Upgrading on Qantas

[Julian Holland]

Hi all, i am going to Tokyo next year, (Jan 1 2009) and have booked economy fare and confirmed. I am looking upgrade the leg Sydney - Narita as am flying Melb - Syd - Tokyo, and have two options. I am a bronze member and so can use my account over internet and realize that it goes in order of Chairman's club down, and so may have little chance. Just wondering what are the chances of getting an upgrade if i apply on the first day you can?

Also, my mum is a silver member and so as a family member she can use her points to upgrade me. So, if I use her points will I have a greater chance as she is a silver member? or will it still just come up on the Qantas system as me upgrading as a bronze member?

Thanks a lot
Julian.

 

[Will]

Hi and welcome to AFF

Your chances are obviously better if you apply on the first day than if you apply later. That said, depending on the loading (check SeatCounter - The Booking Class Availability Machine), even the best chance you have might be pretty low. It is hard to predict.

As bronze FFers (or NB - 'Nothing Bronze' as they are idiosyncratically called around here ) your chances are indeed lower than anyone with status. Getting someone else with status to make the request for you is not supposed to improve your chances, but some people have reported personal experiences to the contrary. This has been discussed in a thread before but I can't find it right now.

Still, you should tell your mum it would be better if she used her points

 

[opusman]

Also note that you have to have booked an upgradeable fare - generally the "red e-deal" fares (N, O, Q) are not upgradeable at all.

 

[craven morehead]

Would that be Julian Holland the Ex- Champion boxer by any chance? :mrgreen:

 

[Julian Holland]

could be... but then again probably not haha. Well, i think i have a ticket which can upgrade because it already says i can "request an upgrade" for my melb sydney leg. Also, if i cannot get an upgrade is there any chance of getting an exit row, i did see that there is a new thread on that today, but i was wondering is the any way i could as i am tall at 6'3/6'4 and have very long legs, which as you can imagine makes it interesting in economy.

 

[simongr]

Still, you should tell your mum it would be better if she used her points

The only advantage to getting your mum to use her points is that it saves you using yours. The rules state that the status of the travelling pax is the determining factor. We have conflicting info regarding this but this is what the rules state.

To improve upgrade chances try travelling mid week when business pax arent travelling so much - or during school hols when the WP/SG and above are down the back with their sprogs

 

[serfty]

could be... but then again probably not haha. Well, i think i have a ticket which can upgrade because it already says i can "request an upgrade" for my melb sydney leg. Also, if i cannot get an upgrade is there any chance of getting an exit row, i did see that there is a new thread on that today, but i was wondering is the any way i could as i am tall at 6'3/6'4 and have very long legs, which as you can imagine makes it interesting in economy.

Just because it says "request an upgrade" does not always mean you can actually do so!

To see if you can, indeed, upgrade you need to check your booking class.

To do this, either:

1. Go to Qantas.com Manage Your Booking and enter your booking reference and surname. Or,
2. Log on to your QFF account and access the booking via Your Bookings, then clicking View/Change.

When you booking comes up you may see something like:

Status: Confirmed

Class: Economy (?)

The ? in brackets represents a letter of the alphabet that will show- this is the booking class for the segment. If this is O, N or Q (or Z, P, X, U) then you will not be able to request an upgrade.

If you can request an upgrade, then do it as soon as possible.

Now the QFF T&C's indicate the priority is based on the status of the traveller, but recent anecdotal evidence indcates this may not be the case. Before the T&C changed to indicate such, it was found the status of the "points" being used to upgrade were the definer. It is possible this has not changed (yet) ... YMMV.

In any case I would use points from your Mum's account if possible, in which case, logging in to your Mum's account is required, then using method 1 to access the booking.

For exit rows, as a QF NB, I recommend checking in at the airport ASAP and requesting one. (Be wary of A or K seats on 747's).

 

[Julian Holland]

Yer well i am on QF 021 which is Airbus A330 300 i think. Does anyone have any info on which seats are good in economy , have checked seat guru but wondering if anyone has first hand knowledge. Also, with choosing a seat i see on the website you can choose an isle or window, but is it possible to actually choose a seat or is the only way do to it when you are checking in at the airport?

Cheers.

 

[serfty]

Call Qantas and ask!

That's the advice I give; Qantas will allow pre-allocation up until ~¼ the cabin is allocated (then it is reserved for Elites).

You flight should be far enough out that the ~25% has not been reached.

You should be able to get a representative seat map using:

• Amadeus - Check My Trip

 

[serfty]

I just had a look at the loadings your flight and it is 'chockers' ( J9 C0 D0 I0 B2 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 X0 E0 ) with only two high cost WHY fares available. You can use SeatCounter - The Booking Class Availability Machine to get fare bucket availability.

I would call Qantas ASAP and request seat allocation. It may indeed be too late.

If you can get a seat allocation, look for an aisle seat - there's unlikely to be any empty seats on this flight.

 

[Julian Holland]

I have reserved an Aisle seat on the internet a while ago and it says i have seat 28G, so is that ok? should i ring up and try and request another seat? Can u request a bulkhead?

Thanks for everything so far.

 

[serfty]

28 G is an inner right side aisle seat, not bad at all (6th row of WHY).

Have a look at http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/www.checkmytrip.com ...

http://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/flying/inTheAir/ourAircraft/333-30J267Y.pdf

 

[Julian Holland]

Is their any chance of me ringing up and getting a bulkhead reserved? if i mention my height and long legs.. would this help at all? Or is the only way of getting a bulkhead to rock up on the day and hope?

 

[Hvr]

Firstly have a look at the checkmytrip site as advised by serfty. It will show you the vacant seats. If you really want a bulkhead seat and it is vacant then you can ask for it, but and this is a big but, they are usually seats where pax with babies are placed so they can use the bassinets.

So if someone with a baby requests it at the last moment you may well be moved to a far less desirable seat.

Have a look at seatguru.com and seatexpert.com to check out the actual sat map and use the knowledge there to choose another seat.

Several other factors including status (if any), and how soon the flight is all come into play.

Safe travelling..

 

[Julian Holland]

I rang up Qantas today and asked for a bulkhead seat due to my height and long legs, the women seemed very pleasant and said although there is no way to "pre book" bulkhead as i am only a bronze member, she said she would add my request or something along of the lines of that to the booking sheet that comes up when i check in. Not sure what that means probably just saying that i requested one due to my height? Has anyone else done this? not sure if it actually improves my chance of getting

 

[Evan]

I am sure it would help, they just put a note somewhere in the record... i am not sure where but its there somewhere. I know that because a check in agent will say, oh, i see you request xyz (not just seat requests but to be put on earlier flight if possible etc)

I guess if your that tall etc then its just like buying cloths that cost more since its hard to find ones that fit... fly business...

Good luck The front rows will generally be taken by the QF platinums but the emergency exits further back would usually be easier to get (much as i dislike them due to all the people around the toilets etc).

E

 

[Julian Holland]

i just checked on my Qantas home page that it says

"note an upgrade to economy has been requested"

However, this should be an upgrade to business which i made a while ago as I currently have a paid seat in economy? is that any call for concern and any need to ring up to see what is going on or should it be just a mistake and does not matter?

 

[Evan]

Just a web site error that has been like that months !
Its actually your business upgrade request.
E

 

[Keith009]

An upgrade TO economy?
Times can't be THAT bad.....:shock:

 

[Evan]

An upgrade TO economy?
Times can't be THAT bad.....:shock:

My MEL-HKG upgrade to 'economy' recently was most welcome ! i rather liked the flight and even better when they managed to sneak me some bubbles from F back to the J cabin

E