Upgrade on discount business class ticket

[ajw373]

Just tried to use points to 'book' an upgrade from business to first for a flight the wife and I are doing from LHR to SYD in a month or so's time, however I get an error that says an upgrade is not available, then lists the possible reasons and one is because the fare could be a discounted business class ticket.

Now the interesting thing is the ticket is indeed a discount business class ticket(booked in I class) , however as can be seen below I cannot see any mention of discount business being exlcuded from using points to upgrade. Any ideas why?

"Flight upgrades are available on:

• Discount Economy^ (excluding E, N, O, Q and X class) to Premium Economy,+
• Full Economy# to Premium Economy,+
• Discount Economy^ (excluding E, N, O, Q and X class) to Business,
• Full Economy# to Business,
• Premium Economy+ to Business, and
• Business to First. "

 

[obrienja]

I had a similar situation last year when Qantas had their big business class sale. I tried online and failed and then called customer service and the gentleman I spoke to put in the upgrade request for me manually. It ultimately wasn't successful but to be honest I wasn't really expecting an upgrade to F on a 380 - but if you don't try you don't know

 

[Princess Fiona]

Just tried to use points to 'book' an upgrade from business to first for a flight the wife and I are doing from LHR to SYD in a month or so's time, however I get an error that says an upgrade is not available, then lists the possible reasons and one is because the fare could be a discounted business class ticket.

Now the interesting thing is the ticket is indeed a discount business class ticket(booked in I class) , however as can be seen below I cannot see any mention of discount business being exlcuded from using points to upgrade. Any ideas why?

"Flight upgrades are available on:

• Discount Economy^ (excluding E, N, O, Q and X class) to Premium Economy,+
• Full Economy# to Premium Economy,+
• Discount Economy^ (excluding E, N, O, Q and X class) to Business,
• Full Economy# to Business,
• Premium Economy+ to Business, and
• Business to First. "

This happens fairly frequently in my experience with the online system. I always ring and lodge request and haven't had any problems with it. Request not always successful though ! but there seems to be no difference between online and telephone request

 

[anat0l]

I had a similar problem in 2009 when I tried to register an upgrade for me and another FT member flying on the same itinerary. We both had I class fares coming from the QF 2-for-1 sale of the year before.

I called QF Premium and they admitted it was a bug but they said they could put the upgrade in manually, as well as allow the cost of the upgrade to be deducted from each of our respective QFF accounts (rather than the whole lot from one account). I didn't register the upgrade; instead I let the other person on the booking register it since he is a WP+PG+LTG (and apparently called a different number instead of QF Premium).

Given that the Business Saver fare we had was promotional and so cheap, there was enough believable conspiracy theory that there was no chance in Hell we would get the upgrade to F.

For the record, we got the upgrade (and so did at least 4 people in the full A380 F cabin)

 

[cove]

In June/July 2009 i had 3 I class J tickets upgraded to First each way to and from LAX on the A380 on points.

 

[JetLagged]

FWIW - I've had a number of points upgrades from J to F granted on the SYD-LHR return - even on 'discounted' fares (including 2-1). Of course, sometimes I have missed out as well, but the 'granted' far outweigh the 'declines'! Hope this continues - as flying to UK and Europe later this month and again in December - here keeping the digits crossed (now, that might explain my typing errors at times! lol)

 

[serfty]

If course within status levels, anecdotes indicate fare class comes into it.

i.e. WP would be upgraded before any SG's are considered, then PS, then SG.

Within the status level, those on the notional higher class would get upgrade. With Business class upgraded to First class that would be J > C > D > I > U(anyseat).

 

[ajw373]

Thanks for the answers guys. Will ring them up and see if they will let me register for an upgrade. As I said just found it odd that one of the reasons I couldn't do it on line was because I could be on a discounted business ticket yet the T&C don't nominate that as a reason.