Just off the phone with a rather informative premium rep who advised that in terms of upgrade priority "proactive" upgrades with the elusive phone call offering WP and SG to burn cash or points happen first, up to seven days prior to the flight, with requested points upgrades considered after that.

Is anyone-else surprised by this? Of course I understand the opportunity to make extra $, but to offer points upgrades to someone who hadn't requested it, and perhaps for a lower amount, than a customer who followed the process seems a bit unfair!

He also advised that while seatcounter / KVS may provide numbers of J passengers and prospective seat numbers, J class seats can effectively be held until 48 hours prior to the flight without being paid, at which time they are either bought or cancelled.

I think the difference is that proactive upgrades can be paid for with cash, not just points.

Even though points do have an effective cash value, QF appear to prefer cash payment and so wherever that option is available, go down that route.

Incidentally - has anyone heard of "proactive" ups from J to F - for cash? I guess they're rare because J hasn't been selling that well thanks to the GFC.

The rep said that the proactive upgrades involve a smaller cash amount than the fare difference, he gave $750 as an example from Y to Y+ or 25,000 points SYD-JFK. He also said they also do J to F for $1,000.

He indicated I would fall within the proactive targeted category, so I guess if I'm given the option to upgrade from Y+ to J for $1,000 per pax I'll take it for the comfort, SC and save the 120,000 points for another trip. I'd rather not lose a cash proactive upgrade option, and not receive the points upgrade.

Sure, the cash amount will always be less than the fare difference, but less than 48 hours out, they're unlikely to sell that fare at list price anyway, so even a few hundred dollars is better than none. Plus they keep their WPs and SGs happy.

The catering cost is circa $100, add another $50 for soft product cost for J and $100 for champagne consumption in F; leaving pure profit of $600 for the J upgrade and $800 for the F upgrade. Seems like an easy choice for QF.

and minus $4000 for the next trip when pax thinking of buying J/F opts for Y+/J instead

I gather that you called them?
Were you asking if you were likely to be offered the upgrade deal?
Is your fare points upgradeable?

Which seems the UA model where everyone expects to be able to upgrade.

Most J/F sales are dictated by corporate travel policy and not individual traveler choice, so I doubt QF is too worried about this at the moment. My own travel is 100% my own choice and in the past year I have sometimes chosen to fly Y when it met my time constraints (and F when it did not; a day of my time is worth the fare difference when working). What I've discovered is that careful route and flight selection can find Y that is "close enough" to premium travel (if only I had the luxury of discretionary trip timing). I now have zero sympathy for those who winge about leisure trips in Y, entirely their own fault if they don't enjoy it! Really all F buys is time flexibility.

Wonder if the "proactive" upgrades are a QFF benefit (ie. not offered for those with Oneworld status). That would certainly tilt the balance between Aadvantage and QFF a fair bit. Most other airlines seem to limit this to their own FF plan status members, fwiw.

I have a Y+ ticket and have requested a points upgrade to J. I wasn't asking for a proactive upgrade, rather asking about the probability of my specific flight during which he offered all the above info.

I gather it's a QF FF benefit only for WP and SG.

If offered a proactive upgrade for $ I will take it.

Interesting that you are happy to go back to Y after all these years of F and J travel Number 6. They say it's easy going up, but so much harder coming back down again. I am sure that with all those miles you must have accrued there is not the need to do this too often in any case.

I do know what you are saying because airlines prove time and time again that they are not hospitality professionals despite the immense amounts of money they often charge for "hospitality" in F and J. Even on the world class airlines you can get some decidedly mixed service results that you would never tolerate from a top class hotel that charges a fraction of the price of a premium airline ticket.

Partly Y has been enhanced on some flights. For example on QF the A380 Y is sooooo much better than 744 Y (in fact I would rate it better than Y+ on 744 as I value the higher pressurization and less vibration highly -- others seem not to; I do find less jet lag after A380 flights than on other aircraft ... the B787 will be comparable, if it ever takes to the air).

Of course only a few routes/flights have "better" Y, and I only use it for point-to-point (the OWE tickets are still better done in J or F, though I've had ones which had only 3 sectors in F so not really worthwhile with some routings and schedules). Still the improvement in Y on several airlines (not just QF) is a welcome change (after the demise of AA's "more room in Y" seating). Also a couple of times I have traveled with clients who were constrained to flying in Y by their corporate travel policy -- surprising how many companies are prohibiting J travel this year -- so I was in Y too (once on a voluntary downgrade from J).