lost_in_translation no I am not sure! I very much doubt that anyone can be sure of what is permitted and what is not, especially QR staff!
The only 'official' document we have specifically states Airport upgrades for Qmiles/Qcredits. Nothing else. You can read the document in Post 8 of this thread.
You mention that reward flights are not affected by this change. As far as I know it is almost impossible to obtain a reward flight at the airport. Taking that fact and post 8 into account then it is not unreasonable to assume that upgrades purchased prior to check-in opening are treated the same as reward flights. BUT this is QR!

Then you might want to consider speaking with less authoritative certainty so that we can tell the difference between when you speak from certain knowledge and when you speak of what is likely. Phrases like, "I'm pretty sure" "I think" "As far as I know" and the like can help clarify for the rest of us.

As far as I see, neither EK nor QR fly to Torrington or Alakanuk. :confused:

I meant Toronto and Auckland.

Corrected now! 🙈

Meanwhile at the QR office making lounge access policies:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cuXXVPITlAI/maxresdefault.jpg

Ok, let alone there might be some confusing QR policies in place, WHERE, as a paying customer can I read them, are they provided to me at the time of booking/upgrade?
if people are not "flying nerds" like us, which read this forum constantly, how should they know?
MMB says "acces to xyz lounge", it never mentions the 8h rule nor "access only when upgraded while the moon was in the seventh house" ��

I am coming up on the end of a very brief (3hr) layover in Doha. I upgraded my economy N ticket for the DOH-IAH leg of my trip to business using miles 2-3 days before my flight by calling in. I had tried previously by phone and internet over the past month and decided to give it one more try... and apparently third try IS a charm.

Upon arrival in Doha, I went to the escalator and presented my boarding pass and was welcomed to Al Mourjan with a friendly reminder that they don't make boarding announcements.

Had a few hours layover late at night arriving around 11 pm at DOH, and a few people before me were turned down at the bottom of the escalators of AM because they were on "upgraded tickets".... gotta love how they seem to apply the same rules all the time.... lol

The staff at the bottom of the escalators only scan boarding passes. How can they tell if a ticket was upgraded or not, and if the ticket was upgraded a few days prior or at the airport right before the flight?

The scan does a couple of things. It checks your PNR to see if you're allowed access. It also makes a note in your PNR that you are in AM, so they'll know.

can't answer that, just what i heard 'no access on upgraded tickets' staff didnt mention whether it was cash/miles/qcredits or in advance / at airport upgrade.

I just arrive in Doha from Bangkok in First QR833 (upgraded with miles last year in Nov or Dec).
Connection is in business.

Right now i am sitting in Al Sawfa. Access was granted without any issue (no talking with supervisor or asking me if upgraded with miles or paid ticket)

I am in al safwa at the moment too, travelling on a revenue J ticket that I upgraded to F with qcredits several months ago.

I was also in here last week on a qmiles redemption F ticket that I booked the day before travel.

My hunch for what it's worth is that access depends on whether you are actually ticketed in F (or J for al mourjan), rather than just cabin shifted.

If you upgrade at the airport you don't get a reissued ticket. And that may also be the case if you upgrade in the day or two before travel once the flight is under airport control (someone may correct me on that). In both of my examples, I was issued with a new or revised ticket for the class I was travelling in, and had no problem with the corresponding lounge access.

That's just my theory mind, based on my experience and reading some of the tales on here. Given that the boarding pass scan ultimately says yay or nay, there must be some logic to it...

Johnnieboy I think you are correct about the ticket reissue solution. It would be easy for the gate check system to look at the original ticketed class and use that if there is no later change registered via a reissue. I seem to recall that there was a post on another thread that gave an explanation of how that would work.