International Upgrades - Improved Experience

[TonyHancock]

I'm likely to be putting in for an upgrade because I'm in Y. If the upgrades are processed seven days in advance there may be cases, my forthcoming trip to Shanghai is a case in point, where I will know before I set off that the I will be in J both ways. This impact what I will wear for the flight, what case and backpack I will take, and also give me a chance to pick a better seat. (I like the E & F seats so that I am not disturbed, or I am not disturbing my neighbour when nature calls.

I have three different backpacks and two carry on cases depending on where I'm going and the class I am traveling.

In the past if I have been in Y I have had to lump it and sometimes, yes may the lord strike me down, check luggage. :shock:

In retrospect I don't disagree that 24 hours makes much difference, 48 hours is better, but 7 days is useful. Problem is I'm just not seeing that even with 9 seats available in J.

 

[simongr]

OK -so I can kind of see the importance for Y -> J but still not so much J -> F.

It makes a difference to me... fly F and i know i can take whatever i want on board. Fly Y or J and I have to be more careful about the weight of my carry-on and juggle between that and my checked luggage.

I think it also makes as difference in the way you mentally prepare for the flight. not so much an issue now A380 J beds are full flat... but in the days of the 747 whether I was going to get no sleep (J) or plenty of sleep (F) made a difference to how much sleep I would have to get at home before I left (in place of doing other stuff which needed to be done).

How do you deal though with not having your return flight being assured either?

I have said this repeatedly to no avail that some form of confirmable upgrade on booking would switch some of my J travel from others to QF.

 

[TonyHancock]

I have said this repeatedly to no avail that some form of confirmable upgrade on booking would switch some of my J travel from others to QF.

I am with you 100% on this. Exactly the same scenario for me.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

OK -so I can kind of see the importance for Y -> J but still not so much J -> F.



How do you deal though with not having your return flight being assured either?

I have said this repeatedly to no avail that some form of confirmable upgrade on booking would switch some of my J travel from others to QF.

I think everyone agrees with you that we would like some system for upgrades similar to domestic... an allocation available for advance upgrades, and the rest available 'on request' (or up to 7 days, as we have now). Qantas claims this 'new' procedure is in response to customer feedback, which i said at the time I highly doubted because customer feedback would have supported an entirely different upgrade scenario.

IF I was ever travelling on a return biz class ticket and only upgraded on the outbound, then the return would be managed accordingly... that is, more sleep the night before, not bothering to eat a meal in the lounge because you'd have to eat on the plane (or be kept awake anyway), and putting more of my carry-on into my luggage before going to the airport.

IIRC I have only ever put in for a single upgrade with QF, about 10 or 12 years ago when I was put on a QF flight by another carrier due to irrops. They only protected me in business class, and I upgraded for 30K (not a bad deal!). I wouldn't risk it these days. But then QF doesn't get my business anymore

 

[TonyHancock]

New development for me.

With seven days to my return flight from PVG to SYD my upgrade has been confirmed. (SMS received too, so that worked for me.) ExpertFlyer was showing T9 C9 D6 I5.

Three and a half days to the SYD-PVG segment and no upgrade with ExpertFlyer showing J9 C9 D9 I0

The difference I can see is in discount J availability. (As in I availability.)

 

[TonyHancock]

With less than 24 hours to go to my flight I can give my feedback on the "improved upgrade experience". As MelUser noted in an earlier post the "improved experience" is only really going to feel improved if the upgrade is confirmed.

The process started six days ago for me, and I tried to correlate availability shown on ExpertFlyer with my success or lack of success.

T-7 days J9 C9 D7 I1 U0
T-6 days J9 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-5 days J9 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-4 days J8 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-3 days J9 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-2 days J8 C8 D8 I0 U0
T-1 days J8 C8 D8 I0
T-22 hours J2 C2 D2 I2

My upgrade from Y to J was confirmed twenty two and a half hours from departure and I duly received an SMS. I noted the change in availability from 8 seats down to 2 and assumed that six upgrades had probably been processed. (In reality I'm not sure it is safe to make assumptions given my lack of knowledge of this whole mysterious process.)

I had already been upgraded for my return flight and had received the SMS seven days from departure. Availability at the time of upgrade was: J9 C9 D6 I5.

In both cases I was allocated seat 1F. (I would have gone for 1E or 1F so was pretty happy.) I noticed that 1E and 1F were blocked on ExpertFlyer about 72 hours from departure of my outward flight.

Seven days out and 48 hours out the "waitlisted" J booking appeared in my itinerary. The one at 7 days disappeared after about 24 hours, and the one at 48 hours was there for an hour.

So was this an improved experience for me? Yes a little better I think, mainly because of the upgrade 7 days out from my return journey. This was the more important of the two because it is an overnight 10+ hours flight.

I'll probably never understand why QF couldn't confirm my outward journey earlier, but that is the mystery of yield I guess. I do understand that QF wants the opportunity to maximise it's revenue though.

It seems to me that the early upgrade is based upon discount business availability, but this is just a sample of two flights so I could be completely wrong.

QF is clearly being more proactive and processing upgrades earlier and later so I take back my criticisms on this score.

Finally if QF does want some feedback I would say please look at the possibilities of limited confirmed upgrades at time of booking for status pax. If I had a couple of these a year I would be flying BA and EY less.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

T-7 days J9 C9 D7 I1 U0
T-6 days J9 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-5 days J9 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-4 days J8 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-3 days J9 C9 D8 I0 U0
T-2 days J8 C8 D8 I0 U0
T-1 days J8 C8 D8 I0
T-22 hours J2 C2 D2 I2

My upgrade from Y to J was confirmed twenty two and a half hours from departure and I duly received an SMS. I noted the change in availability from 8 seats down to 2 and assumed that six upgrades had probably been processed. (In reality I'm not sure it is safe to make assumptions given my lack of knowledge of this whole mysterious process.)

Yes, I think it is a fairly good guess that there were 6 upgrades processed.

The remaining 2 seats in the cabin QF doesn't think they are going to sell at all, and they are now available across all fare buckets. (If they thought they were going to sell them at last minute they would have remained at full fare J2 with zeros across the rest)

 

[Katie]

I'm curious to see if the improved experience applies only when the WP requests an upgrade. We are flying SYD-HNL on Fri, and I've requested upgrades for us using Mr Katie's account (Disc Y to J, 2xSGs, 1xWP in family group, one PNR). The other upgrades have been requested using my account for this trip. I think the last time I checked Flight Stats last week, there seemed to be a fair amount of availability in the J classes, but I can't remember exactly. Definitely 9 seats available, can't remember C/D/I/U. At the moment, there also seems to be heaps of seats available for selection in the Y cabin. Almost every middle row of three is available to me. Though that could mean lots of NBs/non-status pax unable to select seats yet ... and Friday is a day for both JQ3 and QF3, so I wonder if that affects availability ...
Curious Katie!

 

[German123]

Hi guys,

I need your advice please. I have enough points to upgrade my flight form MEL to LHR from J to F. But as I am not a frequent Quantas flyer (not Australian) I only have a Silver status.

I am now considering to change the date of my flight in order to have a better chance to get a F-seat in the Quantas lottery...What is from your experience the departure date with the higher chance of getting an F-upgrade? Right now I would fly on Saturday...

Thanks for all your advice

 

[mannej]

I would think there would be nil chance of an upgrade on QUANTAS

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I would think there would be nil chance of an upgrade on QUANTAS

I'm sure QANTAS doesn't really mind if people call it Quantas, as long as they book tickets.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi guys,

I need your advice please. I have enough points to upgrade my flight form MEL to LHR from J to F. But as I am not a frequent Quantas flyer (not Australian) I only have a Silver status.

I am now considering to change the date of my flight in order to have a better chance to get a F-seat in the Quantas lottery...What is from your experience the departure date with the higher chance of getting an F-upgrade? Right now I would fly on Saturday...

Thanks for all your advice

Hi German123
Welcome to AFF
Upgrades to LHR are not easy to come by.
Two things which are likely to increase your chances are:
Request on QF flights operated by a 747 aircraft . A380 upgrades are very few and far between
Fly during school holidays.

It is possible to look at the loads on all classes for the flight you wish to upgrade on
http://expertflyer.com

You are more likely to be upgraded on a flight which has no/few J seats available for sale closer to departure.

There are many more eminent experts than myself on the forum but the above information should get you started.

 

[German123]

Ok guys..beside spelling advice maybe some real content stuff ;-)

I thought about following:
Q: Who can afford flying First?
A: Realistically: Either wealthy private persons paying for the trip or business guys upgrading on points (I am sure the majority of companies do not allow flying First)

Q2: When do the majority of business persons travel?
A: From my own experience being a frequent traveller in Europe especially Friday (return flight) and Sunday (outgoing flight). Probabaly a lot of guys travel during the week as well (??). Therefore I assume flying on Saturday should provide me with the biggest chance to finally really get the upgrade?

Please challenge

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Ok guys..beside spelling advice maybe some real content stuff ;-)

I thought about following:
Q: Who can afford flying First?
A: Realistically: Either wealthy private persons paying for the trip or business guys upgrading on points (I am sure the majority of companies do not allow flying First)

Q2: When do the majority of business persons travel?
A: From my own experience being a frequent traveller in Europe especially Friday (return flight) and Sunday (outgoing flight). Probabaly a lot of guys travel during the week as well (??). Therefore I assume flying on Saturday should provide me with the biggest chance to finally really get the upgrade?

Please challenge

Or you can simply buy AA miles at a heavy discount and redeem QF awards for next to nothing. the current promo was offering First class to anywhere in Asia (from AU) for around $813 plus a hundred or so in tax. That allowed MEL-SYD (QF J)-HKG (QF F)-PVG (KA F). (The bonus was 30% bonus miles AND a 15% discount in cash price). You could buy the same itinerary now for around $1000 plus tax.

Lots of other people signing up for credit cards in the US or UK with lots of bonus miles as well.

Those people will be taking the seats even on a sunday!

F cabins are not necessarily tied to only business people flying.

 

[stark]

Just to add my experience of new process. I had J to F upgrade come through at about 47h 50m before my flight earlier this week (lhr-sin). Whole flight was wide open though, even had P1 availability a week before the flight.

Off topic, but I absolutely loved my first trip in A380 first

 

[Canny man]

Unfortunately there still seems to be a blip in ticketing.

My J to F upgrade came through one week prior to flight - excellent.

Day before the flight, F host phones up and arranges spa, any special requests etc - excellent

At the BNE J lounge, 'sorry sir there's a problem, this hasn't been ticketed' - not excellent. at all
First thought was it was a balls up by my travel managment company (they have history in this respect) but it later transpired it was a QF error as they had cancelled the J seat and had somehow not completed the F change.

Standing, waiting anxiously to know whether I was flying or not was definitely not part of the F experience. At one point I had to hand over my credit card to pay for the ticket again (wasn't required in the end).

The happy ending is that I did fly, and the QF service to JNB in F was absolutely outstanding.

 

[ajca]

Or you can simply buy AA miles at a heavy discount and redeem QF awards for next to nothing. the current promo was offering First class to anywhere in Asia (from AU) for around $813 plus a hundred or so in tax. That allowed MEL-SYD (QF J)-HKG (QF F)-PVG (KA F). (The bonus was 30% bonus miles AND a 15% discount in cash price). You could buy the same itinerary now for around $1000 plus tax.

MEL_Traveller - that is an intriguing possibility. But I have had a look and can't find an 'P' or 'U' availability on SYD-HKG on for many, many months. Am I missing something? Also do you know how many AA points SYD-HKG would require if you could find availability?

e.g. from what I can see SYD-HKG one way in J would be 80,000 AA miles, which is 28,000 more miles than you can buy

 

[Danger]

SYD-HKG in J is a mere 35k AA miles.

 

[ajca]

SYD-HKG in J is a mere 35k AA miles.

Thanks Danger, that is awesome. Does it need U availability?

 

[serfty]

Absolutely U is needed.

Posted on a wing and a prayer ...