Qantas launches 'Bid Now Upgrade' auction for J upgrades
 

Qantas will this week launch begin points+pay auctions for business class upgrades on selected domestic and international flights.

• Minimum 3,000 points bid on domestic and 5,000 points on international
• Each bid also needs a cash component, min and max varies but can range from a few hundred dollars to over $1000
• Offer to bid will be invitation-only, skewed towards those who've purchased higher Y fares (eg Flexi/Saver rather than Sale)
• Qantas says Classic Upgrade Rewards will always take priority over Bid Now Upgrades, but could reduce the number of On Departure Upgrade Awards

More at http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-onlin...-class-upgrade

[NB: I'm the author of the article linked above]

Qaenhance?

"A poorer use of points than a Classic upgrade"

http://m.smh.com.au/business/aviatio...09-139ibg.html

This sounds like another crap enhancement

Over on AFF, Red Roo has posted regarding this.

It seems it's aimed at those with not enough points for an award or upgrade outright.

As upgrades go, they apparently have the lowest priority.

Having the option to bid for an upgrade is surely better than not having the option for the passenger - whether one decides it is worth it is another matter

I agree that this could be an improvement for low status passengers. I fear for those with high status that this could see reduced chances of getting upgrades, especially last minute requests.
Anyway many airlines have introduced something similar, NZ is the local example, and some people have reported luck with getting cheap upgrades.

Air NZ have a similar system where I think the minimum bid is NZ$100? Please correct me if I'm incorrect. The QF system seems to be slightly different where you need to bid 5,000 points for an international upgrade as well as dollars - wonder what the minimum dollar amount is? Anyone know?

An email about this hit my inbox this morning. Apparently no mention of on departure upgrades (ODUs), which presumably will be adversely affected.

Thus may be useful "enhancement" for some, but maybe not necessarily good for those with higher status and plenty of points...thus yet another effective lessening of WP benefit set.

Love the way QF fails to qualify where those ODUs will fit in the scheme of things...ignore the bad news and hope the ever faithful will be blind to the downside...

Minimum dollar amount varies, depending on how many points you bid.

Not sure about the "poorer use"

IF a Disc Y - J Classic/ODU is 10,000 points,

but you can put in a bid for 3,000 pts (and $0) (I think)

Well the Bid Now system is better value if it gets hit

I've wondered when they were going to do this as it seems to have been a great success for Air NZ. Many of my colleagues bid and are successful on upgrading this way but as I've put my loyalty towards OW I've never had the chance. Cant be a bad thing for the majority of people.

I wonder will the system tell you whether your bid is realistic or not? Allowing you to bid a bit higher if you've obviously got too low a bid?

As long as the bid is allowed then surely it is realistic - encouraging someone to bid higher to improve their chance seems to be a great way of helping people part with money - so would expect it would :)

CX's crashed pretty badly http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...periences.html

Qantas launches 'Bid Now Upgrade' auction for J upgrades
 

Based on the screenshot I saw, there is a dial showing strength of the bid. I flew Virgin from MCY to SYD yesterday and received an email offering for me to bid cash for an upgrade. However the minimum bid was $219 - no thanks!

As a former NZ frequent flyer I can tell you their system ("OneUp") is absoutely pants, and it ripped the value out of Airpoints overall.

I'm disappointed to see it spreading to QFF, but not really surprised.