Do free upgrades exist?

[pauly7]

The minute you see a group of school kids waiting to board, the chances of an op up certainly increases

I also love flying at school holiday time especially in summer break when most businesses wind down and don't fly J for work but fly Y with the fam for hols.... QF notoriously overbook Y at this time and it is J upgrade season aplenty!!!

Not long actually to wait

 

[Jada]

School holidays........ 3A 3C 3D and 3F, just need to make sure the centre seats are blocked.

Do get a few dirty looks when the rest of the plane is packed.

Little chance of Op Ups when flying with 3 non FF

 

[Rebekkap]

Rebekkap,

I fail to see why you are getting so upset about this. I simply said I tended to agree with trippin_the_rift on the matter and asked you to explain your position and suddenly it is all about my 'supposed' prejudices. You have no idea of my background and prejudices.

For what it's worth my opinion is based upon years of knowledge of many level of the public service, all levels of the ADF and working in big business. I'm still waiting for an explanation to change my mind rather than being told I'm being ridiculous for daring to consider a contrary opinion.

Maybe it is time we wandered back to the topic at hand.

Sorry, but if you think a public servant or government staffer is less likely to buy a J seat when travelling for leisure, that *is* a prejudice. I think the idea of essentially discriminating against FF because of how they earned platinum *is* ridiculous, and the idea that people who earned platinum by flying on government fares will somehow be less loyal than others who earned platinum flying on non-government fares is ludicrous.

It seems quite a few more people on the thread agree with me than agree with you, so I'm more than happy to leave it here and get back on topic as you suggest.

 

[TonyHancock]

Sorry, but if you think a public servant or government staffer is less likely to buy a J seat when travelling for leisure, that *is* a prejudice. I think the idea of essentially discriminating against FF because of how they earned platinum *is* ridiculous, and the idea that people who earned platinum by flying on government fares will somehow be less loyal than others who earned platinum flying on non-government fares is ludicrous.

It seems quite a few more people on the thread agree with me than agree with you, so I'm more than happy to leave it here and get back on topic as you suggest.

The only belief that I have is that anyone working for the government should not be flying anything more than Y, without an IQ test, ....actually in freight if I had my way. I'm sick of my taxes being wasted on the fundamentally incompetent. (Given that I pay some pretty significant taxes individually and as a business, yet get to deal with pure incompetence routinely.)

As an afterthought I also find the CL bribe offered by Qantas to the people in Government and civil service nothing short of a disgrace.

 

[Rebekkap]

The only belief that I have is that anyone working for the government should not be flying anything more than Y, without an IQ test, ....actually in freight if I had my way. I'm sick of my taxes being wasted on the fundamentally incompetent. (Given that I pay some pretty significant taxes individually and as a business, yet get to deal with pure incompetence routinely.)

As an afterthought I also find the CL bribe offered by Qantas to the people in Government and civil service nothing short of a disgrace.

We were talking about people who work for the government flying J for leisure, not paid for by the taxpayer.

 

[medhead]

The only belief that I have is that anyone working for the government should not be flying anything more than Y, without an IQ test, ....actually in freight if I had my way. I'm sick of my taxes being wasted on the fundamentally incompetent. (Given that I pay some pretty significant taxes individually and as a business, yet get to deal with pure incompetence routinely.)

As an afterthought I also find the CL bribe offered by Qantas to the people in Government and civil service nothing short of a disgrace.

This sounds like a wind up. We are losing massive skills in my profession because of that sort of thinking. Are you happy to have your taxes paying for allegedly incompetent public servants to test stuff from Japan for radioactivity?

The discussion was never about big business. The discussion was business owners which, to me, infers much smaller business and public servants.

Well I stand by my position small business, IME, are unlikely to pay for premium cabins.

 

[drross]

We were talking about people who work for the government flying J for leisure, not paid for by the taxpayer.

leisure is totally different to when paid for by the taxpayer and this is the first time i think you've mentioned the difference in this thread.

 

[samh004]

I am a Qantas platinum FF. All from domestic, economy tickets. That is hard to do. Roughly 150-200 flights in the past 2 years. I never take a Virgin flight. I have never got an upgrade to business for free, what gives?

Yes, they do. Only had one.

Flew with my mum BNE-CNS in school holidays and as the flight was oversold we were upgraded to J. I'm WP, and only recently, while my mum is CX Gold.

That said, not that it makes any difference, since I joined QFF I've only flown one non-QF group airline, BA, once. So all my SC's are theirs. Doubt it matters.




 

[2impulsiv]

I have a colleague who receives operational upgrades all the time, at a guess more than 10 last year that I know off. I myself have yet to be graced with such luck!

One day my time will come, but until then I won't stress too much over it..


Sent from my iPad using AustFreqFly app

 

[moa999]

Qantas are notoriously tight with their upgrades: I have seen the former Governor-General back in Y with vacant seats up the front.
DJ seems better with it but then again I guess they've got a lot of spare capacity at the front often and are trying to demonstrate their new product. !

Disagree with DJ comment. As a matched and requaled DJ Plat have flown a number of triangle routes that have been totally packed down the back and J only 1 or 2, and no upgrades even on the $400 last minute Flexi fares. In my experience DJ is as stingy as QF (albeit they are quite generous with the half price upgrades and Plat complimentary upgrades)

It would appear that anyone other than Qantas are pretty reasonable at handing out upgrades if they have to room. Not sure why Qantas are so tight about it, but sadly they are!

Think QF is only tighter than US airlines... I don't think they are any different to other Australian, Asian or Euro airlines.

 

[TonyHancock]

We were talking about people who work for the government flying J for leisure, not paid for by the taxpayer.

To be fair the thread is entitled Do free upgrades exist!!!!???? I thought I'd take it further off topic!

 

[Rebekkap]

leisure is totally different to when paid for by the taxpayer and this is the first time i think you've mentioned the difference in this thread.

Not only did I mention it about three posts above the one you claim was the first time I mentioned it, the post that started this discussion said

What the lovely people at QF don't appear to realise is that they have many different types of travellers. A public servant with WP should not be treated the same as a business owner, even though they may hold the same status level. That gov employee will probably never pay for a premium cabin in their life...

It's pretty clear from that, I would have thought, that this discussion was about govt employees/public servants paying for their own travel, not travelling for work, since they will "probably never pay for a premium cabin".

 

[drross]

Not only did I mention it about three posts above the one you claim was the first time I mentioned it, the post that started

It's pretty clear from that, I would have thought, that this discussion was about govt employees/public servants paying for their own travel, not travelling for work, since they will "probably never pay for a premium cabin".

Apologies. Must have missed it in your post

 

[Rebekkap]

Apologies. Must have missed it in your post

No worries

 

[Orca]

Do Free Upgrades Exist..?

Well recently my better looking half & I discovered they do, I'm a QC Bronze member only (average 2 long haul a year, maybe 4 or 5 return trips domestically - so really don't fly much at all) and last month we were upgraded to Premium Econ. both ways on QF21/22, Syd to Tokyo. I consider it to be fairly lucky.. both times were due to pax loads so I guess we were in the right place at the right time. But it proved to us that free upgrades certainly do raise their head and for the record it has convinced us to fly Prem. Econ internationally in the future.

 

[straitman]

Sorry, but if you think a public servant or government staffer is less likely to buy a J seat when travelling for leisure, that *is* a prejudice. I think the idea of essentially discriminating against FF because of how they earned platinum *is* ridiculous, and the idea that people who earned platinum by flying on government fares will somehow be less loyal than others who earned platinum flying on non-government fares is ludicrous.

This has nothing to do with discrimination or prejudice :!: It is simply that I have a different opinion than you.

It seems quite a few more people on the thread agree with me than agree with you, so I'm more than happy to leave it here and get back on topic as you suggest.

Once again I don't agree, however it really is irrelevant who agrees with you or I. You have one opinion and I have another. Pretty simple IMHO.

 

[Deleted member]

I quizzed my aged mother on this, she has no allegiance to any airline, has no idea what a status credit is and doesn't really want to know.
She regularly flies to BNE from AKL every year, usually during the colder part of NZ winter,
By her reckoning she has been upgraded about 50% of the time. She can give no reason for this, but is happy to move to the pointy end when it's on offer.
Her next trip is at the end of August , so I will see how she goes.

 

[Myrna]

Last year I made 5 one-way trips between SYD-LHR (via SIN) in pleb class with QF, but got no upgrade at all - because the el cheapo tickets I bought said "not upgradable"! I have been gold and was hoping to strike lucky but no such luck. This year we flew with BA from London to the US on Y+ class, and we both got upgraded to J class from DFW back to LHR :mrgreen: - very thankful and happy of course! Am now silver (equivalent to QF gold) with BA.

 

[penegal]

I have 6 QF International sectors coming up where I am not in the highest cabin on the aircraft, so will be interesting to see if I get any love.

I'm not expecting anything... but always happy to be surprised

 

[drross]

Do Free Upgrades Exist..?

Well recently my better looking half & I discovered they do, I'm a QC Bronze member only (average 2 long haul a year, maybe 4 or 5 return trips domestically - so really don't fly much at all) and last month we were upgraded to Premium Econ. both ways on QF21/22, Syd to Tokyo. I consider it to be fairly lucky.. both times were due to pax loads so I guess we were in the right place at the right time. But it proved to us that free upgrades certainly do raise their head and for the record it has convinced us to fly Prem. Econ internationally in the future.

Welcome to AFF! And congrats on your good luck.