International upgrade question

[ashleyn]

My wife and I are booked on a QF SIN to FRA in September. I paid a bit extra for an upgradable fare and hope to use points to upgrade. Seems I can request that 3 months in advance then wait until 24 hours before to find out if I have been upgraded ? Is this the case, are there any tips or tricks to getting a guarenteed upgrade ?

What's the member's views on the value of using 224,000 points this way ? Better to use on other flights ?

Seems to me the cost of International Business is prohibative so if I want to experience it, this is the only way to do it.

I look forward to your informed replies.

 

[straitman]

My wife and I are booked on a QF SIN to FRA in September. I paid a bit extra for an upgradable fare and hope to use points to upgrade. Seems I can request that 3 months in advance then wait until 24 hours before to find out if I have been upgraded ? Is this the case, are there any tips or tricks to getting a guarenteed upgrade ?

What's the member's views on the value of using 224,000 points this way ? Better to use on other flights ?

Seems to me the cost of International Business is prohibative so if I want to experience it, this is the only way to do it.

I look forward to your informed replies.

This all depends on your own cost structure, how much you paid for the tickets, what QF status you have, what you really want to do etc. What will you do if one of you is offered an upgrade and the other isn't?

There are a whole lot of complexities. One option is one paid business ticket and one on FF points and remember that an around the world ticket is, relatively, cheaper than a lot of return tickets. ie ATW on a QF ticket ex Australia is about $10000 paid and 280000 FF points for the other ticket. Once again though the availability of the FF ticket will vary with your FF status.

ATW tickets are cheaper if purchased from another country and there are various links to that on this site.

Just a few thoughts.

Good luck :!:

 

[Mal]

Your understanding is pretty much correct.

You can waitlist from 90 days before your flight, until 24 hours until your flight.

Your chance at getting the upgrade relies on a couple of things - your FF status with Qantas (OR the FF status of your "donor" of the points) and the busyness of the cabin to which you want to upgrade to.

(Of course the original booking class does matter.. but you already know that)

You will normally know your success somewhere between trip-24 hours and trip -5 hours. Most upgrades are confirmed the night before travel. It is easy to check - either www.checkmytrip.com or Qantas (check my booking) will show you the success of your upgrade.

Personally I think upgrades are the best use of FF points. It's a little bit of a pity that the changes in 2005 ensured that the cheapest fares aren't eligible for upgrade but that's the way the scheme goes...

My tips to you:

1. Do you have a relative (Husband/Wife, Parent/Step-parent, Domestic Partner/De Facto, Child, including foster & step-child, Brother/Sister, Half Brother/Sister, Grandparent, Grandchild,Son/Daughter-in-law, Brother/Sister-in-law, Father/Mother-in-law, Uncle/Aunt, Nephew/Niece, First cousin) who has a higher QF status than you?

2. Either you or your relative (whoever has the higher status) needs to register exactly 90 days before your flight. Sometimes you need to call up rather than applying online on the 90th day due to the website not letting you register.

3. Sit in hope. if you followed point 2 your chances are as high as they will be on your particular flight. If you have flexibility in your choice of flight (which I assume not seeing you've already booked) there are certain flights you can choose that may improve your chances a little.

Best wishes for a nice upgraded seat

(Also you should re-read the following URL to make sure you understand the upgrade process for international flights. Frequent Flyer - Using Points - Flight Upgrades

 

[NM]

The waitlist is serviced based on the status of the FF member from whose account the points will be used for the upgrade. So if you have an eligible relative who has Platinum FF status with Qantas, then you can enhance your chances with the upgrade lottery by transferring the points to them and having them apply to upgrade your flights.

If you don't have much FF status with Qantas yourselves, then the chances of the upgrade clearing is reduced. Even if a Gold member joins the waitlist 3 months out, if a Platinum member requests and upgrade the day before the flight, they are ahead of the gold member on the waitlist.

Best way to enhance your upgrade chances is to choose a flight that is least likely to sell the business class seats. So avoid days that a popular with business travellers such as Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (for long-haul flights).

 

[parsonstrish]

straitman,
can you please point me in the direction of the links you mentioned in buying atw tickets from another country. I don't know how to put in comments from another post, so hope this makes sense.
cheers

 

[ashleyn]

Thanks for the good info. I have an 'uncle' who is a platinum FF, so I'll go down that path.

 

[straitman]

straitman,
can you please point me in the direction of the links you mentioned in buying atw tickets from another country. I don't know how to put in comments from another post, so hope this makes sense.
cheers

parsonstrish,

I'm trying to find the info for you, though I believe that it was Kiwi Flyer who had or produced the spreadsheet to which I'm referring so hopefully he'll respond shortly.

 

[tuapekastar]

straitman,
can you please point me in the direction of the links you mentioned in buying atw tickets from another country. I don't know how to put in comments from another post, so hope this makes sense.
cheers

And parsonstrish, just click the 'Quote User' button at bottom right of the post you wish to quote, in order put in comments.

 

[serfty]

Thanks for the good info. I have an 'uncle' who is a platinum FF, so I'll go down that path.

Note than max transfer is 100,000 QFF point and each member can only transfer once per year.

Given that it's goint to cost 224,000 point if all upgrades go through, this an important consideration. Especially if you are intending to transfer your points to "uncle QF WP" if you decide to go down that path.

 

[ashleyn]

Good point, I knew there would be a catch somewhere. Oh well, I'll just get in the Q and see what happens, worst case is I'll have enough points for a few award flights.

Thanks

 

[serfty]

... RTW tickets are cheaper if purchased from another country and there are various links to that on this site. ...

There is some really good information on oneWORLD Explorer RTW's and pricing over on FlyerTalk here: The oneworld explorer ticket FAQs

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

parsonstrish,

I'm trying to find the info for you, though I believe that it was Kiwi Flyer who had or produced the spreadsheet to which I'm referring so hopefully he'll respond shortly.

It wasn't me - you may be thinking of wearybiztrvlr on FT?

Links to that spreadsheet and other useful *A stuff here

 

[serfty]

... Seems I can request that 3 months in advance then wait until 24 hours before to find out if I have been upgraded ? Is this the case, are there any tips or tricks to getting a guarenteed upgrade ?. ...

Interesting point about this.

I booked a flight from HKG for 8th April and had been trying to request an upgrade all morning. I kept getting advised that upgrades could only be requested between 90 days and 24 hours and I could not request an upgrade until 8th January.

Anyway I called Qantas and it took about 30 seconds for the upgrade request to be lodged; it's now showing online.

I guess there a software issue on the web site.

 

[Commuter]

Serfty, I suspect there may be a UTC issue - could a component of the software be running on the UTC (11 hours behind the Sydney time)?

 

[serfty]

I still was unable to request on line after 11am yesterday (00:00 UTC)

Thinking about it, this may be more related to the actual scheduled departure time of the flight. It's 21:10 HKG time on 8th April; that's 23:10 east coast Oz.

I postulate that some overzealous software engineer arranged for the web programming to go to this detail and It would not have worked online until very late last night. No such issue with the Qantas Mainframe systems.

Oh well, I may have the jump on any other WPs who waited until able to successfully request on the web.

 

[straitman]

It wasn't me - you may be thinking of wearybiztrvlr on FT?

Links to that spreadsheet and other useful *A stuff here

Thanks Kiwi Flyer, that's the one I was refering to. I had a copy but had lost the link.