jorayfly24

I booked a flight to AKL from SAN in economy. The flight is SAN-DFW-SYD-AKL.

The DFW-SYD is operated by Qantas. I'd like to know my upgrade options as a non-AA member. Can I upgrade from Economy to Business on the gate?

Mwenenzi

QF & AA & QR do not have a cross airline upgrade scheme.
QF very very rarely offer cash upgrades at the gate checkin. May offer at the full retail fare difference. But unlikely if AA marketed (flight number) - QF operated..
The QF manage my booking may have a red upgrade button. Normally would only be 1 class higher. Economy to premium economy. Or premium economy to business.
-->https://www.qantas.com/nz/en/manage-...g/upgrade.html
-->https://www.qantas.com/nz/en/manage-...w-upgrade.html

QF will fly with unoccupied PE/bus seats after having denied upgrades.
However at this time QF flights are very full. More so in business & PE.
You could pay extra $ for an exit row seat. QF charge for these even if passenger has OWE status.

AA are flying non stop DFW-AKL AA35 10:41 - 08:45 (+2d)

Enjoy the trip and New Zealand

Microwave

As this is a QF operated flight, this question is best answered in the Qantas forum. I shall move it there.

~Microwave
AAdvantage forum co-moderator

Koru Flyer

Last time I checked QF do not fly Syd to auk (alakanuk, Alaska). They do, however, have many flights to akl (Auckland)

I would be prepared for a trip in economy. QF do not proactively offer gate upgrades. You can upgrade with QF points or a bid now upgrade. But given it is an AA flight number on an AA ticket I would suspect those are not available. That said, even as a status QF member the ability to snag an upgrade on the premium heavy DFW-SYD flight would be difficult.

you could try going outside to the checkin desk and see what a fare difference on day of travel may be. I once asked and the response was eye watering . And any probability that QF are offering any seats is low as they will have run the upgrades.

QF will happily fly with seats empty in premium economy and business.

best bet as per the above would be to pay for an exit row seat. You can do that in manage my booking. Also check that you contact details are in, as you never know there may be a bid now upgrade. But on an AA ticket and AA flight number I am not sure. But worth a shot.

KF

bescobar

Buy the ticket for the class of service you want.:-)

BrianV

As others have said, no way possible to upgrade without hard cash. I recently flew QF in PE and found their PE product to be excellent. It wasn’t cheap however. Food/service was the same as business (same FAs), but the seat didn’t fully recline, but it reclined enough for me to get full fledged sleep. Also, window seats don’t have aisle access without getting the aisle person to vacate their seat (QF J has aisle access for all seats). QF PE reminded me of AA’s 777 business class before they got the motorized lay flat in 2007ish. Way more modern seat and tech, but similar pitch, etc.

nancypants

Isn’t there some deal on the DFW-SYD flights that you can pay a fairly small amount and get a whole row of seats in economy? Because it’s weight restricted?

There is something deep in the memory saying it only happens one way though

jorayfly24

Thank you!

not2017

From Qantas website: "Bid now upgrades can be requested on eligible and confirmed domestic and international flights operated by Qantas, with a Qantas (QF) flight number on your ticket."

It does not specify a Qantas ticket number using code "081", just Qantas flight number. If your ticket has the AA codeshare flight number for a Qantas flight, you cannot bid.