QF good at upgrading its Plats?
 

Yes / No / Sometimes

Please and thank you! :)

(This is in reference to: http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9054242)

QF is pretty good at yield management , so involuntary upgrades are rare beasties. In the rare cases that they do occur, then having QF Platinum status is more likely to make you chosen, however there is nothing published as a benefit regarding it and they may move anyone as they please

If you book a business class seat with Qantas, expect to travel business class

As far as the details of the thread you refer goes, if interested in spending miles, I would be recommending AA , however he will only attain Platinum status (OW Sapphire ) whilst QF will get a higher status of Platinum (OW Emerald ) but will have poor redemption rates; Pretty card or better redemptions is the call to make

Dave

One OP-UP for me over 2 years. So don't count on it. But it happens.

Thank you for the informative post. ^

How do QF Plat and BA Gold compare, then?

QF aren't good at upgrading plats

i flew back from LAX recently - in front row of economy
they wanted me to move for a family with a young child

they wanted me to move - further back in economy

i said i was happy to move - forwards (business was 80%+ empty)

no go

they said i was entitled to keep my allocated seat in economy

1 op-up Biz to First on QF and 2 op-ups Biz to First on CX in the last 3 years. Nothing from WHY to Biz in Oz domestic - ever.

BA Gold can be easier or harder to attain than QF Platinum depending on the travel patterns and where he has his account maintained

If the account is based in Mainland Europe , the requirements for Silver are 400 Tier Points and then 800 for Gold ( total 1200 )

If the account is based elsewhere, the requirements are 600 and 1500 respectively do total of 2100 TPs

Also, he will need to fly 4 sectors on BA to attain Silver status plus then another 4 sectors on BA to attain Gold ( total 8 ) whilst to get to QF Platinum he will need 4 total

also, should he attain QF Platinum early in membership year, he will get the rest of current membership year as Platinum and then the following year, so depending on the travel could get up to 2 years of Platinum

With BA, as soon as he attains gold, his membreship year will reset and so he will then have only 1 year of gold ( unless he attains another 800/1500 Tier Points to renew )

BA does have some decent upgrade awards which may be worth looking at

Overall, if it is a pretty status that is wanted, QF will probably give him the longest of that status ( unless he will requalify ) but for points value they are not very good

What is the primary desire that he has; to get a premium class award ticket somewhere plus have OW Saphire status or to have OW Emerald status? Personally, I'd suggest the former

Dave

Do you think moving seats (which you could of course refused - as I have seen people do before) is worth a several thousand dollar upgrade? I have seen I think 3 in flight upgrades 2 of which were doctors for assisting in an emergency. The other I can't remember but of similar importance.

Managers can get in huge trouble for upgrading without a good reason. I've seen every excuse under the sun to be upgraded and it is done only in rare circumstances.

However in regards to op-ups (which are few and far between) I can say from my experience it is generally at least frequent flyers that get upgraded.

One upgrade from Y to J on OZ domestic in the last four years. Nothing else ever. QF is clearly not UA or AA. ;)

I think he just wants a shiny card so either will work, really.

By "premium class award plus OW Sapphire" do you mean MPC Gold?

3 domestic Y -J upgrades last year. Two SYD-CNS, and one CNS-SYD

I found this strange,

Was on a flight this week (767) with 25 business seats (1 full) and maybe 30 or 40 peoplle in the back.

Must have been a few plats/gold on the flight, as it was mostly business people.

As a QF Gold, I am barely acknowleged by QF. I have been better looked after on CX actually. 2 x Y-J op ups MEL-HKG. Totally unexpected which makes it very welcome. Those flights felt like my first time in J all over again... I am loving CX these days.

I seem to get one dom upgrade per year - flights totally rammed down the back as per usual.

That said, QF does not upgrade unless it has to and even last year as a PG, I put in an upgrade request using miles which did not come through despite there being seats in the requested cabin. :(

Isn't that a bit selfish? A family misses out on getting a bassinet position because you had a hand out for an op-up. On many airlines you wouldn't even be asked for permission but instead TOLD that bulkhead seat is unavailable and you now have xx.

Anyway, in answer to the OP - no op-ups for me.

I have offered to swap out of the bulkhead seat for a PAX w/ infant when travelling in J and have then been promptly lectured about the swap by the CSM as PAX cant just organise such things amongst themselves.

I probably wouldn't volunteer a swap (yes for SYD-LAX, no LAX-SYD) if I had managed to score a bulkhead in Y however as these are blocked by yield management and cannot be preallocated by res, only becoming available in the last 48hrs. I however wouldn't ask for an upgrade in return but do feel that something would need to be offered to entice me to move further back down the plane (a spare seat next to me perhaps). Yes, I do understand that you must follow a FA direction while on an aircraft but to score a bulkhead is a rare treat especially to or from LAX. I have never had a Y bulkhead seat and I have done the trip no less than 32 times in the last 6 years.

Back on topic I havent had an op-up from QF in 3 years. My last up-up was J to F on LA from SYD-AKL last year.

One op-up from J to F on QF 93 on a day when QF 25 was cancelled.

One op-up from Y-J on BNE to MEL.

And thats it.

HAve had a few on CX and NZ.

Only if it is a direction that the Flight Attendant is authorised to make

Dave

Your assuming the young child required a bassinet in the first place..... :)

I would have thought that anyone who asks for an upgrade would have less chance of getting it to someone who hadn't asked for it!

Plenty of the older FAs seem to think they are authorised to do anything bar actually fly the plane themselves...

True. BTW my no op-ups comment was on QF. I do (sometimes) get op-upped on other airlines.

Oh puh-lease... I can think of so many ways that families can sit together without inconveniencing anyone - and most of them involve getting to the airport in enough time to be allocated seats together.

We've all heard some sob story from someone at some point about why you should let them go before you or give up something you took the effort to secure for yourself... I'm afraid it just doesn't wash with me anymore.

My most recent experience of this I posted a while back - a woman with baby asked if she could push in front of me because her flight was about to close... I thought it a little strange as I'd not heard any flights being called forward in the few minutes I was standing there - but since I had plenty of time to spare didn't mind...

Suddenly her husband and his golf clubs appeared out of nowhere, and the couple proceeded to take forever checking in - no doubt wrangling over which seats they "deserved"...

Yes compassion and consideration are one thing - but I'm no longer about to just hand everything to people who expect people to treat them differently because they are too lazy to get to the airport on time!

/rant

Yah - my most recent experience was disembarking last night in perth, family in row 5 biz class (2 adults, 2 children) were mucking around and holding up the left aisle (the right biz aisle had cleared and eco pax were well and truly going). Got to the stage where people were saying 'excuse me can we get past you please?' and the guy turns to us (the aisle full of pax), raises his voice and askes if we could all just calm down a little and give him and his family time to leave the plane. No one did, of course, but the simple solution would have been for him to wait until all the rest of us had disembarked.

Anyways - back on point, last op-up for me was last night (see other post on 'what happened to Qf 776 :) ). Last op up for my partner was a goodie - they scored a Y-J upgrade ex MEL to LAX on QF25 because of school hols and the flight was full on the MEL-AKL sector.

regards

lme ff

:D ^

THe family only needs one of the seats at the bassinet position. Why ask the platinum to move ? One of the benefits of being a FF is being assigned the best seats.

Soooo if I understand correctly you're suggesting one member of the family + the infant gets the bassinet, while the rest of the family has to sit elsewhere?

As a Platinum, when you rang to pre-assign your bulkhead seat, you would have been told (as I have time and again) that your seat allocation is not guaranteed. The advantage of being Platinum is that you can select another "best seat", and not suffer the inconvenience of being moved from a seat you were told this was likely to occur in. Or having to argue "I'm Platinum and I deserve/earned/am owed this seat".

I'm sorry to hear someone pushed in on you on a false premise. However, please help me understand what does your post have to do with the bassinet seat?

I am still curious at the rationale for the argument that a family may be less deserving of a bulkhead/bassinet seat than a Platinum...

I've had 3 or 4 upgrades domestically in the last 3 years or so. None from Qantas internationally, although BA and CX have both upgraded me.

I don't like the bulkhead behind J (747) as it is legroom restricted. Give me the seats on the other side just behind crew rest.

Isn't the point being that it's first in, first served? As a plat you can request better seats, these include bulkheads with no one in front to recline and slightly more leg-room. If I happen to call Qantas before a family with an infant, then why shouldn't I get that seat? Qantas probably knows that if I miss out too many times on the better seats as a frequent flyer, I'll go to an airline that can accommodate me.

My friends flew recently with a baby to Europe and had a choice between SQ, MH and QF. They (a) checked the bassinet weight allowance for each airline (SQ won at 11 kgs) and (b) rang the airline to see if the bassinet seat was free before finalising the booking on-line.

All families can do this (or do it through their agent). So the point is that if I have requested a seat and been granted it, why should I move to a worse seat in economy once I am seated? Move to biz class, sure, but not to a worse seat.


regards

lme ff

I've had one upgrade as a plat on QF, Y-J domestic. Amusingly, it was on my amex freebie flight.

Actually no. Passengers booking bassinets trump Platinum members when it comes to selecting seats so if you take a seat in that area, you will be removed if a passenger makes a booking requiring it and rebooked into another seat; ime they will tell you this at the time of arranging the assignment

If , however, it hasn't been booked and it is after boarding that they are trying to request it, then it would seem to me that they haven't booked the bassinet ( or they have booked the bassinet for 1 person and are just trying to get seated together ) ; at that point then it would seem to be a quite different situation since no trump card had been played other than working on the sympathy vote

Dave

I'm not saying the premise of the family's request was false. The OP regarding the incident made no mention of a bassinet - just a young child.

What I'm saying that it seems more often than not when people want you to move so they can "sit together", it's always your nice seat they want, and their crappy one down the back that you're being offered.

Aren't there bassinets at practically every bulkhead, not just front row Y? This family could easily have been allocated one of the other bassinets, had they made a request to the airline, or checked in early.

Outside of just here - I am convinced that certain people learn this behaviour of "being in distress" because it is so successful for them.

In making themself out to be the victim so they must be rescued, the victim actually plays the role of the tyrant - because they are just doing it to control others.

Some airlines will move pax to accomodate infants, others don't.
I am a WP and the father of a little baby and so I can understand the two sides of the argument.
If I travel without a baby I am happy to get a bulk head seat. It is a nice to have.
But if I travel with our baby (she is 8 months and has done 20 flights already) I need the bassinet seat otherwise the flight will be very difficult for me and the other passangers. This is not a nice to have anymore.

And I bet you also call the airline beforehand to pre-assign said bassinet seat...

Completely agree. Bulkheads are generally bad as they combine legroom restrictions and the possibility of a baby. Never a good combination!

I haven't made a flight since making WP/PG so I can't comment personally, but a colleague (WP) seems to get domestic Y->J upgrades reasonably often (3/8 or so last year I think).

Then there's this little peculiarity...

:)

Cheers,
- Febs.

Perhaps all the other bassinets were already taken? There is often more than one youngster onboard. They may have been checked in at an earlier airport which did not have control of the seating (something I'm unfortunately all to familiar with - "you have a choice Kiwi Flyer, I can check you in for the onward flight but I'm unable to change seat and you currently have a crap one, or I can not check you in and you deal with it in transit".

I'm sure that is the case sometimes. But unlike some other situations which can be faked (easily lied about), it is easy to see if it really is a baby who needs a bassinet. I'm sure a baby's needs are more important than mine. (I also happily let parents with baby ahead of me in a queue for the toilet.)

Like Dave Noble - on QF I'm always warned there is a risk I need to be moved if I preselect a bassinet seat.

Obviously your friend has been praying to the OpUp gods sacrificing small animals.

Pure luck me thinks in addition to having a surname beginning with a letter close to A.

Always, of course. But sometimes there are too many babies (we had 4 on a 767 business class the other day) or status pax have already taken the bassinet seats.