I've booked an LONE4 for September (ticketed by AA).
I have enough points to upgrade one of my long haul QF sectors to Y+ or J. The QF site will let me do this.

Should I? If so, which sector?
SYD-LAX (QF11 Sep 4)
LHR-SIN (QF32 Sep 23)
SIN-MEL (QF10 Oct 2 [connecting from JL721])

Good question. Are you able to actually upgrade a part of an LONE4 if it's not ticketed by QF? I'm sure someone here can answer, but that may be a good way for me to go rather than a redemption DONE4 type fare needing 280000 points.... curious myself

It doesn't matter who tickets the ticket (?!), as long as it's a QF flight number and a QF plane, you can ask for the upgrade. I've a funny feeling it knocks you down the queue a bit if it isn't a QF ticket, but I've no evidence to support that.

Is any of them on the A380? I may pick that flight.

You can also think that flights close the weekends are fuller, so that means QF32 offers you the best chance...

If I log into qantas.com and click the upgrade button beside the Amadeus code for this trip it comes up with the 10 flights Amadeus can see and says I can use points to upgrade any of the 4 QF code/QF operated flights.
I don't see the point in asking for an upgrade on MEL-CBR. The other three flights have a date the 'request period' opens.


QF11 and QF32 are meant to be operated by 388s on those dates. (Only reason I went with QF11 over QF73 was the 380)

qantas.com is saying:
QF11
upgrade to Y+ 45,000
upgrade to J 72,000
QF32
upgrade to Y+ 35,000
upgrade to J 56,000
QF10
upgrade to Y+ 25,000
upgrade to J 40,000

I'm Silver (got back to silver after my last flight 2 weeks ago, I was knocked back down to bronze 5 days before my xonex last year). I'll have 60SC and 53,686 points when I leave on this trip with current bookings (unless the QFF Woolworths thing starts fairly soon, then I'll be getting points every time I buy lunch at work).

SYD-LAX (QF11) would be an overnight and thus a good candidate for upgrade, so I'd request that.

I'd also request QF32 as that's also an overnight. If you get the first upgrade and don't have enough points for the second, you can always cancel it. However if the first doesn't come through, at least your request is in for the second.

QF10 is also an overnight flight, but not much opportunity to sleep. You could put in a request for this too and if neither of the first two come through, at least you are in the queue...

Question:
If I get an upgrade, would I still earn points on that flight (at the pre-upgrade booking class rate)?

Yes, you will

You'll still earn points and SCs for the class of fare you paid money for.

AC's strategy is good too - just request all of them if you don't care which flight you get. If you get it great, if you don't you'll still be in the queue. (But will QFF let you sit on the queue without the necessary points though?)

Also don't forget that upgrade requests are only allowed 90 days before the flight.

It appears that I might end up with enough points for two upgrades into Y+, using points I earn in the first half of the LONE4 for a 2nd upgrade in the second half of the trip. (or else I just save them and go for the J upgrade on QF32)

I've had 3 slipped discs in my back by prolonged sitting, and still getting over it. I'm traveling from HKG-SYD over night flight. If I call up Qantas and request for an upgrade with points will they take that into consideration. As the rest of my flights are during the day so I get go walk about as soon as the seatbelt lights goes off.

I don't mean to be rude however you'll get no special consideration. Qantas is a business not a charity.

Even if I want to use my own points which I have more than enough points for upgrade?

Qantas (and I imagine every airline) has a priority order in who gets upgrades. Status and time of request is how priority is determined.

It is assumed everyone who applies has the requisite number of points. If they don't they will be declined at the stage of the upgrades occurring.

Oh and virtually everyone here is using their own points.

Hope it goes well and look forward to seeing a trip report on your return.

I'm sure that I've read that upgrades into W are pretty easily available compared to J, so your two Ws might well be possible.

As for which to upgrade, the advice given above is great - to maximise chance, get in the queue for more than one; length of flight/overnight or not/how tired will you be are the usual questions.