ROP Gold upgrade
 

I have currently two gold upgrades available, have book a Q tkt for September 2020 to LHR. I am told I cannot use my gold upgrade as there is no capacity. A quick look on seat guru shows capacity on all segments. Is this part of TG's belt tightening plans.. or are other people able to redeem these awards

well - "free seats" never means that they will be released for free upgrade or even free award tickets automatically....
upgrades are granted only by quota and nobody will learn any details how these quotas will be allocated and when.....

First, welcome to FT!

Award availability on popular routes such as BKK-LHR is often hard to find as these seats are usually in high demand and quickly taken 10-11 months into the future.

When were you wanting to fly?

erko221 - Be aware that even though you are buying an economy ticket and using your Gold upgrade, ticket will be expensive. A few months ago my partner, who is ROP G, was able (with difficulty) to find one seat in business BKK-LHR in April. At that time a K fare could be upgraded. It cost 49,200 THB, due to added UK government imposed business departure taxes. (Actually this was CNX-BKK-LHR.)

Welcome to FlyerTalk. :)

I used one of my Gold upgrade awards yesterday for a flight on 10/12 HKG - BKK - BKK - LHR and 27/12 BRU - BKK - BKK - HKG. No issues regarding availability. I paid around 10K HKD.

According to one of Thai's staff form 01/12 there will be an additional charge of 120USD to use an upgrade award.

I've been struggling to use mine as I don't always book my tickets, the company I work for does. These days you need a full economy ticket, I believe, to be able to upgrade.

With this change and the points you need for other awards, it's getting less useful to be in a FF program.

From 01 Oct now need Q Flexi fare or better. And these are quite expensive :(

Mr Erko,

I guess the "problem" will be on the SYD-BKK-sectors where capacity/quotas are very limited due to the fact that TG offers only one flight per day.
May I recommend you to have it booked "step-by-step", not in one single step like SYD-LON-SYD but have it done SYD-BKK, then BKK-LHR, then LHR-BKK and finally BKK-SYD.
You will definitely need personal assistance by your local TG office which is overlooking your membership activities - they might be able to help you with your request....

Or try from and to Melbourne and buy cheap connecting flights.

I got one recently AKL to LHR, had to buy a Q ticket which was around US$2K. It is getting harder but we usually book around 10 months out it always comes through for us. We do have a particularly helpful reservations agent running the ROP at AKL.

I’ve always found it best to book via my local office ( Melbourne); the staff there are terrific: patient, obliging, helpful, frank. Without their help I would have given up on Thai years ago. I’m guessing other local offices are similar. I’ve not had the same positive experiences dealing with Bangkok.
In respect of LHR, I’ve found it easier to go to Rome, Milan, Vienna, Madrid ( some now cancelled) , spend a couple of days and fly on with a cheap bought ticket . It works for me as I’m under no time constraints. Trying to find award seats to LHR would try the patience of a saint ( not to mention the irritation of the rip-off taxes/charges).

Use your local office indeed.
 

I have been a Gold member in ROP for over 20 years now.
I have been asking free flights, upgrades etc for this whole period at my Brussels, Belgium office.
There hasn't been a demand that has not been grated, I have always received exactly what I have been asking for; the women over there go at great lengths to fulfill all your - or at least - my wishes.
Indeed sometimes they cannot answer right away, they have 'to ask Bangkok', but invariably 'Bangkok' has said yes.
I must admit that from time to time I bring them of box of chocolates from the very best chocolatier we have here, but isn't that Thai style in the end?
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...29f9ffee02.jpg

Lovely chocolates. Possibly I need to buy a box. :)

The TG website doesn’t seem to explicitly mention earn rates and status miles for tickets upgraded with a GUP.

Am I safe in assuming you still earn the status and redeemable miles from the base fare (e.g. Q)?

Yes you will.