Can Bronze get business upgrades?

[littlevenice1]

I'd like to use my points to upgrade to business on the long haul section of my flight. Looking at Melbourne, Singapore, London, Or Melbourne, Dubai, London
Just wanting to know the likelihood of getting an upgrade to business as a bronze member. I Have enough points according to the calculator but I don't have silver membership or status credits (the status credits I had expired)

How might I go about applying for this upgrade using my points? Are they only available on certain flights and how would I know what those flights are so I can book the right one? Do I need to book a flexible economy or just normal?

Thanks and any help is appreciated

 

[RooFlyer]

I've never been in the situation, but unless you have a rock-bottom discount economy fare, I can't see why you shouldn't be able to apply for an upgrade. It would only be on a flight with a QF code, not Emirates (I see you mentioned Dubai).

If you go to 'My bookings' under your account and find the flights, there should be a button 'Upgrade' under the one 'Manage'. If its not greyed out, you can apply for an upgrade if you have enough points. It will be on a sector by sector basis I think. The points will only be deducted if your upgrade is successful (which may only be the evening of the flight).

I would say that being bronze, its unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

 

[levelnine]

You're far better off trying to find classic award availability.

To get an upgrade, you have to by flying Qantas (so no Emirates via Dubai) and you have to be flying on an upgradeable fare class. In other words, you have to pay to enter the lottery in the form of a more expensive ticket and your chances of winning are going to be poor.

 

[RichardMEL]

Please note, no upgrades on QF codeshares on Emirates (sonce you mentioned going via Dubai).

Yes, Bronze members can get upgrades on QF operated flights as long as they have an upgradeable fare type.

Does it happen? Yes.
Is it common? No.

With no status, one is behind everyone else on the queue so gets last dibs. On heavily popular routes, chances are slim - but not impossible. Non peak times will have a better chances.

So the answer is yes, but in general unlikely - specially on flights to Singapore and London.

The best chance would be purchasing a Premium Economy fare - which ensures a better level of comfort either way, and submitting a request from there.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Only one way I can think of it, and its not a good use of points, according to on here.
If you have not made your booking, book the J flights, will be very $$$$$$, and use your QFF points to reduce the J fare by the number of points.
As a lowly NB myself, I use what they call P+P, ie, points plus pay to get J seats.
I only fly Au - NZ, so don't go that far, the Au - UK fare might be say, $10,000, and you can use 500,000 QFF points to reduce that fare by $2375 or so.
Rate is about $0.0475.
As mentioned above, as an NB, any seats for NB will be down the line, or down the status ladder.
QF might offer you the chance to bid now, ie, after you have booked, they offer you a bidding system to buy a J fare, but you do not know if you succeed or not, till days before the flight.
If you were higher up the QFF status ladder, your chances of getting rewards seats are much better.
If you succeed, you might find that you get the J only on the one sector of the flight from Au - SIN, eg, but you will be Y on SIN - LHR.
UK has very high APD, for J/F seats leaving the UK, google APD if you do not know that means, its the UK dep tax, and you have to pay that in $.

 

[offshore171]

Another option is to book Y direct with Emirates for example, then chase a cash upgrade at the airport. I think Emirates are still doing this? Someone here will know for sure.

Travel midweek, outside peak season for the best opportunities.

 

[MelbFlyer]

You're far better off trying to find classic award availability.

+100 to this.

I've seen a lot of posts in FB groups asking whether or not they can use points to upgrade to business from economy at a later stage after booking.

Unfortunately chancing buying a much more expensive (than compared to the sale fare) flexible economy fare in the hope that they'll be able to upgrade later on, with low status, is basically a lost cause.

It's not impossible, but it is very highly unlikely, unless you're Gold or above - even then it might be hard too.

I know business reward seats are difficult / few and far between for some routes, especially Singapore to London, but if you can find them outright you'll be much better off.

That's my whole agenda in doing CC churning - to build points for outright business reward seats!

 

[RooFlyer]

You're far better off trying to find classic award availability.

To get an upgrade, you have to by flying Qantas (so no Emirates via Dubai) and you have to be flying on an upgradeable fare class. In other words, you have to pay to enter the lottery in the form of a more expensive ticket and your chances of winning are going to be poor.

I'd suggest that looking for a CR seat is an option, but not a much better one. We know that CRs on the London route are very rare, so a Bronze snagging one would be very remote but the main reason against this I think would be the taxes and 'carrier charges' they would have to pay. I've not seen that recently, but traditionally they have been very high, and it used to be said that the cheapest economy ticket was about the same as CR taxes and charges.

Applying for an upgrade at least gives you the chance of a last minute one, if someone else cancels and you avoid the usurious additional fees.

 

[Pushka]

Another option is to book Y direct with Emirates for example, then chase a cash upgrade at the airport. I think Emirates are still doing this? Someone here will know for sure.

Travel midweek, outside peak season for the best opportunities.

All emirates flights I've been (4) in the last month have been packed, even the A380.

 

[CaptJCool]

Even in better times

The prospects of upgrades were low (especially without airline status)

like @Pushka says loadings are closer to 100% which means fares still remain higher as people pay more to fly than pre-2020

However, I recognise not everyone has the cash to splash (me too until recently)

Presumably your trip is personal not business?
If so, like @AustraliaPoochie suggestion to dampen the upfront cost by P+P, one can in theory tax expense the trip IF it’s directly related to your employment. (Overseas business conferences)
There’s some threads on here about that

Otherwise, it’s Y
(All the international flights I’ve taken I never got an upgrade at my initiative - I did score an OPUP upgrade at gate on one trip to the US while WP)
But the airlines will push people up based on status if the expensive seats don’t sell to make sure paid Y tics can get onboard (and staff family travels “)

 

[RichardMEL]

Tbh without status, and wanting a more premium seat, short of looking for reward space on airlines like CI, MU, UL etc the better bet is looking at other cheaper airlines premium products at cash fares. For example something like Royal Brunei, Garuda, Vietnam etc

And/or, grabbing Jetstar or Scoot to Asia (eg BKK) and buying a much cheaper premium cabin fare from there.

Other options may be to use points to get as far as one can into say Asia, and again look to cheaper fares.

I understand the goal is to use a bunch of QFF points, but the reality is that sort of partner rewards on say China Airlines, China Eastern, Sri Lankan etc, chances on QF itself are not great as discussed.

It may be nit great elwith longer and indirect routes, but possibly a better chance to get something.

 

[offshore171]

All emirates flights I've been (4) in the last month have been packed, even the A380.

Is that surprising though, given that would have been the peak of the holidays?

OP: When are you proposing to travel? How many travellers?

 

[RichardMEL]

The one thought about EK as an option is that ability to potentially get a cash upgrade is better than QF with no status. That of course assumes one has the cash to do so - which in these times for many is easier said than done (of course, folks looking to fly for leisure to europe probably have less financial pressures than others, but that's a whole other subject).

At least EK have a lot of capacity out of oz and through DXB to UK.

 

[Pushka]

Is that surprising though, given that would have been the peak of the holidays?

OP: When are you proposing to travel? How many travellers?

Agree about the return flight timings but not the flight over in early Dec.

 

[littlevenice1]

Only one way I can think of it, and its not a good use of points, according to on here.
If you have not made your booking, book the J flights, will be very $$$$$$, and use your QFF points to reduce the J fare by the number of points.
As a lowly NB myself, I use what they call P+P, ie, points plus pay to get J seats.
I only fly Au - NZ, so don't go that far, the Au - UK fare might be say, $10,000, and you can use 500,000 QFF points to reduce that fare by $2375 or so.
Rate is about $0.0475.
As mentioned above, as an NB, any seats for NB will be down the line, or down the status ladder.
QF might offer you the chance to bid now, ie, after you have booked, they offer you a bidding system to buy a J fare, but you do not know if you succeed or not, till days before the flight.
If you were higher up the QFF status ladder, your chances of getting rewards seats are much better.
If you succeed, you might find that you get the J only on the one sector of the flight from Au - SIN, eg, but you will be Y on SIN - LHR.
UK has very high APD, for J/F seats leaving the UK, google APD if you do not know that means, its the UK dep tax, and you have to pay that in $.

Wow thanks for your help, I had no idea about APD. This explains the high cost so much!

 

[RichardMEL]

Wow thanks for your help, I had no idea about APD. This explains the high cost so much!

The usual way around high APD out of UK is either start a return flight out of there eg DUB, CDG, AMS BRU etc *or* start in one of the few places that are APD exempt for reasons, such as Inverness (INV)

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Yes, Bronze members can get upgrades on QF operated flights as long as they have an upgradeable fare type.

Does it happen? Yes.
Is it common? No.

It really depends on the routes involved. Certainly for domestic flights and golden triangle routes like SYD > MEL, there is a decent chance they can secure an upgrade from economy to business. Whether it is worth spending the better part of 10,000 points so you can fly in business on an A330 with lie flat seats for an hour is up for debate. On the other hand, popular routes like LHR and LAX, it is highly unlikely. Heck, even those who have attained Silver, Gold or even Platinum status struggle to secure such upgrades too.

Another point, and it's a bit of a controversial one I suppose is that Qantas does not do a good job at making international upgrades affordable. For instance, with United I can upgrade the cheapest economy fare from Europe to Australia (via LAX) for 35,000 miles + $650 USD co-pay, tops. Meanwhile Qantas would charge 130,800 points to do something similar. Meanwhile US to Australia is just 25,000 miles + $500 USD co-pay IIRC on the cheapest fare. Oh and you have to be on the "right" fare.

The other thing commenters have mentioned which I think rings true here is it is almost certainly better to book the classic flight award in the cabin you want from the get go. In that way you are guaranteed to get the business (or First) class seat you want. There is no waiting until the last minute at the gate to hear if your 18+ hour trip will be in business or stuck in the middle seat between two blokes snoring. Oh, and the price difference between the classic award and the upgrade isn't huge (especially if we aren't upgrading from a Flex fare which I suspect is the case).

In terms of what factors Qantas uses to determine upgrades. Well it comes down to things like how full business class is. Obviously a full business class cabin means they cannot upgrade people into it (unless of course they can upgrade business class passengers into First, but that assumes such a cabin is available which isn't true for all international flights on QF). Then your frequent flyer status (Chairman's Lounge, Platinum One, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze) come into play. The time the upgrade was requested also comes into play (request earlier and you're more likely to get the upgrade). I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) if there is a tie between members with the same status level then the other factor would be the fare family they booked into. So someone who is booked into Premium Economy will be ahead of someone booked in Economy. Whereas in Economy, someone who is booked in a Flexible fare will be ahead of regular Economy customers.

-RooFlyer88

 

[RooFlyer]

The other thing commenters have mentioned which I think rings true here is it is almost certainly better to book the classic flight award in the cabin you want from the get go. In that way you are guaranteed to get the business (or First) class seat you want.

@littlevenice1 please ignore this. if you apply for a CR on the route you are on, and the status you hold, you are (unfortunately) very unlikely to get it - definitely NOT 'guaranteed' to get the premium seat.

It really depends on the routes involved. Certainly for domestic flights and golden triangle routes like SYD > MEL, there is a decent chance they can secure an upgrade from economy to business.

Yeah, the OP has stated the (international) routes they are asking about. Domestic is irrelevant. Why go there?

 

[kangarooflyer88]

@littlevenice1 please ignore this. if you apply for a CR on the route you are on, and the status you hold, you are (unfortunately) very unlikely to get it - definitely NOT 'guaranteed' to get the premium seat.

If the classic award seat shows up when they search online with Qantas it is as a matter of fact guaranteed. Yes there is the downside that you can only look up to 297 days out on Qantas. Is there a guarantee that there will be a classic award seat for every flight Qantas has? No. But when they do find that seat it will be guaranteed unlike an upgrade where chances are you won't know till you get to the gate.

Yeah, the OP has stated the (international) routes they are asking about. Domestic is irrelevant. Why go there?

Even so, I think you would agree that the chances of something like a Sydney to Auckland flight upgrade clearing are much higher than Sydney to LA or Sydney to CDG. The point being is there are differences between upgrade odds on routes and there is even some seasonality factor associated. For instance travelling during periods where a route historically has lower demand will increase your odds.

 

[RichardMEL]

Yeah, the OP has stated the (international) routes they are asking about. Domestic is irrelevant. Why go there?

Not to mention an unhelpful comparison with another program (eg: United). I could just as usually counter his comments by saying as a 1K I could use PlusPoints and no copay whatsoever to upgrade UA flights. So what? that's totally irrelevant both to the OP and general QFF members. So what? It's Apples and Oranges anyway - the two programs are different in many ways and it's not helpful to even bring it up imo.

Not to mention upgrade "cost" in points from Flex Y is significantly cheaper than from Discount Y, and on a route such as to London, there's also the option to potentially at least upgrade to Premium Economy (for flights with that cabin, which is hit and miss on MEL-SIN to be fair).