Burittoman

Hello All:

Just found out I will be heading out to SE Asia in order to do some mission work. I also just made Plat on AA which equates to OneWorld Sapphire (?). The question is what is the best way/class of service to travel in order to increase my chances of an upgrade to business? Looks like I can go with either QR on a PHL-DOH-HAN itinerary and travel eastbound or take AA for PHL-DFW-HND-HAN on a westbound itinerary.
I have seen several posts about QR contacting you in the weeks before a flight and offering you an upgrade for a variable cost and also the availability to upgrade at the airport as well. AA of course will also upgrade you but postings do not talk about as much chance of an upgrade on the longest DFW-HND itinerary.
Also, with this being my first long flight of the year, I would like to assure that I get a solid start to my EQMs for the year. EQDs are not a problem since I have an employer who pays for my other travel and I can hit that number easily.
Just found out my dates this am so I have lots to plan for right now and at the risk of rambling on, I will stop now.
Any sage words are accepted.

realgaga

On QR, you can pretty much only get an award upgrade (using Qmiles) or paying the upgrade fee online or at the airport. Op-ups are rare (even for QR elites). On AA, you can use your AAdvantage miles (assuming you have enough and your ticket is eligible) to upgrade.

Burittoman

I know that deeply discounted fares on AA do not get upgrades. Any idea what fare codes would be eligible?

Matt4

With QR any fare code is eligible to paid upgrade but these email/airport upgrade offers are usually more expensive than buying a business class ticket in the first place and any upgraded ticket with QR doesn’t come with business class benefit (no extra luggage, no lounge access aside of your ff benefit, which means in DOH you would only be able to access the ff business class lounge instead of Al Mourjan)
About upgrade with miles, any economy fare except W O T and G is upgradable (O and T can be upgraded but only if bought as a saver fare and not a promo fare, and are not eligible to airport upgrade).

Burittoman

Thanks Matt. This is the type of information I was looking for.

NicoNTE

Actually this is not entirely true ... O T if booked as saver fare are eligible for airport upgrade ... I did experienced it las month on a CDG-DOH flight booked in O fare bucket .

Burittoman

How much did it cost your the upgrade at CDG?

NicoNTE

As stated in the qcalculator it costed me 40k qmiles to upgrade from O eco fare to business.

Burittoman

OK, now the bonus question. for that flight, and for that number of Qmiles: Was it worth it?

AlexanderK

Has anyone had experience upgrading an AA award at the QR desk with cash?

traveling ORD>DOH>MLE with the 1st leg in Q suite but DOH>MLE in economy as that’s all that was available. If I approach the desk in DOH assuming there are open seats in J Would they allow us to pay for that upgrade?