akersnl

I hate when people post these questions, but I'm going to do it anyway.

As a OW Emerald, a friend has requested me an upgrade from paid J to F using their Qantas points for LAX-SYD and return. Departing on a Saturday, returning Friday. I have no experience upgrading on Qantas, so I am curious how hard these are to score. Do that many people put in for F upgrades that there is stiff competition? Expertflyer shows 4 open seats each direction, but I have also heard their seat map isn't always accurate.

I know this is an ridiculous open ended question, whose outcome is impacted by many factors. I just have never flown Qantas F and would like to.

QF Lad

F4 is quite heavily booked. You don't say how far into the future your flight is, but even if it was over the next couple of weeks, QF would have a good chance of selling those 4 F seats.

On the basis that your friend is Platinum but keeping in mind that the flight is heavily booked already, I would say you have a 25-30% chance of the upgrade clearing.

Mwenenzi

F seats that sell for real money are often booked and/or confirmed only a few days before travel. And people travelling for work often like to depart on the weekend and leave USA/Eu on the Friday. For J & F this is common where I work. So you have picked days where competition will be high. You chances may increase if you travel on say Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday.

edy4eva

Those 4 seats will most likely than not disappear 3-4 days from departure. Have noticed this happen a lot recently on SYD-DXB and v.v.

akersnl

I have a pretty generous travel policy, but who is paying $25k for last minute F tickets!

serfty

Those 4 seats generally do disappear these days - and it's mainly due to J PAX being successful in their upgrade requests.

Was on QF128 earlier this year with just the two seat allocated and F9 A9 ... Around 3 days before departure it dropped to F7 A7 (still 12 unallocated seats) and about 3 hours before it dropped to F0 A0 - every seat in F was occupied for the flight.

QF Lad

That is true, although I am guessing SYD-HKG-SYD has less F demand than SYD-LAX-SYD. After all, CX abolished F on this route for a reason.

tng11

On a Monday departure for MEL-DXB, I was still seeing F9 the day before with 3/14 seats taken on the seatmap. It was J1 and 0 everything else.

F departed 14/14 on the day of. I wonder if there were a bunch of upgrades that cleared or a lot of op-ups.

og

Don't forget there are ID people, staff on business and deadheads. There goes your F cabin if J is full.

RichardMEL

Upgrades, staff travel... I'm trying to remember a QF F cabin that hasn't been full, when just days before has had the one or two (apparently) sold seats. Remember an allocated seat in a seatmap doesn't equate to actual bookings on a flight. Also know that most F fares are fully flexible, so plans can and do change - people leaving or joining a flight could happen, but mostly upgrades and op ups.

I think most pax booked in J with the points will try for an upgrade to F on a longer haul flight as it is a worthwhile use of QFF's so the demand is most likely going to be greater than the supply.

If your requester is P1 there's a fair chance, depending on specific loads, but P and well if Gold or lower, not much chance. In this case it's the status of the person sponsoring the upgrade that has weighting not the recipient, I believe.

good luck