Qantas Upgrades - Successes or Failures (post results)

Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

My partner and I have applied for Y+ to J upgrade for QF9 MEL-LHR and QF10 LHR-MEL for November. We're Silver - just wondering if the AFF brains trust considers it worthwhile chasing Gold status to increase our chances of success?? I'm currently on 345 status points with June 30 anniversary date...
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

My partner and I have applied for Y+ to J upgrade for QF9 MEL-LHR and QF10 LHR-MEL for November. We're Silver - just wondering if the AFF brains trust considers it worthwhile chasing Gold status to increase our chances of success?? I'm currently on 345 status points with June 30 anniversary date...

The Gold status would get you into the international business lounge whether or not you get the upgrade to J and into the Qantas Club (economy) lounge on domestic flights. If you have Qantas Club this would be paused till you fall back from Gold as Gold has all the benefits of Qantas Club plus more. Gold would also get you more frequent flyer points on your flights to/from London (note these will be earned at the rate specified for your Y+ fare when you booked it + the applicable bonus for the status tier).

Having Gold status would put you ahead of Silver status travellers for the upgrade but the difference may be marginal (e.g. worst case it's possible you would have been the first to get an upgrade as silver, but only jump to the last to get an upgrade as Gold - you don't know) and even with Gold status you may still not get the upgrade if higher status travellers grab any spare J seats with their own upgrade requests. It certainly can't hurt your chances though. We can only really speculate as to what difference it would make as QANTAS only provides very limited information as to how they determine who gets an upgrade. Travelling solo I think helps your upgrade chances so travelling as a couple you might be some way down the order for Silver getting an upgrade though that could be off-set a bit by your purchase of Y+ fares rather than the cheapest Y fares that allow an upgrade.

Gold status will last till the end of your following membership year i.e. June 30 2017 unless you earn enough SCs to retain Gold, get a one-off comp at QANTAS's discretion (not going to happen next year as you would be below the 3 year average to retain Gold) or get enough SCs to move to a higher status.

If you expect to fly a fair bit next year (especially if enough to retain the Gold status) it could be worth getting whether or not it helps much with the chances of getting the upgrade.

If you have ExpertFlyer access you may wish to check how full the flights are, but between now and then a number of J seats could be sold.

As for getting the remaining 355 credits to get Gold that could cost you a bit. If you can get yourself to the US (especially if you have a work trip there) and do a run there that might be the most affordable way to do a run but you'd want to book soon.

Also keep an eye on your inbox to see if you get a 50% SC bonus offer for QANTAS flights.

Whether it's worth doing a status run is up to you. When you are that far off I wouldn't do it just to improve upgrade chances, but when you consider the other benefits you get from it as well you need to way up the cost vs the benefit.

You could get lounge access for a lot less than doing a status run and if you get upgraded in time you'll get into the lounge anyway. Also as silver you should have a voucher each you can use to get into the lounge in Australia when flying internationally if you haven't already used it.
 
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Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Thanks for the very detailed reply mviy! You make a very good point that hadn't previously occurred to me - potentially being top of the silver pile and moving to the bottom of the gold pile for that flight could be the very same place. We have 4 lounge passes for 2016 (one each from silver and two from a CC membership), and Y+ gives us the luggage requirement we need, so I guess there's little value trying for gold this year. We'll get 300 SC for this flight alone, so better off trying for gold next year....will post the success/failure when we fly....
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Can we please keep this thread to reporting successful upgrades only. Not failed upgrades. Not applied for upgrades and not general discussion. The point is for other users to be able scan the thread for data points and not wade through pages of discussion.
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Have finally stopped changing a BNE/CBR/BNE booking as dates are set for Monday 11th. I straight away went to upgrade both sectors, waitlisted for QF1543 (although showing J5 IIRC, they think they'll sell some or all of them) and immdiately successful with inbound QF1554 (same date). So running at 5/6 upgrades successful over running 12 months. Better than my 6/9 on VA over same time period ;)
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Successful again! Y to J upgrade on QF7 SYD-DFW notified at T-29. :) Flight was showing F9A9J6C6D6I0 a few hours before.
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Hi all.
Had a successful upgrade QF 569 Syd-Per, 18 April T-30.
Upgrade for QF 574 Per-Syd 14 April confirmed upon booking a month or so earlier. Bronze.
2-3-2 configuration on both legs unfortunately.
Thanks for all of the info.
Cheers.
 
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Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Master Fm's partner flew Syd-HND QF25 on 26/3 and QF26 on 4/4. Upgrades from Y to J both ways as a silver.
 
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Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Nice to wake up to this SMS this morning:

01461358891.jpg

Fare is a Flexi, so only 5K points and after a 2 day trip to SYD, will be looking forward to travelling home with a bit more comfort than Row 11
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Upgrade SYD-SCL QF27 4-Apr successful at T-26 from PE to J. Thrilled as first time in J on 747, Skybed MK II seats.

And again! SCL-SYD QF28 Fri 15-Apr successful at least T-40 for PE to J.

Requests submitted just over 2 months out as gold. Very pleased to get 2/2 for these ~13 hour flights.
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Nice work astrosly. I have had not Success with last two flights. Might be that i have not made more than 5 flights with Qantas since finishing the FIFO game.
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Nice work astrosly. I have had not Success with last two flights. Might be that i have not made more than 5 flights with Qantas since finishing the FIFO game.

I was surprised with the second upgrade as it seemed the flight was not particularly full in PE or J, I had an empty seat next to me. Hard to pinpoint what gives a successful upgrade request from what has been posted and am happy to add my data points. I have been ramping up the flying recently as I've received my long service leave though :). I will be returning to South America in November so hopefully both requests come through.
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

My first QF upgrade failure this year :(

1 out of 2 isn't bad considering it is only BNE/SYD and return on a 738 and at a busy flight time

01461759158.jpg
 
Re: QF Upgrade Success Rate

Well if I can't get the QF505 upgrade, there's always an ODU on the later QF511 (lucky I had meetings this morning cancel)
 
QF9 points upgrade

Hi gurus,
I have just booked a Y flex fare on QF9 MEL-DXB in September and was considering a points upgrade to Y+/PE.
However, i'm short on points to do this. I can top them up (either with cash or with various reward programme options), but unfortunately can't see seat availability until I have sufficient points. I'm told PE on the 380 is generally filled pretty early, so I want to be confident I have a chance of actually securing an upgrade before spending the points/cash to top up my balance.
If my chances aren't good I'll probably hold off for the lottery or an op-up on departure, which will be fairly slim pickings as I'm a PS for the next couple of trips.
If anyone could share their experiences here it would be appreciated!
 
Re: QF9 points upgrade

Having the points won't let you "see seat availability" on the QF website. Premium award seats would almost certainly have all been snapped up already but upgrades don't just come out of that inventory. There's a reason it's described as a lottery.
 
Re: QF9 points upgrade

Having the points won't let you "see seat availability" on the QF website. Premium award seats would almost certainly have all been snapped up already but upgrades don't just come out of that inventory. There's a reason it's described as a lottery.

Thanks Opusman. I was under the (apparently mistaken) view that points upgrades (rather than reward seats) are confirmed on application. So the process is that you secure/earn the requisite amount of points, apply for the upgrade, and wait for the confirmation (or not) some time before departure?
 
Re: QF9 points upgrade

I suspect the chance of an "op-up" for a PS member on QF9 would be similar to actually really winning Lotto. Sorry to be negative, but I just think it is very unrealistic, and enjoying a great economy product such as the QF9 flight should not be hampered by the inevitable disappointment such optimism could bring. :(

I am WP and feel I have almost zero chance on a similar flight.
 

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