Empty seats in Business Class and Upgrade declined

[ecg]

Been knocked beck on requested upgrades PER-DRW but still 7 seats available. Not a problem at QC, upgrade processed straight away...still 6 seats free on the flight. Can't figure out why original request was not granted but that's life.
Don't forget ff points are not free and Qantas makes most profit from the ff program, so I am paying for business class fare when I use them.

You are not "paying" anywhere near what a revenue business class passenger would pay when you upgrade with points. Hence they won't grant the upgrade request until they are certain they can't otherwise sell those seats.

 

[kempvet]

would think that the answer would be that only a couple of upgraded seats are released per flight, probably there was already upgraded pax sitting in J

 

[markis10]

Been knocked beck on requested upgrades PER-DRW but still 7 seats available. Not a problem at QC, upgrade processed straight away...still 6 seats free on the flight. Can't figure out why original request was not granted but that's life.
Don't forget ff points are not free and Qantas makes most profit from the ff program, so I am paying for business class fare when I use them.

Its all about yield control, the experts think they can get better money for the seats than using points redemptions, keeping J free allows them to sell that seat in a lot of fare buckets.

 

[roncritch]

Thanks kempvet and Markis...but I was checking for the month before....and for last 3 weeks always 7 Jseats available........7 out of 12 seats on 737-800... was obviously not going to sell.... so strange how they work it out. Last time when I got upgrade there were only 4 seats available on a PER-BNE flight...been knocked back on 2 requests since then. Love the QC upgrade!! lol

Note for Red Roo....not a problem but it seems to me that it would be better to say something like--- "sorry your upgrade cannot be granted" rather than the abrupt "Your request has been declined"...just seems more friendlier to me

 

[roncritch]

more friendlier??? sorry about my grammar!!

 

[opusman]

Not sure if you're aware, but upgrade awards come out of the same bucket as classic award flights. So before you book your paid Y flight, do a dummy classic award J booking and check for availability - if there is, you're almost certainly going to be able to upgrade the Y flight online straight after booking it.

 

[Boogs]

Not sure if you're aware, but upgrade awards come out of the same bucket as classic award flights. So before you book your paid Y flight, do a dummy classic award J booking and check for availability - if there is, you're almost certainly going to be able to upgrade the Y flight online straight after booking it.

Nice tip. Does it work for both DOM and INT flts??

 

[Nizar]

Nice tip. Does it work for both DOM and INT flts??

I'd be keen to know this too

 

[opusman]

Domestic only, international upgrades are always on a waitlist basis.

 

[oz74]

Did a points upgrade today for a melb-syd trip that we have coming up in August and was approved straight away.
The points disappeared from our accounts maybe 10 mins after the upgrade was approved and the whole process was simple, quick and easy.
We have another upgrade request in for an upgrade to F in August also, hope that one proves to be just as easy to!

 

[dairyfloss]

Domestic only, international upgrades are always on a waitlist basis.

Note also that domestic flights as a part of an international booking are also treated as international... I have a request in for the 1st segment of a SYD-BNE-SIN flight later in the month, classic awards are available on the flight, but upgrade stays in wait.

Edit 14-Jun: Correcting after advice given in post #34 from ChrisCh - this only applies If you request a Flight Upgrade Award for an itinerary that includes an international and a domestic leg with the same flight number.

 

[Boogs]

Domestic only, international upgrades are always on a waitlist basis.

Thanks Opusman!

you really do learn something new every day on AFF

 

[macrop]

Note also that domestic flights as a part of an international booking are also treated as international... I have a request in for the 1st segment of a SYD-BNE-SIN flight later in the month, classic awards are available on the flight, but upgrade stays in wait.

I'm not sure if trans Tasman flights are done differently but last week did PER-MEL-AKL on a very cheap sale fare. I requested a domestic upgrade a couple of weeks out (plane was an international A330) with an instant upgrade for 16k points. The international leg to Auckland was not upgradeable due it being a super cheap fare but they had a new boarding pass waiting for me (an Op-Up) when I rocked up at the Flounge. Was an awesome gift from Qantas and much appreciated.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Note also that domestic flights as a part of an international booking are also treated as international... I have a request in for the 1st segment of a SYD-BNE-SIN flight later in the month, classic awards are available on the flight, but upgrade stays in wait.

They're not actually - you can confirm upgrades on domestic connections (ie. to or from international flights), provided that there is inventory available in the U bucket, while still waitlisting on international flights as per the normal procedure. Personal examples include the BNE-SYD leg of a BNE-SYD-HKG-PEK journey, and the MEL-BNE leg of a LAX-MEL-BNE. Both upgrades were confirmed (and points deducted) months before the flights.

It sounds like your upgrade has gone on the waitlist, most likely because there wasn't enough upgrade inventory available when you requested it. I'd suggest cancelling your SYD-BNE upgrade request and re-submitting it, as QF's upgrade systems may not have picked up the change in availability. Usually, this will cause the upgrade to be granted instantly (provided that there is enough U availability).

If you're still having problems, I'd be happy to check the availability of upgrades for your flight. There is a separate thread for such requests, though I'm also happy to just do it via PM (as I rarely read that thread unless directed to it - it's very long)!

 

[dairyfloss]

They're not actually - you can confirm upgrades on domestic connections (ie. to or from international flights), provided that there is inventory available in the U bucket, while still waitlisting on international flights as per the normal procedure. Personal examples include the BNE-SYD leg of a BNE-SYD-HKG-PEK journey, and the MEL-BNE leg of a LAX-MEL-BNE. Both upgrades were confirmed (and points deducted) months before the flights.

It sounds like your upgrade has gone on the waitlist, most likely because there wasn't enough upgrade inventory available when you requested it. I'd suggest cancelling your SYD-BNE upgrade request and re-submitting it, as QF's upgrade systems may not have picked up the change in availability. Usually, this will cause the upgrade to be granted instantly (provided that there is enough U availability).

If you're still having problems, I'd be happy to check the availability of upgrades for your flight. There is a separate thread for such requests, though I'm also happy to just do it via PM (as I rarely read that thread unless directed to it - it's very long)!

Thanks, ChrisCh - looks like I've misread a line some time ago about it on the QF Upgrades page... it says "If you request a Flight Upgrade Award for an itinerary that includes an international and a domestic leg with the same flight number, this will be treated as an international Flight Upgrade Award." ... I mistook 'flight number' for 'itinerary', I will have to guess!

I've looked again this morning, and there are certainly still J Classic Awards available on this flight, FlightStats shows U availability as well J/9 C/9 D/9 I/4 U/7. I'll try to cancel and re-submit... fingers crossed!

Cheers.

 

[dairyfloss]

I've looked again this morning, and there are certainly still J Classic Awards available on this flight, FlightStats shows U availability as well J/9 C/9 D/9 I/4 U/7. I'll try to cancel and re-submit... fingers crossed!

Done... and DONE!!! "Your domestic upgrade has been confirmed."
Thanks again for the advice ChrisCh!

 

[equus]

Don't cancel - just ring the call centre and they can make it clear. Have had this happen on the QF8 Dom leg BNE-SYD and a quick call and the upgrade was confirmed.

 

[easypete]

Is there anyone that can provide a little advice on International classic award bookings and upgrades?

We have a classic award booking in business from SYD>CDG then (making our own way to DXB) DXB>SYD. The return leg for DXB>SYD is routed via Perth which then changes into Domestic J from PER>SYD. Obviously our preference would be to get a direct flight to SYD and avoid the connection and domestic J in Perth, or even come home via a different international routing eg via BKK or SIN.

In peoples experience, what are the likelihood of extra Classic award seats becoming available closer to the travel dates?

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Done... and DONE!!! "Your domestic upgrade has been confirmed."
Thanks again for the advice ChrisCh!

My pleasure - glad to hear that your upgrade went through!

Don't cancel - just ring the call centre and they can make it clear. Have had this happen on the QF8 Dom leg BNE-SYD and a quick call and the upgrade was confirmed.

There's no need to call QF if a domestic upgrade hasn't been granted - if upgrades are showing as available, simply cancelling and resubmitting the request should resolve the issue (much faster than waiting on the phone). Of course, if that still doesn't work, they could then sort it out for you.

The exception would be if one were ticketed on QF8 DFW-SYD. In that case, the domestic BNE-SYD flight would be on the same flight number (you'd receive a 'Dallas to Sydney' boarding pass on check-in), and would therefore be treated as an international upgrade request.