or have enough for upgrades from Y to J. If the former, if you are creative and look at different routes you can snaffle a classic award. One of the problems with booking QF is that the fees on top of the points can be almost as much as a cheap fare. We looked at a J award recently (a short South African flight) and it was only a couple of hundred dollars more to pay for J outright than use points.
If the latter, as MelTraveller points out, upgrade success can be a bit of a lottery especially on popular routes. We used to have a good strike rate at getting points upgrades on international flights but the last half a dozen or so times we have requested them we have not been successful. We are Gold so have obviously been trumped by Platinum. I don't like to be doom and gloom but do not count on getting an upgrade. If you have the cash I understand that there can be some good prices from non-Australian ports (I think some posted BKK - Europe on AY (Finnair) in J for around $2000 though I haven't looked).
Good luck.

 

[Flyer Frank]

As others have said, unless you are a top tier frequent flyer then it's unlikely you'll get a points upgrade.

SYD-LHR is a popular route and reward seats are often booked a long way in advance; but if you are not going in peak season and are flexible with your dates then reward seats are still available.

I find there is often better availability of reward seats out of Singapore or Hong Kong. You can use Qantas points to book on BA SIN-LHR or Cathay HKG-LHR then just buy an economy seat SYD-SIN or SYD-HKG. A day time flight to Sinagpore in Y is easily bearable then you've got an overnight flight in J or F to Heathrow. Give yourself a few hours transit time and you can enjoy the excellent lounges they have at Changi or Chek Lap Kok.

 

[eminere]

With QF, I don't think you won't earn any SC on upgraded class.
You only get SC for the whY/Y/PE fare paid.
So, to get the max SC for J, and some on here disagree with it, P+P where you pay to sit in J, but reduce the fare by paying by the points balance in your QF FF account.

None of this is remotely relevant to the OP's queries.

 

[Mattg]

I find there is often better availability of reward seats out of Singapore or Hong Kong. You can use Qantas points to book on BA SIN-LHR or Cathay HKG-LHR then just buy an economy seat SYD-SIN or SYD-HKG. A day time flight to Sinagpore in Y is easily bearable then you've got an overnight flight in J or F to Heathrow. Give yourself a few hours transit time and you can enjoy the excellent lounges they have at Changi or Chek Lap Kok.

This is all good advice. Don't forget about Johannesburg too as a transit point.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi, I'm a Qantas Frequent Flyer newbie, just getting my head around points & upgrade options. As I've never used points I'm hoping you can help me with a few questions. My goal is travel to Business by upgrading my fare.

• Do I need to purchase an Economy fare first, then use the points upgrade area to request an upgrade? Or can I do the whole thing and just pay the dollar balance after applying points. I'm hoping the latter as I don't want to buy a more expensive Qantas Economy fare and then find out no Business upgrades are available via points.

• Is it generally better value to upgrade from Economy or Flexible Economy as I noticed the points required is less for the latter, but obviously the fare a bit higher.

• How far ahead do you recommended booking to get the best reward availability. This is a holiday so I can be flexible.

Any feedback or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I really, really don't want to burst your bubble but if you are a Bronze frequent flyer then your chances of upgrading an International flight are extremely remote. If you wish to upgrade a domestic flight then simply book a seat on a flight which has a Classic Award in business available. The upgrade will be confirmed instantly. If you want to travel internationally in Business you are much better off saving the points for a Classic Award in Business which you can book from about a year in advance to secure a seat.

 

[dhein]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I guess I was a bit naive in assuming I'd just get the upgrade with enough points. Now the whole status thing makes a bit more sense. A few commented about using points with other airlines and from other hubs outside of Oz. Is there a list of these airlines somewhere? And how does the upgrade process work with them? e.g do I purchase economy tickets from their web site, and then go back to Qantas web site to apply for the Business upgrade.

Cheers

 

[Mattg]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I guess I was a bit naive in assuming I'd just get the upgrade with enough points. Now the whole status thing makes a bit more sense. A few commented about using points with other airlines and from other hubs outside of Oz. Is there a list of these airlines somewhere? And how does the upgrade process work with them? e.g do I purchase economy tickets from their web site, and then go back to Qantas web site to apply for the Business upgrade.

Cheers

You can use Qantas points to book a classic reward/award flight with any oneworld or Qantas partner airline.
oneworld airlines include: Qantas, American Airlines, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines, airberlin, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, LATAM, Finnair, Sri Lankan Airlines, Qatar, Royal Jordanian, S7
Other partners include: Emirates, El Al, Alaska Airlines, Alitalia, Fiji Airways, Jet Airways, China Eastern

It is important to note that you can only use Qantas points to request an upgrade on a Qantas-operated flight with a QF number. The only exception is the LAN flight to Santiago, but this is not relevant in your case. With partner airlines, you'll need to book a classic reward seat.

A final important caveat is that you can't see Malaysia Airlines or Japan Airlines availability on Qantas.com, even though it might exist. You'll need to call Qantas if you want to use points to fly on one of those airlines.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I guess I was a bit naive in assuming I'd just get the upgrade with enough points. Now the whole status thing makes a bit more sense. A few commented about using points with other airlines and from other hubs outside of Oz. Is there a list of these airlines somewhere? And how does the upgrade process work with them? e.g do I purchase economy tickets from their web site, and then go back to Qantas web site to apply for the Business upgrade.

Cheers

You cannot upgrade on any other airline using QFF points. They can only be used to upgrade QF Flights. You can however book Business Class Award Seats on Qantas Partner and One World Airlines.

 

[lilkid28]

In similar situation as you, searching Mel-Lhr/Cdg but couldnt find award seat in J for honeymoon next year May.

Found some J/F for Lhr-Mel via Dubai. Booked 2x one way F with Emirates using Qff points. Now to find my way Melb outbound.. considering buying AA miles for partner airlines J.

 

[dhein]

As others have said, unless you are a top tier frequent flyer then it's unlikely you'll get a points upgrade.

SYD-LHR is a popular route and reward seats are often booked a long way in advance; but if you are not going in peak season and are flexible with your dates then reward seats are still available.

I find there is often better availability of reward seats out of Singapore or Hong Kong. You can use Qantas points to book on BA SIN-LHR or Cathay HKG-LHR then just buy an economy seat SYD-SIN or SYD-HKG. A day time flight to Sinagpore in Y is easily bearable then you've got an overnight flight in J or F to Heathrow. Give yourself a few hours transit time and you can enjoy the excellent lounges they have at Changi or Chek Lap Kok.

Great tip Frank, I just had a look at Classic Rewards options out of SIN & HKG. I also heard that you need to watch out for taxes & fees which can be quite severe. I can't seem to find them anywhere without progressing to the final booking/payment screen. Do you know if there is a way to work this out?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Great tip Frank, I just had a look at Classic Rewards options out of SIN & HKG. I also heard that you need to watch out for taxes & fees which can be quite severe. I can't seem to find them anywhere without progressing to the final booking/payment screen. Do you know if there is a way to work this out?

The taxes and fees aren't usually an issue - it's the Qantas imposed fuel surcharges that are the main cost. Not all airlines pass on fuel surcharges for award bookings, but QF does.

you can go to ITA (.com) and enter in your proposed itinerary (route) and look at a fare breakdown (make sure you select business class to get the full taxes ex LHR).

You'll see 'YQ' (fuel surcharge) is hefty.

If you fly Cathay Pacific, fuel surcharges are regulated from Hong Kong, so the fuel component can be a lot less.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>
you can go to ITA (.com) and enter in your proposed itinerary (route) and look at a fare breakdown (make sure you select business class to get the full taxes ex LHR).

<snip>.

Did you mean IATA.org? Went there and can't find what you mentioned - a link, please?

 

[dhein]

Great tip!

It the Google Matrix site.