So in the interest of starting this off, here's a random fare !! Obviously I wouldn't usually structure a 'fare alert' like this but this is just an example of how things differ.
I spotted a fare of something in the region of £345 for LGW - Danang on Qatar and I wondered to myself whether I could upgrade that using QMiles which I am looking to get rid of. Unfortunately it turned out that was in a booking class which apparently can't be upgraded using QMiles. So I started wondering what the price difference would be before I could start using QMiles to upgrade (hence this whole thread !!).
I don't especially want to go to Danang or in the time-frame I've used in this example, it is just an exercise - although hopefully if people spot opportunities of great fares which can be upgraded they'll (you'll !! / I'll) post them here.
I did a Matrix search of the following:
LHR, LGW, CWL
to
Da Nang International, Viet Nam (DAD)
for 14-20 nights starting on April 1st.
using f bc = V L K M (again the spaces should be the pipe character)
Which is not in the best booking class for the amount of QMiles needed to upgrade but is also not in the worst, its in the middle set !!
I found a fare of £763 in V LGW-DAD-LHR. This would require 130,000 QMiles to upgrade return.
using f bc = O T N Q S (again the spaces should be the pipe character)
I found a fare of £587 in O LGW-DAD-LHR. This would require an eye watering 170,000 QMiles to upgrade return.
using f bc = B H Y (again the spaces should be the pipe character)
I found a fare of £1,484 in B LGW-DAD-LHR. This would require a pleasing 85,000 QMiles to upgrade return.
Clearly you'd have to be a nutter to pay that for an economy fare just so you could use the least amount of QMiles to upgrade to business class - although on this itinerary you would save yourself a whopping 85,000 QMiles on the upgrade cost !!
Then there was of course the economy fare of ~ £345 which I spotted that could not be upgraded using QMiles.
So.......maybe I've just drunk too much coffee today and gone off on one or perhaps this thread could become of some use.
From the QCalculator...upgrade costs for a return (QMiles) CWL / LHR - DADClass
Economy to Business (V,L,K,M)
130,000
Economy to Business (B,H,Y)
85,000
Economy to Business (O,T,N,Q,S)
170,000