You now have just two weeks left to request an upgrade using Qantas Frequent Flyer points before the prices increase. On Wednesday, 18 September 2019, the number of points required for a Qantas Classic Upgrade Reward will increase by 9% across the board.
If you’ve been thinking about requesting a Qantas points upgrade, this means that now is the time to place your request! It doesn’t matter if you’re flying after 18 September 2019, or your upgrade is not confirmed straight away – you’ll still get the lower rate as long as you request your upgrade before then.
Under the new upgrade pricing scheme, an upgrade to Business from Melbourne to Sydney will increase from 10,000 to 10,900 Qantas points (or from 5,000 to 5,400 points if you’ve booked a Flex ticket). On a longer route like Sydney-London, a Classic Upgrade Reward will soon cost 130,800 Qantas points from an Economy Saver fare – up from the current 120,000 Qantas points.
To see how much an upgrade will cost on other routes, see the Classic Upgrade Reward charts on the Qantas website. (To calculate the distance of any flight, you can use an online tool such as Great Circle Mapper.)
How Qantas Classic Upgrade Rewards work
On domestic Qantas flights, you can upgrade from any fare type to Business class, including red-e-deal tickets. Upgrades will be confirmed instantly if there is award availability in Business on your flight. If there is no availability at the time of placing the request, you will be placed on a waitlist.
The process is quite different, though, for Qantas international flights. Here, upgrades are more of a “lottery” as you won’t find out whether you’ve been successful until up to 7 days before the flight. Upgrades are only granted if there is space available, and Qantas Frequent Flyer members with the highest status tier have priority in the Qantas upgrade queue. On international flights, it is not possible to upgrade from Economy Sale fares.
It is not possible to upgrade with Qantas points on codeshare flights or any other flights operated by Qantas’ partner airlines. The only exceptions are the following specific Qantas codeshare flights, which you can use Qantas points to request an upgrade on:
- QF5027/QF5028 Melbourne-Santiago (operated by LATAM Airlines)
- QF321/QF322 Sydney-Auckland-Santiago (operated by LATAM Airlines)
- QF361/QF362 Sydney-Noumea (operated by Aircalin)
- QF363/QF364 Brisbane-Noumea (operated by Aircalin)
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