Even though my outbound Upgrade Bid ($440) was not successful, I found PE to be quite satisfactory. It did feel more Business Lite than Plus Economy.

I had forgotten that I had lowballed the Upgrade Bid ($300) for my return. (I had intended to cancel it.) To my surprise, my bid was successful! @@ Computer said YES! Couldn't select a seat so rolled up to check-in ready with a screenshot from Seat Guru on my phone. I was given an F seat, as there was an aisle seat request on my booking or in my FF profile. Yeah, F is a J aisle seat. I then asked "which row?". The answer was in the single digits, which was not noted on the J class cabin seat guide. She insisted it was an aisle seat as ALL THE SEATS WERE AISLE SEATS. @@

So, without any FF status (well Bronze but no points) and with having never flown with QF before, my $300 forgotten Upgrade Bid got me from PE to a First Class Suite! @@

This was for a flight at the start of a long (4-day) holiday weekend, and the flight was quiet. I didn't check availability as I wasn't expecting anything from my bid, but I did look at occupied seats (ExpertFlyer) in PE and J the night before. J was more than half empty, and PE only had about 7-8 seats marked as occupied.