Business Class to London

[aussiegirl]

Hi there,

I am looking to travel one-way to London in May'06
I notice that QFF Business class availability is non-existent. Is it just me or does Qantas offer little or no business class award seats?

Would me paying for an economy and then attempting the upgrade with QFF points be a better option, or can I safely assume that the absence of business class award seats mean that business class upgrade awards would also be non-existent?

This is for the Melbourne - London route.

Thanks for your help...

 

[Mal]

May is in peak tourist season for the UK, so seats would be pretty scarce.

There is some availability in June (at least June 5), but doubt if that helps too much.

Qantas releases a small number of seats in each class on flights. How many they release (and if/when they release more) is not really known.

Qantas FF's can access the seats 353 days in advance, which means that people have already grabbed the available seats anything up to ~280 days ago (May/June last year).

There are chances that more seats will become available leading up to May, but I don't know the likelyhood of this happening.

Frequent Flyer Friend (http://www.frequentflyerfriend.com) is one way you can try and keep track of newly released seats.

Alternatively, what you might want to try is some alternative routings using a Partner award. Eg. MEL-HKG (Qantas)/ HKG-LHR (Cathay) or something similar. You would need to call up Qantas and ask them to do some searches for you to try this. You also pay an assisted booking fee of 2500 points per passenger if you book this way.

You could also try and get flights to London from Brisbane or Sydney, then get a domestic award (or paid ticket) and then connect to it.

As for your upgrade chances, a lot of that depends on your status with Qantas. Are you Platinum or Gold? If not, I think your chances are very low. Others may be able to give a better idea of the kind of load on flights to LHR in May.

 

[serfty]

Hi there,

I am looking to travel one-way to London in May'06
I notice that QFF Business class availability is non-existent. Is it just me or does Qantas offer little or no business class award seats?

Would me paying for an economy and then attempting the upgrade with QFF points be a better option, or can I safely assume that the absence of business class award seats mean that business class upgrade awards would also be non-existent?

This is for the Melbourne - London route.

Thanks for your help...

I would suggest having a very close look at the QF29 flights. These have recently been recheduled to depart from MEL and as such, may have greater first/business award availabilty.

They certainly have pleny of WHY availabilty.

 

[macca172]

I flew QF to Paris in October 04. Paid for an economy ticket and requested FF points upgrade to business. Answer "NO" upgrade award seats available on that sector. Ok no probs, left SYD and bingo, knew one of the crew, asked was there any empty seats in business? Answer, yes we are only 1/4 capacity.......the moral to the story "you tell me as I cant figure it out"!

 

[NM]

I flew QF to Paris in October 04. Paid for an economy ticket and requested FF points upgrade to business. Answer "NO" upgrade award seats available on that sector. Ok no probs, left SYD and bingo, knew one of the crew, asked was there any empty seats in business? Answer, yes we are only 1/4 capacity.......the moral to the story "you tell me as I cant figure it out"!

This is now addressed with the new international upgrade waitlist process. Back in October 04, under the previous upgrade rules, there ad to be U seat availability for the upgrade to be cleared. Now, the waitlist is revised in a different manner based on unsold seats rather than availability in a specific fare bucket.

 

[Leumas]

This is now addressed with the new international upgrade waitlist process. Back in October 04, under the previous upgrade rules, there ad to be U seat availability for the upgrade to be cleared. Now, the waitlist is revised in a different manner based on unsold seats rather than availability in a specific fare bucket.

I wonder how many seats they hold back for last-minute sales or will they upgrade as many as possible to fill the cabin/clear the queue...

I assume QF has plenty of stats on each route to know how many to upgrade...

 

[auriga]

I wonder how many seats they hold back for last-minute sales or will they upgrade as many as possible to fill the cabin/clear the queue...

...

I suspect they don't try to fill up the business cabin. Last week, on my late evening flight from Sydney to Singapore, the lower business deck probably only one quarter filled.

 

[markis10]

I wonder how many seats they hold back for last-minute sales or will they upgrade as many as possible to fill the cabin/clear the queue...

...

I suspect they don't try to fill up the business cabin. Last week, on my late evening flight from Sydney to Singapore, the lower business deck probably only one quarter filled.

QF31 is often the available flight at short notice, I suspect its yield has been low and that is why it is not being continued in its current form form next month.

 

[Skyring]

I wonder how many seats they hold back for last-minute sales or will they upgrade as many as possible to fill the cabin/clear the queue...

...

I suspect they don't try to fill up the business cabin. Last week, on my late evening flight from Sydney to Singapore, the lower business deck probably only one quarter filled.

The last thing Qantas (or any other airline) would want to do is fill up business class with freebie upgrades. Full fare paying business class travellers prefer a cabin that isn't full. The idea is to maximise profits, not make economy pax happy.