Nightowl888

I’m currently attempting to do an APD upgrade on a SQ flight (booking class Y, which is an eligible upgrade class) through Air NZ’s star alliance upgrade portal.

It was booked as part of an Air NZ itinerary on 086 stock (first leg is AKL-SIN in PE).

Each time I put the details in, it goes to the next screen that shows the upgrade is available, so I click “purchase” but am then greeted by the below error screen.

For the booking ref, I’m using the Air NZ booking ref (rather than the SQ partner ref) and for the ticket no I’m using my 086xxx (taking out the hyphen in between the last and second to last digits).

Am I doing something wrong?

Or do I just need to be patient - only just bought the tickets not long ago.

Thai-Kiwi

I had a crack at this a few days ago on a SIN-BKK on SQ metal (with NZ codeshare) as part of an NZ ticket (086 stock). NZ fare class ‘S’ seems eligible.

My iPad just seemed stuck ‘processing’ so I gave up after 15 minutes. Suspect a call is needed…

Nightowl888

I can at least get to this screen below , which made me think I had input all my details right (tried a couple times, including using the SQ partner ref), but either way it leads me to the error screen above.

Maybe I’m just being impatient and need to allow a day or two for my booking to “sync up” with SQ or something and then try again.

Thai-Kiwi

To be honest, I don’t see $AP 460 (also for me SIN-BKK) to be good value for a 2 hour flight.

That is more than two Y-J Trans-Tasman upgrades (2x $AP 190 = $AP 380).

Nightowl888

I agree it’s not amazing value, but as I am not Elite I have no other use for burning APD, as I don’t particularly fancy redeeming them for domestic award travel or the rip off Airpoints store.

Most of my APD come from work travel, so because for me I didn’t pay anything to accumulate them I don’t see it as a waste - not sure what other alternatives I realistically have to burn them for good value (apart from maybe a low one-up, with about a 0.01% chance of success).

Plus it would be nice to do the last leg in J after a very early morning start from WLG and then the long leg from AKL-SIN, especially on SQ’s J product. It’s all about perceived value

Xiaotung

As I understand it, for this to go through, you will need SQ's I class to be available on your particular flight. Then you will probably need SQ's I class to be also bookable by NZ which is virtually impossible. SQ often releases more I class seats to the likes of VA and AC, but never NZ (or it was NZ who blocks these seats). It's very rare that you will have all of these variables go your way.

Also, this system probably is broken anyway. A few years ago, I raised an issue about a potential AC upgrade not going through. Their response was along the line of I was one of the first customers attempting such an upgrade and they were not sure if the system was ever tested or not.

znsm

How are these supposed to work in general? Would the same availability be used as seen in a *A partner award? The portal for that shows a very bare selection of award inventory that Air NZ can access (vs other *A programs)

Or, if you have booked an eligible booking class eg Y and J is available, it would go through on that basis, not related to an award bucket?

If the former I'm thinking this is a waste of time for me to bother...

jswong

Remember that Star Alliance Upgrades are not possible on codeshares. On the examples above, if there was an NZ flight number on the SQ it was a codeshare. If it were marketed with an SQ flight number it would be eligible (presuming the fare bucket maps across)

Nightowl888

It’s definitely an SQ flight number for the leg I want to upgrade (though I do have another flight in that itinerary that’s operated by SQ but has an NZ3xxx flight number)

Thai-Kiwi

I had a nosey at the *A upgrade process for an upcoming SIN-BKK that falls in the latter example - SQ operated NZ 3xxx. The website just ‘hung’ after submitting the various information, and so appears wasn’t going to be successful based on jswong ’s comment above. Not good value at $AP 460…

tairantei

Hi I’m just looking into this and
wanted to know, if I booked a United ticketed flight but am Airnz star alliance gold would I do the request for upgrade through airnz?
or do I have to buy the ticket through airnz to be able to upgrade the star alliance flight?

raznz

you'd be doing it in United's *A Upgrade portal since that's the ticket issuer. (ie. you're trying to upgrade one of your legs that is operated by another *A airline that is not United)

and just in case i misunderstood, if you're trying to upgrade a united ticketed flight on a unitec operated flight, you wouldn't use *A Upgrade.
if you wanted to use Airpoints to do a *A upgrade, then you would need to book with NZ

Xiaotung

If you want to upgrade an eligible UA flight using APD, then no one knows because no one has ever been successful.

Regardless, you would be paying an excessive amount of APD on top the already expensive full Y fare.

For comparison, on a UA flight from New Zealand to the US:
Star Alliance Upgrade from Y to J costs APD1700.
Star Alliance Award in J outright costs APD1600 plus taxes.

Asssuming both reply on the availability of booking class I.

jswong

Your star alliance status is not relevant. If you wish to upgrade an eligible UA flight through the star alliance upgrade process you would request via NZ

Your last sentence is not clear (need to book the flight on UA and the upgrade on NZ)

mmonster

oh, I have never used it, can anyone care to share the link? thank you in advance