PinkFish

Anyone else finding it impossible to upgrade in Qatar? Company seems to have changed its policy - any ideas on using up my mile and credits and ditching this airline. No longer flys to major ME countries which is another negative and the customer service drones are rude and unhelpful.

sexten

I think this belongs in the QR-forum?
In my experience I've had 0% success upgrading via internet/phone, but 100% success upgrading at check-in (when there is availability).

makrom

No I succeeded with my upgrades, though I had to do it over the phone since the online system kept bugging out on me. Success is depending on availability of course.

Matt4

PinkFish I had mixed success upgrading via internet or over the phone.
Checking availability (at normal rate, not 2x Qmiles) for award tickets gives you a good idea of your chance of success, but you have to deal with married segments constraints that can make upgrades not available for one segment of a A-DOH-B ticket if only that segment has award ticket availability.
I had better success over the phone as agents replying to upgrades request sent by email or posted throught the website often don't even bother to check for availability and just send a standard reply saying there's none.

I had 90% success at airport.

synd

just did a qcredit upgrade a couple days ago on a CDG-BKK, didnt have any issues on the phone to upgrade to F, except for the fact that I found it extremely long to do, and the agent repeated maybe 10 times the word 'upgrade'....

Matt4

synd It's often more easy to find award/upgrade availability in F than in J on CDG-BKK. I could easily upgrade my next BKK-CDG from J to F too

SullyofDoha

Not sure why you would bother (if you had the choice) since there is little differentiation between biz and first in the air.

flyvirgin

I found it very difficult to use Qcredit to upgrade. Esp the 40 Qcre!
For me the 40Qcre is best used on Thailand to Europe one-way Eco to Biz.
I just used my third time 40Qcre from Gold renewal. It was so difficult once again.
I ended up flying from Zurich to Phuket just because ZRH-DOH has the availability even my last city of the trip is Milan.

QR agent kept repeating 'You can still use your miles to upgrade' at the airport in which I said no, I just wanted to get rid of this 40Q.
I told her I don't want to do it on departure day. I don't want to deal with the yes/no, possible/impossible to UG at airport. That is more like standby staff travel.
And you can only do it leg by leg, ending up using more miles and more chaos to STBY for UG again in Doha.

I'd say, upgrade using Qcre or Qmile is difficult when you want to travel on busy/almost busy period.
If you want to fly to Europe/US east coast in Mid FEB where everywhere is freaking cold, then yes, easier.
Or if you want to fly to S/E asia when there are rain and storms then yes, easier.

Barolo72

Never had problem upgradin J to F in the BKK route, at check in and even online.
B.

Matt4

Well, after many unsuccessful attempts to use my friend's Qcredits to upgrade my last trip from Y to J, I resigned to use them to upgrade from J to F on my next trip to avoid him to loose them because they had to expire soon. But I agree there's not really so much more in F than in J except a bigger amenity kit, bigger seat, Krug (hey ! Come on ! That's the last place on QR we can still enjoy Krug !), scalops dishes and caviar on certain flights. So that's just for the fun :-)
My point was just to tell that (less desirable) upgrades from J to F are more easy to find than the (more desirable) upgrades from Y to J on the CDG-BKK route.

tartempion

Indeed, I find QR a pain in the * for upgrades.
I booked an expensive N fare to allow for upgrade to spend Q credits and miles. Booked 6 months in advance, trip now one month out and no availability. Upgrading at check-in time is the last thing I wish to do and doing it segment by segment will cost me more than the available 40 QC.
Flying Y for the money I could have saved 400 euro with TH, 300 with KLM and 200 QR non-upable.
I might very well regret my next and last QR trip if I can not upgrade 3 out of 4 segments.
It seems QR likes to have unsatisfied FF'ers.

I am planning a BKK-BRU trip for april next year with my 7 year young daughter and QR is no longer my top choice. EY, EK, TH, BA, AY, WY, KLM, AF are on my list and not just BRU but AMS, DUS, CDG will do also.
I will book the first deal within my budget objective. Already identified a BA deal slightly over budget, I have plenty of time, but doubt QR will be the next airline. A 2x1 J deal will be ideal.

No J deal 3 months before trip, will book best Y deal, probably TH because I can book UTH-BKK-BRU on one PNR.

PinkFish

Thank you everyone - looks like Qatar spend a lot money persuading you to fly and collect - but do not want to repay your loyalty by using your points to upgrade. My plan is to try and use (somehow) all my accumulated credits and points - fly with someone else. Qatar in my opinion has really gone downhill.

SullyofDoha

Indeed, Qatar Airways has lost/given up some of its lustre over the past couple years as it scales back on its consumables. However, in the race to the bottom, they are still head and shoulders above much of the competition and I always look forward to flying with them IMHO.

Sisyphus1carus

Had 100% success rate a few years ago upgrading from biz to First a fair few times with QR both with QCredits & QMiles and both at the airport and over the phone beforehand. Not tried recently.

What I'm struggling with is finding normal business class redemptions at the 1x rate (as stated in the QCalculator), they all seem to be 2x with very, very, very, very, very, very, very few exceptions.

Qatar is becoming a ..... to redeem with and have effectively devalued the QMiles hugely by having so few 1x redemptions available.
Not happy :-(

makrom

If upgrading was your intention, is there a reason why you didn't check for availability before you booked?