teddyflyer

We are flying on QF73 next Thursday 8 September. Tickets are booked in Premium Economy (sale fares) and includes two adults and one child. All are bronze (two with Qantas Club). Upgrade request was made from Gold account.

Expert flyer is showing C9 D9 I9. Seat map in business shows 5 blocked seats and 15 unoccupied.

Thoughts on chance of upgrade success?

Thanks

number_6

My thought is 0 as you need 3 seats and silicon valley has lots of WP/SG fliers who are in Y due to corporate policy and they would upgrade Y to J ahead of you. Only thing you have going for you is flying on Thursday which is probably your best chance for upgrade.

og

Like #6, I'd suggest zero chance - mainly due to the child. But I'm unaware of QF's policy of separating a party of 3 if 3 seats together are not available.

teddyflyer

Thanks for your thoughts.

Is it really the case that a WP upgrade from Y to J would take precedence over an upgrade from PE to J?

number_6

Absolutely; its one of the official WP benefits (upgrades clear earlier so your upgrades are considered only after every single WP upgrade request has been granted). There is a single pool of available J seats and original fare basis affects priority within a request status (so all WPs first, then all SG, etc.) but not across status. You'd be ahead of Bronze requests from Y to J but behind everyone else. You mentioned request is from a Gold account, that gives you SG status only if that person is one of the 3 traveling (and it sounds like not the case).

teddyflyer

The upgrade preference makes sense now, particularly in conjunction with the time of upgrade confirmation.

So we are planning to split the tickets into two PNRs now to give one of the adults a better chance of upgrade. I know you can split PNRs with Qantas but does that impact the upgrade requests already attached to the booking?

Also the child's parents are travelling on the same flight in fully paid business. Does it make any difference if that booking is linked to the Premium Economy one? At what point in the flight can the parent swap seats with the other adult, does it have to be after take-off?

Thanks

number_6

Officially you can never swap, unofficially it is up to the cabin crew and they often allow it. Attaching PNR to J booking has zero affect on upgrade chance. Splitting PNR may require canceling the upgrade request and putting in a new request, which lowers your priority as the time of request is a tie-breaker if it comes to that (but it won't).

Most airlines don't allow parents to sit in a different cabin from their children, so at checkin one of the J parents may be involuntarily downgraded to Y if they notice from the passports. You need to be careful how you finesse this (and opup to J for the child is pretty unlikely). Technically you have to book the child as unaccompanied and fulfill all those requirements.

teddyflyer

Thanks.

I have split the PNR. Qantas said it does not impact the upgrade request already in the place.

The child is travelling with their grandparents, presumably that is allowed?

teddyflyer

An update. After splitting the PNRs, the single adult traveller has received a confirmed upgrade to Business (approx 19 hours before flight).

Still waiting in hope for the other two, but doesn't look promising.