Business Upgrade

No it won't. Assuming you have purchased an economy fare, your upgrade is a request only.

 

Once it is confirmed and the points are taken it should (although they could in theory downgrade you again). For a domestic upgrade the confirmation, if available, would be at the time you requested it. For an international upgrade, it is only a request until it gets processed close to departure time

 

There are three types of points/SC upgrades.

Domestic points/SC's before the day you fly.
Domestic points/SC's "On Departure Upgrade"
International points/SC's.

Domestic points before the day you fly is where you upgrade via the Qantas website or over the phone where there are upgrade seats available in Business class and you get instant confirmation of your upgrade.

Domestic On departure, is where you request an upgrade at the Qantas Club and you may or may not get it depending on the loads on the flight.

International upgrades are only confirmed the night before/on the day of travel. You register previously and are advised how you went. You may or may not get the upgrade.

Keep in mind that seats are never fully guaranteed by Qantas. Even with a confirmed upgrade, you could still be flying "down the back" of the plane. It's all part of their conditions of carriage (but events like this are unlikey, and normally some kind of compensation would apply)

 

I have experienced a downgrade at depature gate. I and SWMBO both had the boarding passes for J seats, and the reader rejected the bp's and we had to go to service desk and we were issued with WHY bp's. Thus in practise they do downgrade, and when you read the terms and cosnditons of flying with them, they have no obligation to fly you in cabin paid (cash or points)

 

It also depends on your status level. As a Platinum flyer, I bought 2 flights SYD / ALK / SYD for this evening yesterday morning. I also requested upgrades. My SYD / ALK was confirmed at the 23:59 hr to go mark - There is a pecking order, if a chairmans lounge member had requested the upgrades, he/she would have got it over me, as it is, I would guess that I was not the only request and there would have been people in Bronze, Silver and Gold Status levels, and people with discount economy fares (including Platinum members) who were turned down. The time of the waitlist matters not as far as I have experienced.

A simple equation is:

High cost economy fare + status = higher chance of upgrades / OP ups and On dep ups

 

Ahh! Yes indeed. Always bad to both post here and cook up lunch at the same time!

 

Fortunately (well, maybe not so fortunatley) the UC route will be gone soon, so won't have to worry about them anymore.

 

being a request only, I assume the opints are deducted only if the request gets approved?