Qantas upgrade offer

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FlyingFiles

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Hi... first time flying with Qantas - flying Dublin to Queenstown one way with my 10 year old daughter. Booked last minute after brief visit home. Was very surprised and a little excited to get an email today offering me the chance to upgrade to business class. I have no idea how this works... how much should I offer? I’ve had a look at some of the threads here and am blown away by all the information. I have never heard of this before. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! The thoughts of travelling in comfort would ease what is going to be a dreadfully sad departure due to the imminent passing of my god mother.
 
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One thing to keep in mind is that the offer isn’t a guaranteed way to upgrade, as it competes against all other points requests and upgrade offers

My thoughts are with you and your family
 
It can be a bit tricky, certainly hard to know how much. Some ppl don't like bidding at all, think it's a ripoff. I actually don't mind it - if its a long enough flight that I'd rather do in J and I can get it for less money then I'm happy. But I don't think points matter as much as the dollars (no evidence, just my impression from failed bids). Found that increasing points bid doesn't move the pointer much, but increasing money will.

You won't find out until 24 hrs before. Noting that 2 are flying - I don't know if the bid will let you cover both tix. Not done that myself. You don't want to win a bid, be billed for it, then find out only 1 has been successful. Will you get a refund? Read the T+C's carefully!

To use the bid function, drag the slider or adjust dollar amount, click 'update' (I think? from memory?) to see how you rate. I think sometimes it doesn't update? Not done one for a while. The colour pointer is indicative ie. if 1 seat left, green will give you a better chance over someone who bid low at red.

Start with the booking page for that flight, see the current pricing for J or discount J. Get the diff between that and your paid tix. That gives you an idea of what to expect to have to pay/offer.

My successful bids have always saved me money. If I don't care I stay low (last trip syd-cbr I did this and got in for $50). If it's a 'nice to have' then I try for just over halfway on the pointer, about 1 o'clock. If I really want it I aim for 2 o'clock to keep the saving worthwhile.
 
Thank you Mannej. Yes... I get it’s no guarantee and now I’ve got the idea in my head I can’t imagine not getting it. Would love to have an idea of how much I would need to bid.
 
It can be a bit tricky, certainly hard to know how much. Some ppl don't like bidding at all, think it's a ripoff. I actually don't mind it - if its a long enough flight that I'd rather do in J and I can get it for less money then I'm happy. But I don't think points matter as much as the dollars (no evidence, just my impression from failed bids). Found that increasing points bid doesn't move the pointer much, but increasing money will.

You won't find out until 24 hrs before. Noting that 2 are flying - I don't know if the bid will let you cover both tix. Not done that myself. You don't want to win a bid, be billed for it, then find out only 1 has been successful. Will you get a refund? Read the T+C's carefully!

To use the bid function, drag the slider or adjust dollar amount, click 'update' (I think? from memory?) to see how you rate. I think sometimes it doesn't update? Not done one for a while. The colour pointer is indicative ie. if 1 seat left, green will give you a better chance over someone who bid low at red.

Start with the booking page for that flight, see the current pricing for J or discount J. Get the diff between that and your paid tix. That gives you an idea of what to expect to have to pay/offer.

Thanks FrankP... very helpful
 
"That gives you an idea of what to expect to have to pay/offer."
Sorry, what i mean by that is it gives me an idea of
- how many J seats are still available as a clue (you can delay bidding until closer to the flight - it's not first come first served) - the more seats available the lower you MAY be able to succeed with. If you go too early I can't remember if you can update your bid - I've never tried. Check the T+C's to see how late you can go. Higher status flyers will start getting upgrade requests through a week before the flight. So, check the available seats closer to the date.
- how much I should expect. If J is +$5k then clearly I'm not up for paying 5k but a $500 bid is optimistic at best. So I expect to have to part with a fair bit.
 
So... I have found the slider... attached above... that is the minimum amount per passenger... I’ve already paid over €2000 for the two of us one way in economy so I would be adding another €1,700 - a lot more than I imagined when I read ‘ make an offer’ - and that’s the minimum! Am I even likely to get it if that’s the minimum?
 
€/$ 500 I would be a lot more comfortable with but it looks like that’s not even an option... I guess I’ll just wait another 24 hours to see what happens.
 
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QF2/23JUL is interesting. Only 2 seats available in F, Premium Econ and Econ are sold out but still at least 9 seats available in Business. So little wonder QF is trying to extract revenue from Economy passengers before the flight opens where they'll (maybe) have to upgrade passengers for free.
 
Only 2 seats available in F, Premium Econ and Econ are sold out but still at least 9 seats available in Business
hi @GoldCanyon340 - I check availability by literally going back and try to book a seat via the QF booking page to see if it shows me pricing. It won't tell me the numbers. A bit primitive but only way I know.
Is there a better way available to me that shows the numbers you've retrieved?

(edit -never thought to check this before now so I just did a quick web search and found a few options - seatcounter, expertflyer etc, maybe you have a preference?)
 
hi @GoldCanyon340 - I check availability by literally going back and try to book a seat via the QF booking page to see if it shows me pricing. It won't tell me the numbers. A bit primitive but only way I know.
Is there a better way available to me that shows the numbers you've retrieved?

(edit -never thought to check this before now so I just did a quick web search and found a few options - seatcounter, expertflyer etc, maybe you have a preference?)

I have an ExpertFlyer premium account :)
 
QF2/23JUL is interesting. Only 2 seats available in F, Premium Econ and Econ are sold out but still at least 9 seats available in Business. So little wonder QF is trying to extract revenue from Economy passengers before the flight opens where they'll (maybe) have to upgrade passengers for free.

Hi GoldCanyon340, any chance you could check the updated seat availability?
 
Be aware that only reflects what QF will sell in a transaction at the time of enqury. It may NOT reflect actual seats, though in Y, W and Y it's likely to be fairly accurate.

good luck!
 
Hi maia200. Yes I agree if we get it at the minimum bid it will absolutely be worth it. I wondered if I should tweak it up slightly in case others have also gone with the minimum. I assume they have no interest in the human aspect of our story in that we were not travelling for fun.
 
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