Successful QF 'Bid Now Upgrades' data thread

[daturtle]

So I'm a bit confused about the upgrade bid system. I made an offer of 3000 points and $115 (the minimum was $65), for a BNE-CNS flight. I received an email saying that my bid was unsuccessful (no biggie), but I assumed the J cabin would be full. Not at all, the flight remained J7 C1 until boarding and only 5 PAX in J. So what I don't understand is that if QF wants money why don't they just tell me how much money they want? Instead of this weird "bidding" auction without a winner?!?

My guess is that there would be a minimum they would be willing to accept for your bid to be successful. Yield management would have developed a formula to figure this out. That or magic.

 

[defurax]

So what I don't understand is that if QF wants money why don't they just tell me how much money they want? Instead of this weird "bidding" auction without a winner?!?

So apparently AY understands exactly what I want. I received an email yesterday saying that I could upgrade from Y to J for €89. I paid the money and received confirmation of upgrade instantly. Now that's a straightforward system!

 

[Sumnerned]

Have bid now upgrades been withdrawn? If so, have they been replaced with something else?

 

[defurax]

Have bid now upgrades been withdrawn? If so, have they been replaced with something else?

I received an offer to bid two weeks ago.

 

[Sumnerned]

I received an offer to bid two weeks ago.

So they seem to be continuing and maybe lots of people who do not use AFF are getting bids accepted. But even if this is the case, it would seem that this program is leaving a sour note in some people's memories. The program has a lot of potential, but it is a bit too obscure for me in its present form. If bidders knew that there was a reasonable chance of someone winning, that would be more positive. If Qantas made it clearer why the offer is not the reserve price that would help. As things stand, Qantas could be accused of wasting the time of its loyal customers, wrongly one hopes. And a bit of levity wouldn't do any harm.
Cheers

 

[defurax]

I think QF tried to create a system which would remove the occurrence of free operational upgrades when Y is overbooked and at the same time get more money out of flights with a light load. The problem is that in the former case you could imagine QF would take even the lowest bid, while in the latter case QF is picky (as the case I reported a few post back i.e. failed bid and empty J cabin). So QF want their cake and eat it and it's not very optimised!

 

[Mattg]

I am still yet to have been offered a Bid Now upgrade at all. And I've been on some flights with very empty J cabins...

 

[Pierre_a]

I wonder if its simply a case of Qantas systems not operating as designed/intended. I received an offer to bid last week when I had already submitted a classic upgrade request (which was subsequently granted), reading through the thread I see I am not the only one to have experienced this. From this I deduce that at the very least these two related systems aren't integrated optimally. As a cynic I tend to take the view that rather than having a finely honed system operating to whatever spec was designed, its far more likely we have a botched/sub-optimal implementation! Whatever can go wrong...

 

[Sumnerned]

I am still yet to have been offered a Bid Now upgrade at all. And I've been on some flights with very empty J cabins...

So it looks as though the system works something like: When economy cabin bookings pass a certain threshold, bid now emails go out. If the economy cabin remains less than full, no offers are accepted.

 

[Mattg]

So it looks as though the system works something like: When economy cabin bookings pass a certain threshold, bid now emails go out. If the economy cabin remains less than full, no offers are accepted.

Interesting theory. I had always thought that the "fullness" of the business cabin, not economy, was the main driving factor. Will be interesting to see if this is true. I'll be checking loadings in both cabins if/when I do eventually get an offer.

 

[willjd]

Interesting theory. I had always thought that the "fullness" of the business cabin, not economy, was the main driving factor. Will be interesting to see if this is true. I'll be checking loadings in both cabins if/when I do eventually get an offer.

Just been sent an offer for QF156 on 16th Oct (AKL - Mel). Maybe check the loads for economy and business on that flight?

 

[defurax]

Just been sent an offer for QF156 on 16th Oct (AKL - Mel). Maybe check the loads for economy and business on that flight?

It's S3, I2 at the moment. J6 C5 D2 I2 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L8 V9 S3G0 E0

 

[Mattg]

Just been sent an offer for QF156 on 16th Oct (AKL - Mel). Maybe check the loads for economy and business on that flight?

It's S3, I2 at the moment. J6 C5 D2 I2 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L8 V9 S3G0 E0

Hmm. Economy doesn't look that full.

 

[Franky]

Mrs Franky has just been offered a bid now for QF580 PER-SYD 16OCT with the seating shown below. To my untrained eye, it looks like there are plenty of seats, should she bother? She is WP member and would invariably have a seat blocked out next to her in Y.
J9 C9 D9 I4 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 G0

 

[Mattg]

Mrs Franky has just been offered a bid now for QF580 PER-SYD 16OCT with the seating shown below. To my untrained eye, it looks like there are plenty of seats, should she bother? She is WP member and would invariably have a seat blocked out next to her in Y.
J9 C9 D9 I4 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 G0

I would request the upgrade! I just checked the aircraft scheduled to operate that flight and it's currently showing as an A330 with the new business class suites. It's a very good product and IMHO worth paying a little bit to try out. Plus, as the flight's quite empty I'd say that the bid is likely to be accepted with a bid just a little over the minimum.

 

[Franky]

Thanks Matt - appreciate your thoughts... Will pass on to her, she who is currently swanning it in Madrid at the moment.

 

[JohnK]

I am continually offered 10,000 QFF points to upgrade to business and sometimes offered a Bid now type of upgrade. Both too expensive in my opinion.

The business class cabins have been struggling since May. Again only 6/12 business class seats occupied on BNE-SYD Friday night.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

This is the SUCCESSFUL bid now thread isn't it? Yet i havent seen a post with a successful bid in months

 

[Mattg]

This is the SUCCESSFUL bid now thread isn't it? Yet i havent seen a post with a successful bid in months

I think you have a very good point. What ever happened to these - have QF basically stopped offering them or are they rejecting most of the bids they are getting?

Personally I'm still yet to receive a single offer.

 

[chonetsao.co.uk]

I received a Qantas online questionnaire about Qantas loyalty yesterday. The first part is my opinion about Qantas and loyalty but I suspect the ultimate question is about opinion on Bid Now programme. The reason is the first part is very generic but the Bid Now parts are very specific. So Qantas is doing some additional research on Bid Now. I hope that helps.

Also the survey only works with desktop computer. When I click on the link on my mobile it states the survey is full no more participants required. Later the day I did it on the computer without problems. Good luck.