At gate Y to J upgrade observation/questions

[Mike65]

Just returned from LAX on QF94. Had requested upgrade from Yflex to J using points and had been anxiously checking for success during final 48 hours leading up to flight. No joy T-6, but did the usual request for pity at check-in only to be told the flight was very full and there were no upgrades available. Consoled myself with food and bev in the QF lounge, which is fantastic compared to the previous version although still not a patch on Singapore. On approaching the boarding gate was still holding out hope of the upgrade. My boarding pass was greeted with red flashing lights (the computer says NO) and I was directed to the service desk where I got the good news - J it was. The curious things is that there seemed to be a good 20 plus people doing the same thing. That's a fair chunk of the J class seats coming from at gate upgrades, so how come they suddenly appeared in the hour or so between check in and boarding? Oversold Y causing a cascade of Y to PE, PE to J, J to F upgrades or something else? Would be a bit annoyed if I was NB or PS and hadn't got the lounge access (but then they may have had little chance of the upgrade anyway). Sorry for the long and somewhat trivial post, but interested in any responses from the learned QFFers. Thanks, Mike

 

[Mattg]

One theory is that there were a lot of misconnecting passengers in J that didn't turn up at the last minute. Was QF18 from JFK late arriving into LAX that day by any chance?

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Given you were told the flight was full then the "cascading upgrade" scenario sounds likely.
It is possible that J really was full when you asked for the upgrade, and space only became available when they upgraded some J pax to F.

 

[RooFlyer]

Perhaps a group (team?) in J failed to make a connection, or cancelled at the last minute?

 

[kermatu]

My guess either a bunch of J pax missed the flight, or a bunch of newcomers (possibly staff / ex-staff; or other pax who may have missed another flight) needed to be accommodated so some op-ups to F freed up space in J etc.

But it's also possible the other pax being pulled aside weren't all getting upgrades?? - I suspect a fair bit of reallocation happens at the gate - when families may need to sit together, special needs pax need to be accommodated etc? Has happened to me a bit of late (though domestic to be honest) - BP rejected, issued a new one with either a seat move or simply the same seat but with a 'fixed' BP.

It's probably prudent to leave some upgrades to the gate so the airline can accommodate late purchases or paying pax from other airlines etc. (Also saves on lounge costs / baggage allowance etc.!)