How to Upgrade at check-in?
 

Hi everyone! :)
I am booked in Y class for a Qantas 767-300 flight from PER to SIN. Y class is apparently very full. I am traveling with my wife and my 21 month old baby daughter. Unfortunately I did not book a seat for my daughter as I was counting on the flight not being full in Y. Since Y is full, I am hoping for an upgrade to J. Should I check in early or late to have a better chance at an upgrade to J? My QFF status is minimal (bronze). How late can I check in before QF close its check-in? Any advice would be most appreciated :)

Welcome to Flyertalk John!

You can only upgrade on departure on domestic flights at the qantas club.
You can't do this on international flights unfortunately! :(

If you really want to upgrade, you are best to call qantas NOW and request it. Being a bronze pleb your luck of an upgrade to J diminishes every day, so get on to it now! The sooner the better!

Re checkin, the qantas website recommends you check in 90 minutes before departure - http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying...irport/checkin

Now also might be a good time to look at a seat for your daughter :)

Enjoy your trip!

I was going to mention the bassinets, but a quick check of the QF website says that the maximum age for those is 18 months! PER to SIN is certainly a long way for a 21 month old on your lap, even with two of you to share the load.

As d00t has pointed out, you won't be able to use points or upgrade credits at check-in.

If you were hoping for a free upgrade, unfortunately it's so unlikely that it's not even worth considering. Two adults and an infant, and no-one with status, puts you way down (read "off") the list. You'd have more chance buying an instant scratchie and trying to win the cash to upgrade.

Unless you are able to pay for J tickets now, I suggest your best hope is to get to the airport early, check yourself and your wife into the D and F seats (aisles in the middle bit) in a row towards the back, and hope that Y is not really full. The E seats will be the last to fill. If someone does take the E, there will be no problem swapping an aisle with him/her.


Good luck, and welcome to FlyerTalk.

And perhaps considering speaking to your family doctor about suitable medication to help the infant sleep through the flight. Phenergan worked well for our kids when they were small, but seek your own professional advice.

Failing that, warn the FA when you board that you will be requiring many refills of scotch throughout the flight.

As others have said, if you want to try to use FF points to upgrade, then get on the waitlist now. If hoping for an operational upgrade, then get on knees now, because its only divine intervention that will assist. I have not had an operational upgrade on any Qantas domestic or international flights for several years, and that is as a Platinum FF member.

Welcome to FT!!

I have not had an operational upgrade on any Qantas domestic or international flights for several years, and that is as a Platinum FF member.[/QUOTE]

Actually, I had one this year on the flight immediately after I gained plat status (I wondered if this was a welcome you've made it gesture??) - admittedly this was a PER-ASP flight where upgrade to J doesn't really mean a lot (but hey not complaining!). I'm flying pretty well weekly around Aus and I agree that your chances of a comp upgrade are NIL (read "0). Get on the UC/points upgrade waitlist now and pray.

I agree with the phenergan, worked well for our two as well. Although our 2 year old with gastro in J was particularly ugly on one particular AKL-MEL-PER flight (not related to medication). You'll be fine in Y and I would bet that the seating staff will do their utmost to keep an E centre seat free for you (assists you and any passenger who might otherwise get put next to you). Take the advice of Alan in CBR and ask for D & F. In fact if you ask for the centre to be blocked when you check in you might get a nice agent who'll do this for you.

Actually, in my opinion you are paying 10% more than the next guy for one of your two seats and to me this should mean that you get the topmost priority for the vacant seat over anyone else in Y. Of course someone will argue that bub is additional weight and some agent time to ticket and check in but come on what other cost is their to any airline that really justifies the 10% charge?

If it makes you feel better I've just burned all my QF points on a oneworld award in Y with Mrs G and masters 3 & 5 (PER-TYO-HEL-LHR-CMN-LHR-NYC-DFW-YVR-HKG-PER) - now that is going to require some serious alcohol.

Why not tell us the date/time you are travelling and there might be a WP who can invite you into the lounge for pre-flight relaxation.

Cheers

We will need to change this!! :)

Which part are you offering to change? The lack of upgrades or the Plat status?

Thanks for your advice
 

Thanks for all your helpful advice.
I've used up my QFF points to waitlist for a Y to J upgrade from SIN to PER for my wife and I (I wanted to try the new 330-300 Skybeds), so the staff at Qantas told me I could not waitlist for the flight from PER to SIN (767-300), even though my points are still in my account and have not been used up yet (pending the upgrade waitlist). Furthermore, it was less than 14 days to flight departure (so no waitlisting for mere mortals like me). I enquired if she could pre-assign us a seat next to an empty seat, and she said the best she could do was to request for a bassinet, even though I told her my girl was 21 months old (past the 18 month old limit). All Y seats are sold out, so I can't purchase a seat for my girl now. I'll try for a D & F seat, and hope that there is one E seat that remains empty for the 5hour flight :) Thanks again.

Yep, agreed.

On the first point from the other person's (unidentified in your message) post, I (as a WP) have been comp. up'ed 3 out of my last 5 Y QF international legs, though these were at peak periods on full flights - and 1 of those from Y to F as previously reported ! - plus even on one internal flight, so it really is the luck of the draw. I have to admit that I have been super-lucky over the years with up's though, on OW and espec. on *A, not sure why (I am not a CL or one of these 5,000 SCs a year people or anything), though I have my own theories.

Lucky upgrades?
 

Our son is incredibly lucky and is traveling Priceline cheapo via SwissAir (I am acronym-impaired) from LAX to ZUR to Prague with his gorgeous Angellina-Jolie lookalike wife. Anyone have good stories for winning the hearts of gate agents and getting upgraded to business? (Nothing smutty please.)

whoops wrong spot...sill move

Last week I travelled from AMS to Paris and actually sat next to Angelina (note: 1 L) Jolie........

I got Op Upped from J to F though.....

LF

And what about Brad>
 

LOL (with an extra L)...so...ah...could you sleep next to her?

Just wait till Spottie sees this... He may be disappointed that he's no longer the only one...

I have a theory about op-ups. Just my theory and nothing concrete about it. But I suspect when there is a need to sit groups together (ie families), the chances of someone being upgraded may well be influenced by the seat pre-allocation. For example, if they need to sit three people together on a 767, and there are no blocks of three seats together, they may look for a group of 2 unallocated seats (say E/F) and then look to move the person in the D seat to make a group of three. In such cases, they may prefer to op-up the person who was pre-allocated the D seat rather than move them into a less desirable seat.

So sometimes if your pre-allocated seats is going to simplify the check-in process for another party, you may get the op-up ahead of a higher status FF.

Now, if the person doing this allocation work has the time, they may look for high status people to move to make the space they need. But in some cases I suspect time pressures mean they may take the first such juggle that will work.

So if this theory is true, having a seat pre-allocation is going to help in the op-up gamble. And having a seat that is needed to seat a group together is going to be even better. But the hard part is know which seat that may be on the day.

Then again, I have not been successful on op-ups, so what would I know about the subject?

Maybe my lack of op-ups has something to do with regularly paying to travel in the highest cabin on the aircraft any, and then using points/UC to upgrade when I have not paid for the highest cabin. On my last DONE4, I was in the highest cabin for all except one BA Trans-Atlantic flight, managing to use points to upgrade 3 x QF flights from J to F, and managing CX F HKG-LAX through another process (not op-up). All other flights were 2-class.

Interesting theory. In all my times preselecting middle aisle seat have never been op-uped on QF or other airline.