ostendadler

Hello Chaps,

I have those 40 Q credits inherited from my Gold membership and I'm still hesitant as per how to use them.

My Primary rotations are between GCC and Europe and occasional flights to North America.

Should I rather buy an economy ticket to Paris from let's say dubai and upgrade in biz with Qcredits or should I get a award economy ticket to Europe with the Q credits.

I'm on the fence with this and searching the forum hasn't given me a clear answer.

your help will be as usual strongly appreciated.

E.

remdk

ostendadler your Qpoints according to http://www.qatarairways.com/PrivilegeClub/qcredits.page may be used for upgrades, excess baggage, payment of award fees and Guest lounge access only NOT reward flights.
Of your suggestions only the upgrade is possible with Qcredits.

SullyofDoha

It looks like you are Qatar Gold so it depends if you are trying to build towards Platinum or if you need points to maintain your Gold status. I usually buy the economy ticket (be careful, promo ticket class can NOT be upgraded, nor bumped up!) and use my QCredits to upgrade to business. That way, at least I am earning some miles and qualifying QPoints. Hope the advice helps . Btw, If you call the airline before you book, you should be able to find out the probability of getting the upgrade with your QCredits

Work-Shy

You have got me thinking!

Do you get the e-mail offer to purchase an upgrade if the base fare is "Economy Promo" (fare class O, T or W)? I am aware you cannot upgrade these fares with Qmiles/Qcredits but wondered if they are also exempted from the usual e-mail offer a 7-10 days before the flight.

Any advice or experience most welcome. Thanks in advance.

remdk

Work-Shy there have been reports that booking classes T, O and W have been offered e-mail upgrades.
I would imagine that it is up to the origin office to decide which booking classes will receive upgrade offers.

SullyofDoha

Work-Shy, to be honest, I think that I have received the email upgrade offers on promo as well as non promo tickets. However, the upgrade offers for the short 50 minute flights between doh and Dxb are a JOKE with the upgrade often offered at about 600 dollars and NO addition miles nor QPoints on offer. In fact, it often comes out to be the same price if you had just bought the first class ticket to start with, and you would have garnered the points and miles that come with the first class ticket. On the flip side, I have been offered an upgrade to business class from bkk to doh for a little over 300 dollars. However, I still wish that one could earn miles and points if they pay to upgrade. Btw, a few years ago, Qatar Airways would give you points and miles if you were upgraded!

mpkz

Email upgrade offers are generally terrible value, but you do get them on promo fares. I got HEL-DOH for €400 recently. Flying the entire roundtrip in J and F (with a ME leg from DOH and the return) would have cost about €500 more at the time of booking.

purple1addict

Do you mean operational upgrades are excluded from Promo fares? First time I've heard of it if so - but then luckily I haven't travelled on Promo fares very often lately.

Re email offers, I have had the email upgrade offer on my one O fare since the changes of July this year for the DOH-SIN segment of LHR-DOH-SIN - so can confirm they are still offered on Promo fares. I ended up taking it, as the A350 had been swapped out for a B787 - which was fully booked in J (so curious that they were still offering email upgrades to J when other sales channels were closed) - and I couldn't see any other way of avoiding the Y Dreamliner overnight experience

Work-Shy

I certainly agree that the intra-Gulf "Upgrade to F" offers are very poor value but I have a daytime flight to MUC coming up in a B787. If it's good value, i'll certainly consider an upgrade to avoid the cramped seats in Y.

ostendadler

I have a few trips already bagged for 2017 but everytime I try and upgrade with the q credits I end up with some crappy number:

IE: Doha - Paris = 25 qcredits

Do you guys know which flights can be upgraded with 20qcredits.

So far my best has been 38qcredits used out of 40.

I agree with the guy who said by economy and upgrade.

mpkz

I was a plat on a completely full flight (in Y, not J) on a promo fare, no upgrade to J Don't know if it was just bad luck. In DXB when I checked in and asked for exit row seats, the agent told me I had a good chance of being upgraded, but it didn't happen

So I ended up having an overnight flight in a Dreamliner in Y and in a non-exit row seat.

SullyofDoha

Purple1addict, I believe that promo fare tickets are not being considered for operational upgrades. My last three flight from doh-Dxb resulted in two upgrades on oversold flights (not promo fare tickets) and no operational upgrade on an oversold flight (promo fare ticket). Anyways, there are always exceptions to the rule I suppose.

purple1addict

Meh. Thanks mpkz and SullyofDoha - definitely sounds that way then.

mpkz

Ah wait, nevermind, I was just uploading my photos from that journey and realized that I got op-upped on a different segment (a 40 min segment I really wouldn't have minded Y on) on the same roundtrip on a promo ticket!

ostendadler

Yeah I have been consistently upgraded to business ever since I got to gold on routes like Abu Dhabi to Doha, Dubai to Doha and Muscat to Doha. They tend to over sell those flights so they bump FF to business because very few people bother buying business tickets for a 45 minutes so they give them to us.

In all cases I got bumped at boarding.