tm84

When I flew SIN to SYD and SYD to SIN in March on QF2/1 I wasn’t successful with either flight in an upgrade from Y to J (QF plat). When I looked the A330 flights went out with J seats free. I now need to fly LHR - SIN (stop) - SYD and then return with a stop in SIN again. I’m booking multi city and this is over Xmas/NY. I always think the A380 has more chance or do people think book the A330 flights?

Koru Flyer

This is very hard to answer. As a plat you are near the top of the pile. As to routes and planes, probably the QF1/2 is historically almost always rammed, but so are most planes at the moment, and esp over Xmas/new year. It is a space available upgrade. And QF will happily let it go out with free seats even when people are willing to upgrade.

if you are happy with flying Y and see the upgrade to J as a great Bonus.

I would though suggest you head over to the BA forum. There are lots of discussions there about flying other less known airlines, and ex EU routes esp from Scandinavia that can be much cheaper and may put paid J closer to your budget. Look for ex EU discussions or SYD discussions which invariably go off topic quickly on the cheapest ways to AU which is rarely QF/BA ex LHR.

KF

djsflynn

That's always so annoying, isn't it... not just to see empty seats when your request for an upgrade was denied, but to think an airline hasn't capitalised on putting those vacant seats to better use.

In theory an A380 has more chance of an upgrade over an A330 because it has more seats, but of course the route comes into play here – more people are booking the A380 all the way through to London or Sydney, especially that time of year, whereas the A330 is just SYD-SIN and SIN-SYD.

Don't forget also that Qantas is also leasing an A330 from Finnair from late October onwards, so the A330 should give you the option of upgrading from economy to premium economy (as the Finnair A330s have 21 premium economy seats, unlike the Qantas A330s which lacks a premium economy cabin [business class cabins are the same at 28 seats each]).

As it sounds like you have to go via Singapore, then as mentioned above, BA is one option – and at that time of the year it's a 777 but with Club Suites business class – but also, heavily booked for the LHR-SYD journey, although you never know what you might snare on the SYD-SIN or SIN-SYD leg.

Presuming you want to stay in the Oneworld sphere, another option is Finnair, which has daily SIN-HEL flights and then you can hop down to LHR from there. Finnair can often have quite decent pricing and you'll be on the superior A350 and with the new business class seats, which I personally rate quite highly despite their unique 'non-reclining' nature.

sqyf

Hello tm84! A few additional data points for you:

I recent flew several QF sectors, SIN-MEL on QF36 (787-9), MEL-PER on QF781 (A330) and QF1 SYD-SIN (A380). I am QF Gold, and all flights took place in Sep 2023.

- On QF36 SIN-MEL, I was booked in PEY and requested, but did not receive, a points upgrade to J.

- On QF781, MEL-PER, I requested a points upgrade from Y to J, and it was confirmed a day prior to my flight.

- For QF1, SYD-SIN, I was booked in PEY, and requested a points upgrade, which could not be confirmed in advance, but I had checked the option to allow upgrades at the airport. At check-in, I was given a PEY boarding pass, but verbally told I would be flying in business. At the gate, my boarding pass was swapped for a J boarding pass. This was a mid-week flight -- maybe odds are better on those.

So out of 3 flights where I requested point upgrades, 2 out of the 3 upgrade requests came through, including QF1 SYD-SIN PEY to J.

If you're interested, I'm writing this up in a Trip Report here (It's a work in progress -- I haven't reached the A380 segment yet, but the 787 and A330 segments are done). Cheers.

ianassum

Facts:
1. A Platinum One QFFlyer (yours truly) requesting a single seat from London to Perth in J ONE YEAR before the flight is told the flights over the 3 day period requested are not able to be requested or have been declined, including on QF 2 via Singapore
2. Singapore Airlines (PPS status) gave me a choice of 3 flights via Singapore, including TWO seats in F for the LHR to SIN sector
Opinions?

Dave Noble

My opinion is that it would be a good idea to book with SQ in this situation

ianassum

I had already done that
I was more interested in understanding readers views regarding the REASONS the 2 airlines managed their FF award seats so very very differently

Dave Noble

perhaps due to
Singapore Airlines has 4 times as many flights a day than Qantas does on SYD-SIN and SIN-LHR
Qantas is filling its flights and doesn't wamt to release award seats at this time

To get the actual reason, you would need tQantas to tell you

Koru Flyer

Perhaps because they are very very different airlines. QF large install base of pax with lots of FF points (credit cards, kettles, insurance policies - just take a look at the annual report to work out that the profit centre of FF almost outpaces the international division!) all wanting to get OUT of AU.
SQ, MEL/SYD/BNE flights are all essentially regional feeder flights that then connect with a vast network from a hub (i.e. not just LHR but all over EU, Asia, US etc).

Maybe also QF pissing off QR so that QR restricts FF availability to QF FF thereby limiting supply even more, probably also distorts the market...

(You could probably also argue into this, that QF is much much more profitable - for the airline - as a FF system, they have Aussies right royally stitched up)

tm84

Thanks everyone for your replies! Really helpful.