Yep, there's a lot of jargon in this forum, I tend to keep things simple and say "business" rather than "J".
Don't worry, we all have to start somewhere. I'm still a lowly Bronze member too and my agenda is to redeem business reward seats, not chase status.
I guess as a non-frequent flyer - lounge access, priority check-in and boarding etc isn't that much of an advantage / priority to me.
If I do redeem said business reward seats, all these will be included without status anyway.
Yes, you can definitely do this if you can see the economy reward seats showing online. However do read on below.
You can also do this as well, just keep searching for any new reward seats on a daily basis if you have to / want to (I did!) and then from there, it's literally a lottery on whether you can get a phone consultant (the only way to amend reward bookings is to call) that can :
First - see the flight and the reward seats you see online in the first place,
then conditional on this;
Secondly - add to your existing itinerary.
That's another story / issue though.
Have a look at the Oneworld Award thread - I've documented my long experience in trying to add / change my reward booking, lots of times without success and few with success.
A lot of the time you'll get the consultant saying that there's no reward seats showing, even despite them showing online at the time of you calling.
If you get this response, push them again and if they again tell you there's nothing, end the call and call again.
Note that this is not exclusively a "Round The World" Award. While it can be so used, it can also be used for "Round Trips", "Circle" Trips or even "one-way trips" without actually going "Round The World". Also note the following from the T&C review that comes up on Qantas.com if you have...
www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au
Try calling 13 12 11 instead of 13 13 13 - as a Bronze member you may be lucky enough at times to get a Premium consultant (normally this line / these consultants are reserved only for Gold and above).
I booked my OWA / Multi leg trip in Feb of this year and my final leg was on JQ from SIN to MEL in economy (ie. lowest of the lowest). It was the only reward seat showing from SIN to MEL at the time of my booking.
Over the months through perseverance and a bit of luck, I was able to eventually change it to a QF business seat in July after I saw a new flight (QF38) showing. It must have been a new service that Qantas put into their schedules as I had never seen it before.
Overall I probably called Qantas over 100 times to get a few changes done (I changed my flights around 3-4 times in an attempt to get all legs in business).
Don't say this, again as a lowly Bronze, I was able to eventually get a 5 leg business reward Oneworld Award (OWA) for 318,000pts. You just have to be patient and at times pushy to get what you want.
Of course, having a higher status will enable changes to be done easier, but you just have to keep trying.
You won't get an "upgrade" on reward seats - the only way would be to call Qantas if you can see any new business reward seats on the flight that you're already booked on, or if you see an alternative one that comes up.
TL;DR -
- Keep searching the website for any new reward seats - they do pop up from time to time
- Be flexible with your routes / dates if at all possible
- Call 13 12 11 instead of 13 13 13 - I've got through to a Premium consultant a few times who were able to see and make changes without issues as per the previous consultants that I got
- If you're not getting a helpful response, hang up and call again (HUACA)
- There may be very last minute reward seats available, even if looking 1-3 days in the future
Good luck!