It's no great surprise to see the international upgrades more severely restricted than before. They
do now have fewer premium seats to use for this, and there's no getting away from it. By all accounts, they badly miscalculated the points ladder for upgrade awards when they were first introduced - and it was not
that long ago that they were - and between that and the Skybed, this was just a natural step for them to take.
Otherwise, things that I like, or that are not bad:-
- At least 100% point earning on all QF codes retained.
- SC earning remains on all discount economy fares - killing or restricting that more would have been my worst nightmare, but would have been entirely logical.
- LHR-SIN-SYD on QF10/6 and similar routings will now be 70 SCs not 65, while LHR-SYD on QF2 stays at 60.
- An UG on QF10/6 has now come down to the same price as an UG on QF2 for the whole trip, so you don't have to juggle.
- SYD-CBR-SYD is now back to only 8,000 points for an economy award flight - it was ridiculous when it had gone up to 20,000 - although to be fair it has become much easier to get el cheapo tickets now than it was when that trip increased in price.
- If upgrades are to be restricted from any discount economy fares, it's better that only NOQ should be disqualified, not everything below Y.
So for me and the way I use QF FF, a first glance suggests that although not all is good, not all is bad either.