Qantas Upgrade
 

Thurs 2 May QF35 MEL SIN 11:55 17:55.
Seat map does not equal seat sales
Passengers have selected seats? Or seats have been sold.
Not unusual for people flying for business(work) to book/confirm/change a few days before.
You may only find out if you win/loose the QF upgrade lottery at check-in

A recent J-F upgrade on QF 36 was processed 36 hours before the flight, the J-F upgrade on QF 35 returning was processed 90 hours before the flight.

I am Plat which puts the window at 48 hours.

Can any QF upgrade-whisperers give me a hint on how to play this one? I have just made Platinum (yay!) and mrs secondsoprano and I are celebrating by doing a trip to Europe on QF1. I have enough points to upgrade from Economy to Business. Would I be better buying a Premium Economy fare and requesting an upgrade to Business, or buying an Economy fare and requesting a double upgrade to Business? Or Economy and requesting upgrade to PE (we'd be happy ending up with either PE or J).

I know they process requests in order of status (so my chances have now improved), and in order of time received, but is there also a hierarchy of the type of upgrade (PE to J, then Y to J, or the other way around)?

Given the price of upgrades from Economy to Business class, I would suggest looking for outright award bookings ( 128k vs 92k iirc )

If looking to pay premium economy fares, I would also suggest looking at how much it would cost for business class outright on another carrier; Given QF's fares there may be little price difference and save 184,000 miles and no gamble

e.g. looking in October, Qantas's price ( from ITA) is showing at $5650 for Premium Economy ( vs $3285 on JL, $3490 on SQ and $3670 on BA ) ; compare that with the lowest business class fares on offer at $4833 on Air China , $6017 on Finnair (with AY, the SYD-SIN is on Qantas anyway ) and $6136 on TG

The purchase of PE on Qantas and then the lottery to try and upgrade for at $5650 seems much worse than just purchasing the Air Chine ticket upfront

There is no real secret to getting an upgrade to clear - off peak times of year are likely to have less competition for seats; holding platinum status makes your chances of success better

I wouldn't purchase PE just to improve chance of getting an upgrade since other business classes could be cheaper ; buy an econony ticket and hope for an upgrade to PE or business or just buy business class

Agree with Dave. Outright award is the best option instead of booking first into economy. Award availability might be an issue though depending on how far out your travel dates are.

In regard to the options above, I did the TG BNExBKKxFRAxBKKxBNE a year and a bit ago. Hard product is okay but inconsistent, soft product was bad - the whole flight from BKK to BNE the purser was snoozing in a seat next to me rather than offering service. When I asked for some water nothing happened for half an hour. When I dared to ask again (very politely) I was told off and he said he was the purser and not cabin crew, I should ask cabin crew instead. Problem was that it was a deserted J cabin and there was no other crew in the cabin! Bad service.

​​​​​​Did AY two years ago to Helsinki. Good soft and hard product in J. The J lounge in Helsinki is amazing. Can only recommend. Good value for money at this price.

Even if the service is bad, would bad service with business class seating , meals et al be wose than taking Premium Economy on Qantas at a similar price? My experience with TG has been pretty decent - even, so I would probably be saving a $1000 and taking the Air China service :)

To answer the original question by OP on chance of upgrade, the PE to J upgrades are processed before Y to J as that opens up a Y to PE upgrade slot :) So you will be before all WP in Y requesting upgrade, making the odds close to 100% if the J seats are empty enough (as they are on most dates/routes these days). AY is great value for J and does also offer an aournd-the-world fare (not OWE) that is pretty good. Some of the other choices mentioned such as Air China are problematic and ones that I personally would never buy, but to each their own evaluation.

Thanks for your input everyone and particularly thanks to number_6 for the explanation of which order the upgrades are done. Makes sense. I'm with you, won't be taking Air China (what is the point of finally making QF Plat if you don't use the Sydney First Lounge??). No outright award seats available on dates we can do unfortunately so will go with our upgrade changes which hopefully should be pretty reasonable.

We did the AY round the world last year and I agree it was excellent value and great product & service. It's one reason we just can't bear the thought of economy to Europe ever again :)

Thw lounge is still just a lounge to spend an hour or so before the flight - the flight to Europe is the main thing - a short time in lounge plus quite feasible 24 hours in economy (or premium economy if purchased) vs using the Singapore lounge at Sydney and a guaranteed business class journey - to me it is a no brainer decision

There are plenty of equally nice or nicer lounges around
I would choose Emirates 1st lounge, Qatar 1st and Qatar business in Doha and London to start with, plus Thai 1st class lounge at BKK beats it esily imo ( esp with the TG ground service) - there are plenty of nice lounges and a fair few that have spas for anyone that needs them

I will agree that it is a nicer lounge than the business lounge and even has some decent soft drinks and a dining area - but apart from that what makes it special?

It's in Sydney, so by default that makes it a punishment courtesy of Air Sydney. How I miss the old direct international routes Qantas had.