qantas rewards codes

[laffer]

I am thinking about booking a flight from LHR to Syd in Feb. As the trip is likely to be only for a week the thought of doing it all in economy is not appealing. I have enough points (with a small donation from my partner) to be able to request an upgrade (making sure I book into upgradeable fare code). I use seatcounter.com to check flight availability. But what are the QF upgrade codes to see if an upgrade from regular economy to businss is free? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

 

[serfty]

For international flights Qantas do not have specific published codes for "Upgrades". If you are booked on an eligible fare you can waitlist an upgrade request. These are assessed ~20 hours before the flight. Those requests of passengers with the higher QFF status get priority.

For domestic flights U class is employed for both Business class award bookings and upgrades to Business class from Economy.

Now for international flights, it may by that Qantas use the award categories for upgrades at < 24 hours. As upgrades can no longer be requested at that time, this is conceivable.

These award classes are:

• P - First Class
• U - Business
• Z - Premium Economy
• X - Economy.

 

[laffer]

Oh damn! Thanks Serfty. Hmm. Is £2000 worth it for premium economy? I really do baulk at paying that for what is still an economy seat (even though i lust after the leg room).

 

[serfty]

What you can do is try to book a flight where Business class is likely to be undersold.

Look for high D, I, C numbers or even award (U) availability (rare on that route).

 

[oz_mark]

Oh damn! Thanks Serfty. Hmm. Is £2000 worth it for premium economy? I really do baulk at paying that for what is still an economy seat (even though i lust after the leg room).

On QF it is not a normal economy seat. To some extent the QF version of PE could be viewed as a J- rather than Y+.

(BA is a different story)

 

[simongr]

Some other reference points for you:

- You can apply for both whyY->J and whY-> Y+ upgrades at the same time so that might be something to think about

- Upgrades are awarded in order of status with QF and then time of request within each status bracket. So even if you pick a light load and request 90 days out - if a higher status flier requests an upgrade even 36 hours out - they will be ahead of you in the queue. Not sure of your status but it is something to think about.

S

 

[serfty]

... Upgrades are awarded in order of status with QF and then time of request within each status bracket. ...

There have been some recent reports that while time of request may have some bearing, original booked fare class may have more influence.

In any case, a passenger's QFF status has a greater bearing than either of these in the pecking order.

 

[aus_flyer]

For international flights Qantas do not have specific published codes for "Upgrades". If you are booked on an eligible fare you can waitlist an upgrade request. These are assessed ~20 hours before the flight. Those requests of passengers with the higher QFF status get priority.

For domestic flights U class is employed for both Business class award bookings and upgrades to Business class from Economy.

Now for international flights, it may by that Qantas use the award categories for upgrades at < 24 hours. As upgrades can no longer be requested at that time, this is conceivable.


These award classes are:

• P - First Class
• U - Business
• Z - Premium Economy
• X - Economy.

Although QF don't use international "inventory" for upgrades, it is worth noting that your booking code will change to P, U or Z, if an upgrade is successful.

 

[garyjohn951]

Look for high D, I, C numbers or even award (U) availability (rare on that route).

With the downturn in the economy it has all changed. Looked over the weekend for FEB 2009 and on 12 days there were U seats avaiable for Mel-LHR and 7 on return.

 

[simongr]

Interesting that they have not yet released more J seats later in the year - maybe expecting some improvement...

 

[serfty]

I think that's all part of the "1.5 Million Qantas Classic Award seats" promotion for this christmas/new year ...

 

[garyjohn951]

Interesting that they have not yet released more J seats later in the year - maybe expecting some improvement...

wishful thinking if they are.

International travel is already down 7% and going down......................

Number of associates I know who have or are curbing travel and using PC methods of dealing with matters is increasing,

bottom line, is if you need to travel it better be worth it!!

 

[kiwitripper64]

With all the doom and gloom, what are qantas doing to make travel easier and more enoyable? Remember that we pay their wages by choosing their airline.
Recent experiences seem to show that qantas still have huge variations in staffs ability, ( some are supurb) and all the new rules have complicated matters further. AS for the trans tasman seating policy, Air NZ are way ahead for freq fliers.

 

[JohnK]

I think that's all part of the "1.5 Million Qantas Classic Award seats" promotion for this christmas/new year ...

I have not noticed a difference in the number of seats available although I am also not qualified to speculate on how many award seats are usually available around that time of the year. From what I can see there is nothing available for a few days around the date I want to return from BKK/SIN to SYD/BNE. It looks I will have to resort to purchasing a one-way airfare.

 

[serfty]

I have not noticed a difference in the number of seats available ....

When I posted that, the promotion had just begun and availability was high - now it's over a week later and much of the available appears to have been snapped up in the interim.

 

[JohnK]

When I posted that, the promotion had just begun and availability was high - now it's over a week later and much of the available appears to have been snapped up in the interim.

I was actually trying last week and the availability around my dates was non existant. Admittedly I was trying to get an award seat from BKK/HKG/SIN which is near impossible at the best of times. It appears no one wants to fly New Years Eve and New Years Day but everyone wants to fly on 2, 3, 4 January. Most flights are OK from 5 January onwards which is too late for me as I need to be back at work on 5 January....