Points upgrade predicament

[cmon0005]

Or were bumped to J

Congrats on the op-up.

Yeah I think that may have been the case, I could see at the Premium Econ/Business boarding gate there were at least 6 Boarding passes lying there waiting to give Y+ passengers OP-UPs to J I presume.

 

[cmon0005]

Here's my small trip report:

SYD-SIN (QF A380)
Allocated row 50 bulkhead at fron of Y online.
Confirmed J upgrade for 2nd leg.
Arrived at Check-in 2 hours before flight.

Premium Economy/Qantas Club/Silver check-in line was busy, so I thought I would join the Business line considering a)one of my legs was business and b)according to QFF website "Priority check-in at The Qantas Club or Business counters regardless of the class you are flying"

Got to front of the queue and check-in agent asked are you flying business I said yes on my 2nd leg, this agent then gave me a snarl and said this is only for passengers who are travelling J the whole way.. I was ready to give this agent a piece of my mind, but decided to keep calm.
Showed the agent my Ticket and when agent saw my Qantas Club Silver/One world ruby status written on it the agent then shut up.
As far as I am concerned I should have been able to use the Business queue, right??

The agent then quickly did my check-in without any pleasentries, litterally threw the passport accross to me, I then proceeded to immigration.

Went to QF J lounge, enjoyed some nice food and wine.

Got to the gate 10 mins before check-in was to open, only to find out that our flight would be delayed up to an hour maybe more due to Mechanical fault..

Back to the J lounge again, asked the lounge agent if this delay would effect my 2nd leg connection, as I only had 1 1/2 hours between connections.
She said it may be effected, if it did then QF would put me up in accom in SIN.

Mechanical problem was fixed 30 mins later, which is when we began to board and I got my OP-UP to PE at the gate.

Boarded straight away with no queue (other than waiting in Y line, before receiving OP-UP).

In PE CSM came around to every passenger and spoke to each one of us by name and welcomed us onboard and asked about our connections.etc.

Champagne was great whilst boarding. Seats and cabin were great, cabin crew were probably the best I have ever experienced on QF.
Wine was free flowing, and the flight attendants remembered everyone's name and wine choice throughout the flight without looking at the manifest, Impressive!

Anyways, the flight managed to make up time in the air and I made my connection to another QF flight (with 25 mins to spare!).

2nd leg SIN-BOM and took off ontime on my points upgrade row 1 J (A330-300).
Champagne was no way as good as the 1st leg PE.
The service was not as personal in J as compared to the PE 1st leg.
One staff admitted to us that they were understaffed that flight and apologised for the slow service.
The skybed was a little disappointing too, I found them a bit small compared to some other airlines. (are the A380 skybeds any different?)
All in all a little disappointed with the J service considering how good PE was on the flight before.

Was good to get off the plane and straight to immigration with no queues. My Business tagged bag came off within 5 mins of the baggage carosel starting.
I was out of the airport within another 5 mins whizing through customs with only 2 people in front of me.

Considering my experience in PE and J, in the future I would rather fly PE!

 

[Ewing]

Considering my experience in PE and J, in the future I would rather fly PE!

+1

I've only flown international J a few times on Qantas, and my experience in PE service-wise has been far superior to J and far more personalised. I'd only book in J now if I needed the sleep (and as this itinerary is CBR-SYD-LAX-AUS with an arrival in AUS at 6pm, I'll probably just sleep there to reduce the jet lag).

I do sometimes wonder if the service difference is status related - ie: as an SG in the PE cabin it's possible that there are no/few WP/CL pax there, but unlikely in the J cabin.

We'll see if that experience continues next month on QF11 and QF12 (SYD-LAX and LAX-SYD). Booked in PE, and have seat 38K in each direction.

I am waitlisted for an upgrade to business in both directions, mainly as I haven't tried the A380 skybeds yet (only 747), but I won't be disappointed if I don't get it (and may end up cancelling the upgrade to save the points)

I'll also be WP on the LAX-SYD leg (I hit WP on the SYD-LAX leg) so it'll be interesting to see how that affects service as well

 

[Dave Noble]

Premium Economy/Qantas Club/Silver check-in line was busy, so I thought I would join the Business line considering a)one of my legs was business and b)according to QFF website "Priority check-in at The Qantas Club or Business counters regardless of the class you are flying"

As far as I am concerned I should have been able to use the Business queue, right??

Depends on whether there is a Qantas Club check in desk. If no Qantas Club check in desk, then can use the business check in

From the FAQs Priority Check-in for Premium Economy

Priority Check-in for Premium Economy

Question
Is there priority check-in for Premium Economy?

Answer
Yes. Premium Economy customers are able to check-in at a priority counter, along with Qantas Club members with the exception of London Heathrow airport. Premium Economy customers are recommended to check-in two hours prior to their flight.

 

[Aenveigh]

Depends on whether there is a Qantas Club check in desk. If no Qantas Club check in desk, then can use the business check in

From the FAQs Priority Check-in for Premium Economy

Surely as PS the OP gets checkin at Business regardless?
I thought Business checkin applies only to QP members in the case there are no QP counters, but if you have any status you get Business if you want (not that it's always the shortest line, but anyways).

 

[straitman]

Surely as PS the OP gets checkin at Business regardless?
I thought Business checkin applies only to QP members in the case there are no QP counters, but if you have any status you get Business if you want (not that it's always the shortest line, but anyways).

Sometimes the lines are broken into more sections. Something along the lines of QP, PS & Y+, SG, WP & J. I am not sure if my break downs are completely accurate but I'm sure you get the drift. In this case the PS would not use the J checkin line.