Chairmans lounge members- automatic upgrade?? True or false?

[aus_flyer]

I have heard a rumour that if a Chairmans Lounge member is travelling, and there is a seat available in a higher class, he/she will always be upgraded for free.

I know that if they have to give out free upgrades (capacity problems, etc) then CLM will be first, but I'm surprised if it is standard policy to always upgrade for free.

Is there any truth to this rumour?

 

[QF WP]

There is a lot of truth in that rumour. They are the highest elite status in QF, so QF Management want to keep them happy - they certainly control a lot of airline spending (or they're government-based and have political clout).

I'm sure that AcrosstheDitch and other CL-family AFF'ers can comment first-hand on the point raised.

 

[albatross710]

I would have thought that Chairman's members would be travelling at least J anyway.

 

[AlwaysUpThere]

Why travel in J when you can travel in Y and get UG?

CL will get stroked as often as possible.

 

[QFTravel]

With parents as CL members I can dispel the rumour as false.

Travelling for business reasons I would believe that the need for an upgrade would not be required as most CL's would travel J (at least from my experience). I'm not aware that when travelling for business purposes (co. paid) that he flew Y. Now retired and travelling for lesuire, with almost all trips in Y, Dad gets very few upgrades to J.

The travelling we have been fortunate enough to do over the years as a family or Dad travelling alone we have basically always sat in the seats we paid for. There have been a few occassions where the whole family has been upgraded but this was done at the CL after check-in (MEL-BNE; MEL-PER).

So in response to the question "I have heard a rumour that if a Chairmans Lounge member is travelling, and there is a seat available in a higher class, he/she will always be upgraded for free.

I can confirm that it is false. Hope this helps.

 

[AlwaysUpThere]

Admittedly, this occured in the "old Qantas" last century (last decade to be exact) when they had competition (remember that anyone?), but I worked for a company which had a particularly good relationship with QF and I was upgraded automatically EVERY flight, space available. The most unfortunate thing was that there were very few flights out of BNE that had first class! Found myself flying via Sydney deliberatly when time permitted.

Even better than that was that their systems were not sophisticated enough to know that I was upgraded when awarding FFPs and I always received the upgraded class allocation.

Just lucky.

Anyway, my point is that there was some message in my FF profile that always came through to the operations staff.

So, there would be some CLs out there who have the benefit of the CL PLUS if they were important enough to QF, they'll be upgraded.

 

[NM]

The CL lounge staff have quite a bit if discretion when it comes how they look after their clients.

 

[freaky]

Re: Chairmans lounge members- automatic upgrade?? True or fa

I have heard a rumour that if a Chairmans Lounge member is travelling, and there is a seat available in a higher class, he/she will always be upgraded for free.

I know that if they have to give out free upgrades (capacity problems, etc) then CLM will be first, but I'm surprised if it is standard policy to always upgrade for free.

Is there any truth to this rumour?

If the flight is oversold in economy, you're right, the policy is to look for higher status people and bump up where needed... if the flight is wide open, 9 times out of 10 CL member will be sitting in economy unless they register for an upgrade with points like everyone else.

And it also depends on who the CL member is and who he/she knows. Know the right people and anything is possible.

 

[tinkybelle]

With parents as CL members I can dispel the rumour as false.

Travelling for business reasons I would believe that the need for an upgrade would not be required as most CL's would travel J (at least from my experience). I'm not aware that when travelling for business purposes (co. paid) that he flew Y. Now retired and travelling for lesuire, with almost all trips in Y, Dad gets very few upgrades to J.

The travelling we have been fortunate enough to do over the years as a family or Dad travelling alone we have basically always sat in the seats we paid for. There have been a few occassions where the whole family has been upgraded but this was done at the CL after check-in (MEL-BNE; MEL-PER).

So in response to the question "I have heard a rumour that if a Chairmans Lounge member is travelling, and there is a seat available in a higher class, he/she will always be upgraded for free.

I can confirm that it is false. Hope this helps.

As someone who books CL members quite a bit(and they are not high flyers or politicians!)
I can say it is definitely true.even on the very cheapest of fares(which I book my CL people when possible under instruction)
they used to get J 90% of the time.
now when on the very cheap class it doesnt happen very often but when on any type of flexi fare up they go!!
as recently as last week!
and it actually shows on the activity statement much of the time!

"upgrade"
and there is no points taken out.

they actually used to also get J points!
but that has now stopped.
Why someone would assume that a CL pays for a J ticket I would ahve no idea!
mine NEVER pay for J-ever