Upgrade waitlist success?

[midian454]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

So I have managed to upgrade to J both ways on my last 5 return trips to the US, but with the availability drying up this year, I have had a bit of trouble with my next one. I'm heading over at the end of this month, booked a few months ago. I managed to get J on the return leg with points, but had to book the outgoing leg flex and go on the upgrade waitlist. Has anyone had success with this on the trans-Pacific flights? There are still 12 unassigned J seats on the plane, should I hold out hope until the day of, or assume the worst?

Cheers

 

[Cryptarcadian]

From experiences others have reported here, just because reward seats become available, doesn't mean that waitlisted upgrades get cleared. Keep checking closer to the date whether reward seats open up – and obviously snap them up as a confirmed upgrade if they do!

And welcome to posting on AFF!

 

[Denali]

My only experience is I had waitlisted and an upgrade bid on the same return flight x 2 pax. Five days out, the seats opened up and they upgraded with points and my $bid was cancelled.

Good luck

 

[midian454]

Thanks guys. I've all but resigned myself to the fact that it may not happen, so if it goes through I'll take it as a bonus.

Cheers

 

[bullerdude]

I've been successfully upgraded when wait-listed on a SYD-MEL evening flight, it went through about 3 hr prior to departure.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

I'm waiting for availability to (hopefully) open up on a PER-MEL flight so I can use a WP comp upgrade. However, they don't allow waitlists for these types of upgrades even though it comes out of reward availability.

I'm hoping if there's still an empty seat at the airport, they should put me on it. Every time I've flown the route recently there's been a handful of empty seats.

But it's all a lottery really! Becoming a bit more like QF every day (in the wrong ways)...

 

[Ausbt]

I'm waitlisted too midian, SYD-LAX on 29/03. Currently PE trying for J. According to the website, there are 5 fares available. Hmmm, I don't really want to be boxed in by others in J, so don't want a middle seat if avoidable (this will be old fit-out). What do others think? Worth burning 45K points to move from PE Saver seat 11G for a middle J seat? I think I'd be happy enough with wing or centre aisle though.

On another note, with the 3 x points deal I think I'm going to gross 70K points for this trip, heading through to JFK and back.

 

[midian454]

Same flight! Hopefully we are both successful and can meet up for a drink at the bar!

 

[ema]

I arrived this morning from LAX-SYD. I had a PE ticket waitlisted for J both ways. I didn't get it on the way over but received an email confirming my upgrade 3 days prior to departure for the return journey. I couldn't allocate my seat online so I called and was allocated a window seat.

 

[Ausbt]

Same flight! Hopefully we are both successful and can meet up for a drink at the bar!

Here's hoping, that would be nice indeed. Otherwise I'll be squeezing myself into the PE bar, possibly the world's smallest bar!

 

[midian454]

Here's hoping, that would be nice indeed. Otherwise I'll be squeezing myself into the PE bar, possibly the world's smallest bar!

My upgrade came through this morning! How did you go?

 

[Ausbt]

My upgrade came through this morning! How did you go?

Yes! Your message prompted me to log on and there it was, I'll be seeing you in J . Feel free to say hello, I'll be over in 4A. Now, next mission for me is to try to lock in Comfort+ on Delta for free, LAX-JFK.

 

[clipped_wings]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

So I have managed to upgrade to J both ways on my last 5 return trips to the US, but with the availability drying up this year, I have had a bit of trouble with my next one. I'm heading over at the end of this month, booked a few months ago. I managed to get J on the return leg with points, but had to book the outgoing leg flex and go on the upgrade waitlist. Has anyone had success with this on the trans-Pacific flights? There are still 12 unassigned J seats on the plane, should I hold out hope until the day of, or assume the worst?

Cheers

How does one upgrade only one way? We tried to secure an upgrade one way with points from PE to J on a SYD-LAX return flight, but have been designated to the waitlist. The availability of an upgrade said "available" but we figured it was refused because we needed enough points to upgrade both ways.
Can someone please enlighten?
PS - we are only SG so that might explain things......
Thanks

 

[midian454]

Yes! Your message prompted me to log on and there it was, I'll be seeing you in J . Feel free to say hello, I'll be over in 4A. Now, next mission for me is to try to lock in Comfort+ on Delta for free, LAX-JFK.

4D here, you got my window seat before I could haha! I'm onward to Vegas on VX and First Class was only $5 more than Main Cabin Select at the time of booking, so I snapped that up quick smart.

 

[midian454]

How does one upgrade only one way? We tried to secure an upgrade one way with points from PE to J on a SYD-LAX return flight, but have been designated to the waitlist. The availability of an upgrade said "available" but we figured it was refused because we needed enough points to upgrade both ways.
Can someone please enlighten?
PS - we are only SG so that might explain things......
Thanks

Not sure, I usually only ever see avaliable or not and have always been successful when it is.

 

[Jurahn]

How does one upgrade only one way? We tried to secure an upgrade one way with points from PE to J on a SYD-LAX return flight, but have been designated to the waitlist. The availability of an upgrade said "available" but we figured it was refused because we needed enough points to upgrade both ways.
Can someone please enlighten?
PS - we are only SG so that might explain things......
Thanks

It shouldn't make any difference whether you're upgrading one-way or return, or at least it hasn't in the past - last year we flew PER-SYD-LAX return in February/March, booked our tickets in PE the previous July and was able to do a points upgrade on the SYD-LAX sector straight away for both of us. No upgrade availability LAX-SYD at that time, so kept checking every day and several months later, a couple of J reward seats popped up for that date and I was able to upgrade that leg as well. So no problems back then just upgrading one-way, although I have to admit, I haven't done an international upgrade since the waitlist system was introduced, so don't know whether that has changed anything with the upgrade process.

 

[Rigs]

I have never had the waitlist confirm me. Generally when I'm on it I just get the lounge to sort it out before the flight. They seem to have a lot more freedom to get you a seat. VA J often has space, unless you are going on an A330, at which point it seems to be the Hunger Games.

 

[Ausbt]

I just ring the Plat line for mine. This was the first Waitlist for me, normally it's instant. My normal strategy is J outbound and PE (or Y) inbound - this time I'll be returning in PE and saving the points. Need to hit the ground running over there, when I get back I'll take a few days to deal with the lag.

 

[clipped_wings]

Should Reward Seat availability be displayed for both legs before you can pay with points? For example, I have found that if there is a Reward Seat icon and points redemption value showing on an outbound flight, but not the return leg, then I get a small prompt saying "reward fares cannot be combined with other fare types yada yada......" and I am unable to proceed with paying by points.
And did you pay for the PE seat, or redeem points, as this also confuses me. Sorry for being ignorant and asking so many questions

 

[Jurahn]

Should Reward Seat availability be displayed for both legs before you can pay with points? For example, I have found that if there is a Reward Seat icon and points redemption value showing on an outbound flight, but not the return leg, then I get a small prompt saying "reward fares cannot be combined with other fare types yada yada......" and I am unable to proceed with paying by points.
And did you pay for the PE seat, or redeem points, as this also confuses me. Sorry for being ignorant and asking so many questions

You don't need to apologise for asking questions - I've asked PLENTY since I joined AFF, everyone here has been very patient in answering them all and I have learned SO much in the process .

I can't help with the paying with points question unfortunately, I've only ever paid cash for fares (including our PE seats to/from LAX) and then upgraded with points.