Qantas Frequent Flyer members can request Classic Upgrade Rewards on flights marketed and operated by Qantas.

This doesn’t generally extend to Qantas-marketed codeshare flights operated by airline partners. But there are some exceptions.

So, how do Qantas points upgrades work and with which airlines can you use Qantas points to upgrade?

How Classic Upgrade Rewards work on Qantas flights

You can request a Classic Upgrade Reward using your Qantas points when flying on a Qantas aircraft and booked with a “QF” flight number. Most fare types are eligible for upgrades except international Economy Sale fares and Classic Flight Reward tickets booked in Business Class.

The number of points required will depend on the route, the fare type originally booked and which cabin class you’re upgrading into, as outlined in the tables on the Qantas website.

It’s possible to upgrade:

• From Economy to Premium Economy (if available) or Business,
• From Premium Economy to Business, or
• From Business to First Class.

The upgrade process works a bit differently for domestic and international flights. For domestic upgrade requests, Qantas should process your upgrade immediately if your flight has Business Classic Reward seat availability. If there are no Classic Reward seats available at the time of your request, you can still waitlist.

On international flights, upgrading is more of a lottery. Qantas only begins to allocate upgrades up to 7 days before departure.

The airline gives priority in the upgrade queue to frequent flyers with the highest status tiers. But Classic Upgrade Rewards are processed before other paid upgrades, such as Bid Now upgrades.

Upgrading with Qantas points on codeshare flights

According to section 16 of the Qantas Frequent Flyer terms & conditions, you can also upgrade on specific codeshare flights, as made available from time to time:

16.1.3 Classic Upgrade Rewards may be requested on eligible paid and confirmed tickets and on Economy and Premium Economy Classic Flight Rewards on:
(a) a service operated by Qantas, with a Qantas (QF) flight number on the ticket; and
(b) from time to time on Codeshare Flights that have a Qantas (QF) flight number on the ticket;
in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

As a general rule, you can’t normally use Qantas points to upgrade Qantas-operated flights that are marketed by other airlines. In other words, you need to be flying Qantas and booked on a “QF” flight number.

It’s also not usually possible to upgrade with Qantas points on codeshare flights operated by partner airlines. This is even the case if you are booked on the “QF” flight number. But there are exceptions for several very specific codeshare flights operated by LATAM Airlines and Aircalin.

You can currently request a Classic Upgrade Reward with Qantas points when booking specific Qantas-marketed codeshare flights operated by Aircalin or LATAM Airlines.

Which codeshare flight numbers are eligible?

Here’s the full list of eligible flights, which is subject to change:

• QF3876 (Santiago-Auckland-Sydney operated by LATAM Airlines)
• QF3877 (Sydney-Auckland-Santiago operated by LATAM Airlines)
• QF5027 (Melbourne-Santiago operated by LATAM Airlines)
• QF5028 (Santiago-Melbourne operated by LATAM Airlines)
• QF8692 (Noumea-Sydney operated by Aircalin)
• QF8693 (Sydney-Noumea operated by Aircalin)
• QF8694 (Noumea-Brisbane operated by Aircalin)
• QF8695 (Brisbane-Noumea operated by Aircalin)

However, note that Aircalin does not have a proper Business Class on its Airbus A320neo aircraft. It uses this plane type on most Brisbane-Noumea and some Sydney-Noumea flights. It’s not possible to upgrade with Qantas points on flights where Business isn’t offered. But you can upgrade on Airbus A330 flights.

If you’re booked on one of these flights and have an eligible ticket, you can request an upgrade on the Qantas website or app as you would for any other Qantas flight.

You’ll need to be booked on the Qantas codeshare service to upgrade on these flights using Qantas points. You won’t be able to upgrade with Qantas points on a “LA” (for LATAM) or “SB” (for Aircalin) flight number.

Why is it only possible to upgrade on these specific partner airline routes?

The reason this works on these particular routes is that Qantas sells these seats under a “block space” codeshare arrangement. This is where Qantas is allocated a certain number of seats to sell on each flight, and takes on a commercial risk as it could make a loss if it does not sell the allocated seats. Under this arrangement, Qantas effectively “owns” a specific number of Business Class seats that it needs to fill.

This is different to most codeshare agreements, where the marketing airline simply earns a commission for any seats sold on each flight, and does not have any particular quota of seats to sell.

Australian Frequent Flyer is aware that some Qantas Frequent Flyer members have been able to request Classic Upgrade Rewards on codeshare flights operated by other partner airlines, including Emirates. The Qantas App may provide this option even where upgrading is not possible. Qantas has confirmed to us that this is an error, and it’s not possible to upgrade Emirates flights with Qantas points under any circumstances.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.