Qantas [strategy to make most of points and upgrade to business class?]

[Goldenage61]

Hello. The more I read, the more I get confused - so I am hoping you can help with my learning curve.

My wife and I are in our early 60s and live in Adelaide. We are going to Los Angeles and then probably New York and some other US cities, and back to Australia this time next year.

The Goal is to upgrade to business class with Qantas.

What is best strategy based on the following?

• My thinking is to pay non-sale Economy fare for the USA trip and then upgrade to business class on points. If I book early and put in for an upgrade on points, do I have a better chance of achieving this?
• I have over one million Qantas points – but it has taken 35 years to rack them up!
• Bronze status. (Been using other airlines.) I’m 4800 points off lifetime silver.
• We intend to travel overseas every year now because we are in our early 60s. So I don’t want to use up all my points in one or two trips.
• My FF annual anniversary is 30 September.
• We’re open to the idea of some domestic “status runs”.
• I have two non-productive credit cards that I will cancel and get two new ones that earn good points.
• As a side note, I have a business but it’s a partnership, so credit card points are shared and I can’t move these to personal use, as I understand it.
• I also have 97,000 points in Points Club and need 53,000 more by 30 September this year.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[tdimdad]

The seat upgrade to business is perhaps the easiest to answer. The formula is commercial info held by Qantas but the signals gathered point to something like this:
1) PE to J requests are processed first, then Y to J requests.
2) The FF status comes next. P1's are processed first, then Platinums, etc down the list.
3) The fare class inside your travel class matters, too: flex fares are done before saver fares before sale fares before reward tickets.
4) The age of your request may factor in, as well.

Additionally, single requests are fulfilled easier than for a couple, let alone familes.

Perhaps the best thing for you right now is to build status. Platinum would be very helpful but Gold is a reasonable option. This, of course, only if you value the business cabin so much that it's worth doing status runs (and still be uncertain about the upgrade). You might as well save that money and pay outright for the J tickets to guarantee the seats.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

welcome to AFF goldenage61!

If you are bronze, you should almost certainly expect to fly in the cabin you booked. Your chances of an upgrade should be considered virtually ‘nil’. (In which case you’ll be pleasantly surprised!)

If you have a million points, consider looking at classic rewards plus flights. These cost more, but will confirm you into business class.

Given you shouldn’t rely on your points to upgrade, I would absolutely suggest you use your points in a big chunk… there’s no point saving points here and there in the hope of securing an upgrade.

Splurge, go all out, get business from the outset. Worry about future trips at a later time.

I’d be using the points for america. Simply because if you are going to holiday in europe next year, there are really cheap options for business class, unlike to the usa.

You can get business class all-in to Europe for around $5000. Even less if you fly economy to asia, and pick up business class from there.

Don’t get hung up on status! Don’t get hung up on paying extra for non-sale fares in the hope of getting upgraded.

Use your points if you can!

 

[flyingfan]

Agree with @MEL_Traveller 's points ... although they may have meant hung up rather than help up?

While the occasional miracle happens and is posted about on AFF, overall your chances of getting upgraded to LAX as a bronze are extremely slim and you should fully expect to fly in the cabin you booked. I don't believe how early you buy your flight is a big factor in upgrade chances (unless you book the day before, when upgrades are already being processed as also mentioned above, in which case your chances will be even worse).

I'm an avid status runner myself but at the risk of being a hypocrite in your case I'd suggest paying outright in cash or look for those Classic Plus Rewards if you really want business. You could spend thousands on runs to get to platinum and still not score an upgrade.

 

[Human]

I have two non-productive credit cards that I will cancel and get two new ones that earn good points

You’ll always be at a disadvantage if you lock yourself into Qantas points. Consider credit cards that earn flexible points currencies that can be transferred into whatever FF program has availability.

Want to Fly to Europe? Collect a Flexible Points Currency!

Credit card rewards programs offer flexible points currencies that you can transfer to whichever airline has the best deal when you book.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[CaptJCool]

welcome to AFF goldenage61!


non-sale fares in the hope of getting upgraded.

Use your points if you can!

Fly More pay less

The great difficulty is getting out of Australia. Too many members and few flights and then few F or J seats with cheap points on each of those flights (787 has no First class cabin)


Once out it’s a lot easier to use points because a much smaller group of Australians are looking for seats internally in Europe or USA

Haven’t travelled to USA for some years. Never had an upgrade on points despite many trips there

Fly More pay less
Seems to be availability on Fiji Airlines perhaps Japan airlines rather than the hens teeth offered on QF

These require flexible dates though to fit in with what’s on offer rather than “when you need to go”

As an aside Vancouver (next to Seattle. USA (and usually winter season only) and Santiago Chile tend to have the cheapest J sale seats from Australia. (Talking under $6,000 return) unlike the like $12,000 plus to LAX

AND YOU can fly on from there
Fly more, pay less

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree with @MEL_Traveller 's points ... although they may have meant hung up rather than help up?

thank you! fixed!

 

[WilsonM]

Welcome to AFF @Goldenage61

As others have said, buying fares to upgrade is a risky business, and you should be prepared to fly exactly what you booked.

Classic Plus is an option - it will burn through all your points, and IMO isn't great value, but if you're really against Economy flying, you'll get a guaranteed seat (as above).

That being said, 1 million Qantas points is a good amount, but really it will only get you and your partner a return trip to the US, and maybe a return to Europe - that burns through them all, using Classic Rewards (not Classic Plus). It's really not going to last you for the next 10 years anyway, so I would really be open to the mindset of using them for good value, rather than the best value.

Going for status via domestic status runs isn't worth it if you're not flying regularly anyway - you have to factor in the cost of getting status, and the benefits it'll bring - if your only real reason for going for status is to get a higher chance of an upgrade, it's really not worth it IMO.

I'm not sure if you're working or not, but if you're set on flying Business Class, I would strongly advise the strategy @MEL_Traveller advocated, with a bit of added detail - using your Qantas points on Business Class to places like Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta or Manila is a lot easier (less competition for these seats), and from there you can pick up cheaper Business Class airfares to either Europe or the US - examples such as ~$2700 Business Class from Manila - Barcelona return on Etihad, or regular sales on Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta - New York for as low as $3,200 on ANA/United.

Regardless of whether you're using cash or points, be open to flying into a nearby international airport and getting a connecting flight. To save money, be flexible. Search engines such as Google Flights are really good for this (if using cash), or tools such as Seats.aero for award flights.

Using your points for flights within the US, Asia and Europe can also be worth it - so can domestic flights in Australia - as I said, don't be afraid to get good value!

Yes, it's a much longer journey, but you can enjoy a holiday in Asia as well, fly Business Class the entire way, and even build status as a bonus.

Again, please please do not hoard your points - they constantly and consistently depreciate in value - Qantas could change their award charts with 3 months notice, and there's not a whole lot you can do about it. If you can save good hard cash, and it's a decent enough redemption, I would just do it and not fret about not necessarily maximising your points. If you're happy with your points use, then great job - that's all there is to it!

 

[Flyfrequently]

Welcome to AFF @Goldenage61
As you can see, lots of knowledgeable folk here.
Happy travels

 

[MJ_/\_]

Many here more experienced than I am, but if your dates are flexible, get some fares you can change/cancel when needed and monitor classic reward seats on seats.aero website (go to explore > QFF in the menu)... you may or may not find two seats available around when you want to fly, but look at alternate routes as others have mentioned.

There are a reasonable number of business class classic reward seats from SYD to either LAX or SFO in the next couple of months for instance, some from Nadi... just depends on how late you want to chance things, but if you have a flexible flight secured first, it is probably ok.

 

[Goldenage61]

Many here more experienced than I am, but if your dates are flexible, get some fares you can change/cancel when needed and monitor classic reward seats on seats.aero website (go to explore > QFF in the menu)... you may or may not find two seats available around when you want to fly, but look at alternate routes as others have mentioned.

There are a reasonable number of business class classic reward seats from SYD to either LAX or SFO in the next couple of months for instance, some from Nadi... just depends on how late you want to chance things, but if you have a flexible flight secured first, it is probably ok.

Many thanks! Do you have a Pro subscription to seats.aero? The free subscription doesn't allow filtering, so to push out to July next year would probably take me that long to scroll through Any other advice you can offer about using that website would be very gratefully received.

 

[Goldenage61]

welcome to AFF goldenage61!

If you are bronze, you should almost certainly expect to fly in the cabin you booked. Your chances of an upgrade should be considered virtually ‘nil’. (In which case you’ll be pleasantly surprised!)

If you have a million points, consider looking at classic rewards plus flights. These cost more, but will confirm you into business class.

Given you shouldn’t rely on your points to upgrade, I would absolutely suggest you use your points in a big chunk… there’s no point saving points here and there in the hope of securing an upgrade.

Splurge, go all out, get business from the outset. Worry about future trips at a later time.

I’d be using the points for america. Simply because if you are going to holiday in europe next year, there are really cheap options for business class, unlike to the usa.

You can get business class all-in to Europe for around $5000. Even less if you fly economy to asia, and pick up business class from there.

Don’t get hung up on status! Don’t get hung up on paying extra for non-sale fares in the hope of getting upgraded.

Use your points if you can!

It's taken so long to build up the points that your advice of "splurge, go all out" and "Worry about future trips at a later time" is the last thing I expected. But I'm now realising I might only be able to get a year or two (three max), so I really appreciate it.

 

[CaptJCool]

It's taken so long to build up the points that your advice of "splurge, go all out" and "Worry about future trips at a later time" is the last thing I expected. But I'm now realising I might only be able to get a year or two (three max), so I really appreciate it.

I’m of mixed view on this

Depends

Season and time of year you wish to go - Winter opens up the Vancouver option. Not sure what the J sales price there (but being under $6,000) would expect the CR plus tickets to be a more reasonable points spend

Choice of Airline
Since it’s the USA You do have limited airline options within OneWorld and QF notoriously aren’t a ‘big’ reward seat giver on their own metal - plenty of seats snapped up on business travellers plus the Hollywood set (plus Qantaslink pilots if they’re still doing flight sim training in Seattle)

 

[MJ_/\_]

Do you have a Pro subscription to seats.aero

Nah, just a free account (for now at least, probably worth getting a pro sub for a month if you're actively trying to book something). The free version only shows 3 months out, so you'll need the pro version to see if there is anything in July.

...but if you go through the explore menu, you can add the departure or destination airport into the search field and it will filter on those. You can then sort by one of the columns and click through the pages to get all the data for the place you've filtered to.

Also, you should be able to get plenty of business class reward seats on American Airlines for your flights in the US. Even better, 'First Class' domestic from LAX to JFK (closer to business class international) has some pretty cool lounge access from what I've seen (I've never experienced it myself, but is one of the flights I definitely plan on doing if I get back over there again, 85,500 QFF points each)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's taken so long to build up the points that your advice of "splurge, go all out" and "Worry about future trips at a later time" is the last thing I expected. But I'm now realising I might only be able to get a year or two (three max), so I really appreciate it.

You could save your points for ten trips, paying higher economy fares that are eligible for upgrade, and never get an upgrade.

Or you can lock in two trips, confirmed in business class.

I’d be taking the latter… enjoy the trips, take out all the stress of waiting until 24 hours before departure to find out if you’re going to get that elusive business class seat (and not get it anyway).

Once you’ve done those trips, you can then start the real ‘fun’ of finding deals and bonus points and all sorts of other fun stuff to make the most out of your trips.

For example, many airlines sell points, and often have heavily discounted points sales. This means by buying points you can fly. return business class to the USA on say United for $3200 (aussie) plus airport taxes.

Or use your points or buy a cheap economy ticket to fly to Asia - say manila or jakarta - and buy business class from there ti europe. Fares ex Manila can be had for $2600 return in business, in Etihad.