Upgrade full economy to business with points

[Danger]

I'm booked on QF 562 on Thursday 7 September from Sydney to Perth. I've requested a business class upgrade for 10k points (booked on a fully flexible ticket) but Qantas are telling me that there are no upgrade seats available. What are the chances this will change between now and then? Is it likely that I'll get bumped up at check-in? I'm silver QP.

 

[NM]

I'm booked on QF 562 on Thursday 7 September from Sydney to Perth. I've requested a business class upgrade for 10k points (booked on a fully flexible ticket) but Qantas are telling me that there are no upgrade seats available. What are the chances this will change between now and then? Is it likely that I'll get bumped up at check-in? I'm silver QP.

Firstly, QF562 does not operate SYD-PER. Do you mean QF565 SYD-PER on 7th Sept? QF562 operates CBR-SYD, not to Perth.

QF565 is showing J9 D1 so that implies to me that Qantas believe they can sell a lot of the remaing business class seats to full fare paying customers. The best option may be to get Qantas Club lounge access and get in early for an On-Departure Upgrade.

Note there are plenty of business class upgrade award seats available now for QF575 SYD-PER on that date. Its operated by a 747-300 aircraft.

 

[Danger]

Thanks for that information. I actually meant QF583 from Sydney to Perth (I'm on QF562 from Canberra earlier that day). I will try for an upgrade on departure.

 

[NM]

Thanks for that information. I actually meant QF583 from Sydney to Perth (I'm on QF562 from Canberra earlier that day). I will try for an upgrade on departure.

QF583 is also a 747-300 aircraft so a good chance for an On-Departure Upgrade. But you do need Qantas Club access as it can only be done at the Qantas Club Service Desk, not at check-in.

 

[celtic_cub]

Hey NM just a quick one, how can you tell there is plenty of Business seat upgrades available.

Do you use some fancy software?

Celtic

 

[serfty]

Hey NM just a quick one, how can you tell there is plenty of Business seat upgrades available.

Do you use some fancy software?

Celtic

No, just some experience with fare buckets.

J9 D1 indicates there are at least 9 unsold seats in business class on this flight. D1 indicates Qantas are only currently prepared to sell one of these at a discounted business class rate. This indicates that the Qantas "Yield Management" voodoo expect to sell most of these seats, so they charge at full business class rates.

If Qantas are only prepared to sell 1 business class seat on this flight at a discounted rate it follows that there is unlikely to be any Award redemptions available in Business. (U class)

If it had been J9 D9 the implication is reversed, seats are available, but Qantas do not expect to sell many of them at the Full rates so are prepared to discount all or most of them. In these cases there is a good chance of U (or business class award) seats appearing.

 

[Doug_Mi16]

Hey NM just a quick one, how can you tell there is plenty of Business seat upgrades available.

OK, slaps for the newbie, apologies in advance if this has been covered elsewhere.

For the average Joe sitting in front of a compy at home outside business hours , how would she/he check seat availability? Is this information available on the Qantas site, is it only view-able by TAs, or is there a third party site where average Josephine could check this?

Cheers all.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

There are some subscription services (eg Expert Flyer - free trial to AFF members or discount on rate for paid AFF members). There are also some free services available (not as widespread or as good as in the past.

Eg Class Availability Airline Flight Reservations (select T&T option).

Then once have availability, it is a matter of knowing what the letters stand for and interpreting. Some knowledge is needed for this, as some routes/dates/airlines/aircraft type may oversell and others not, some may improve availability later (eg when business pax with flexible tickets change their flights or if yield management decides they aren't going to sell as many high fares as they'd hoped), etc.

 

[Doug_Mi16]

Thanks Kiwi, damn good starting point.

And this forum is a great resource for filling in the blanks, too.

Cheers.

 

[NM]

Hey NM just a quick one, how can you tell there is plenty of Business seat upgrades available.

Do you use some fancy software?

Celtic

I assume you are refering to my specific comment about QF575 having plenty of award seats available. I saw that using ExpertFlyer which returned the following availability search results:
J9 D9 I7 U7 Y9 B9 H9 W9 K9 M9 R9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9 G0 T9 X9 E0

U7 says there are 7 business class award seats available (down from the 8 it showed when I posted my original comment) and X9 says there are at least 9 award seats available in econpomy.