CBR - LAX Business with points / upgrade?

[MikeG]

Hey there. I'm planning to
Fly to LAX and back at the end of October and have AA Platinum, Virgin America Gold, velocity bronze and qantas red ff status.
Most of my points are in QFF although I have some points in American Express...

Does anyone have any strategies to buy upgrade to business? Cheapest economy fares are Air NZ and Virgin Australia (-$1000 return), though qantas and AA are only around $1250 return.

My guess is buy qantas flights and upgrade with qff points...

I should have close to 100,000qff points by March. Prefer to not spend them all

Any ideas would be appreciated...

 

[trooper]

All the threads Ive seen here indicate that buying Economy and trying to upgrade on QF is EXTREMELY difficult without status. Upgrading Y to J SYD-LAX ONE WAY seems to be 72000 points..... but with no status the chances of it clearing are reportedly miniscule...

I'm sure someone with more knowledge of this will be along soon.

You could purchase Premium Economy on NZ... then bid for a "one up" upgrade as they call it... (you cant buy Economy and upgrade that way to J\Biz... only to Y+...its a ONE Up program... lol)

 

[MikeG]

OK so if upgrading is unlikely, then maybe I should look at paying for one of my flights with cash and the other with points for business or premium economy... QANTAS is down to just under $900 for SYD-LAX return in economy. Yikes!!! $3500 for Premium Economy and $5600 business.

M



M

 

[trooper]

What dates? NZ has some killer Y+ prices at times this year....

 

[MikeG]

depart: Sun 29 Oct
return: Sat 4 Nov

 

[trooper]

AUD$2725 for the whole month! That's SYD-LAX return in Y+...

Pretty good price that.....and amusingly you can come home LAX-RAR-AKL-SYD

 

[MikeG]

I ended up going economy for $885 SYD-LAX with QF. Might try an upgrade with points and see how I go. No guarantees I guess. As it's an O class ticket, there's a snowflake's chance in hell of an upgrade...