While it is of course true that a very large percentage of Qantas' 15+ million members would have very low points balances and will never be able to redeem for long-haul premium cabins, let's not forget the following facts that suggest there is way more demand for long-haul premium cabins than this post implies:
Each system doesn't work for everyone.
UA had buckets of award availability right through the peak season this year. Indeed, there was barely a day through December/January where you couldn't get 4+ J seats out of Australia to the US on United. They tended to appear 4 weeks from departure, but some appeared up to 3 months out. Coming back to Australia was a little more difficult, but still had good availability.
We meet that stereotype! My wife and I have flown 3 times to the USA on QF with 3 kids. 2 on points (the other was going to be on points but we gave up our booking when a sale come up within 24 hours). All in economy. To me, just getting 5 reward tickets is a bonus. $13k less to spend for our last trip to start with.I reckon of COURSE everyone WANTS premium rewards - I mean that's a no brainer. I think the point is that many regular members of QFF are more realistic with what they can attain and wanting to attain. Don't play the churning game or have high spend with big points balances and probably have the aspiration to get "some" value out of these points. Like taking the kids on a holiday to the theme parks or perhaps to disneyland. It's a stereotype for sure, but probably not too far from the mark in a general sense. There was a thread on AFF recently regarding the best use of 50k points to potentially get to Asaia iirc. That was talking Y. Many folks here probably consider 50k points to be pretty small amount but we have to remember that to mny that would be a fair sum, and represent a fair deal of saving. I guess it's all about perspective isn't it? Many of us (myself included) come from that of being used to premium cabins, lounges etc. I try and put myself into the shoes of others though and consider what realistic goals might be. Years ago, I upgraded my (Bronze, rarely flies) sister on some domestic flights. As mundane (to many of us) as you can imagine. She came back saying she "felt like a princess" and many might scoff at that, but that is where her level of experience and expectation were (so it was a delight to me to give her that simple pleasure). There was a lot of excitement yesterday for the people getting on that A380 MEL-SYD as a oot of "free upgrades" to Business even on that short flight.
Yeah, your QFF member with a few kids and 50k points would love to sit in J to go somewhere, but they also probably want to take those kids on a special trip someplace with those points - and that's a totally different equation to many of us but I dare say quite common spread across the 15m QFF members out there.
There's the apsirational and then there's the "I will never be able to fly First Class" notion.
So we keep hearing.. for the last 5 years at least! lol (but point taken)
This is helpful for people who want to travel with very little notice, but that might be even more niche than my own travel style. And when you book your outbound journey you have to hope that availability will be made available for your return - either days before you travel or even after your travel has started. Plus, booking so late you’ll be paying top dollar for accommodation and on the ground stuff. If it works for you then that’s great. I’ll stick to my trips to Muslim and Communist countries booked well in advance with convoluted routing - using QF points.
And we still do t know how that’s going to work.
And this is the way I see QF going with their own metal.
Star have had cross alliance upgrades for years now, but it's pretty restrictive, requiring higher fares and other conditions to work. I've never even tried it due to this. I tend to think OW will, if they ever make it happen, will make it hard to use for most in the same mould.
1. Book your United award flights in economy: there's currently award space for 4+ people from Australia to the US for pretty much every day in December 2024.
That's great, but that means this thread isn't for you.
This is legacy pricing long in play by majority of carriers. Doubt it will change anytime soon. Specially when the other internationals won't. Targeted at the business traveller I suspect.
My experience with Star Alliance Upgrades is that you can only upgrade a pretty hefty base fare to the next available cabin- not sure if OW will be any different !
This is an utterly bizarre post.
