Gold Status and Business Class Upgrades

[jkay79]

Hi Guys

I hit Gold status for the first time on 30th of Jan.. with 1 day to spare before my points reset.. woohoo.

I've had 2 short flights.. Syd to CBR and back again and i noticed that i keep getting allocated the over wing exit seat ( which doesnt really interest me because im not tall and dont need the leg room, and i kind of hate being seated near a door - fear of door blowing out and getting sucked with it.. lol)

Anyway, first thing in the morning I have a flight from Sydney to Perth would be nice to get a free upgrade to business class.. are there any tricks to making this happen?

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards,

Jeremy

 

[nlagalle]

Hi Guys

I hit Gold status for the first time on 30th of Jan.. with 1 day to spare before my points reset.. woohoo.

I've had 2 short flights.. Syd to CBR and back again and i noticed that i keep getting allocated the over wing exit seat ( which doesnt really interest me because im not tall and dont need the leg room, and i kind of hate being seated near a door - fear of door blowing out and getting sucked with it.. lol)

Anyway, first thing in the morning I have a flight from Sydney to Perth would be nice to get a free upgrade to business class.. are there any tricks to making this happen?

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards,

Jeremy

In my 2 odd years as a gold i never got an Op-Up. Your sure fire way is to to a points upgrade, either online inside of T-24 or at the QP within 3 hours of the flight.

 

[samh004]

In my 2 odd years as a gold i never got an Op-Up. Your sure fire way is to to a points upgrade, either online inside of T-24 or at the QP within 3 hours of the flight.

I also didn’t manage an op-up as a Gold.

However, you don’t have to be in the exit row, just log into your account, find your booking and choose a seat. You’ll have a limited selection until 80 hours before at which point you’ll see a lot more. As a Gold you’ll always see the exit row, but also a bit further forward of it. As a Silver you wouldn’t have.

 

[lightie]

I have never had upgrades on Qantas when I have travelled in economy plus, even though a Gold Member, but strangely enough have had them on BA, I was told Qantas doesn't give upgrades, not sure if this is true?

 

[richie9x]

I've had 2 short flights.. Syd to CBR and back again and i noticed that i keep getting allocated the over wing exit seat ( which doesnt really interest me because im not tall and dont need the leg room, and i kind of hate being seated near a door - fear of door blowing out and getting sucked with it.. lol)

Anyway, first thing in the morning I have a flight from Sydney to Perth would be nice to get a free upgrade to business class.. are there any tricks to making this happen?

If you don't want an exit row then it is easy to get out of it. When you check whether electronically or in person if you have been assigned an exit row seat they should ask you if you are alright to sit in an exit row. If you say no then you'll be moved to another seat. I think you can even get a note put on your profile which means you won't get assigned exit rows, it comes up as 'NOEX' on your service information.

Any sort of free upgrades are very rare domestically with Qantas. The most common type of free upgrade is the opup (operational upgrade), it occurs when they have too many passengers in economy and space in business so they move some passengers forward. Real domestic opups are very rare. This is mainly because on departure upgrades with points are available. That is there are usually plenty of people willing to pay points for an upgrade, these will take precedence over any free upgrade.

Even if there is a need to do opups on that flight then there will likely several other passengers on the flight who have higher status than you such as WP, P1 and CL, they will get priority over you. .

What can you do to increase you chances? Not much except, increase you status level, even then you may still miss out.

If you want an upgrade then spending some FF points is your best option.

 

[N860CR]

As a Gold (especially on one of the "Status Heavy" CityFlyer routes), your chances of a free upgrade are pretty close to 0. In several years as Gold I never received one. Even now after a year or so of Platinum I still haven't received one. The only way, on Qantas anyway, is to put in a points request.

 

[moa999]

Fly on a heavy holiday route over school holidays.
Chances much better!

 

[serfty]

Maybe you could try selecting your preferred seat using www.qantas.com/yourbooking -or using on line check in

 

[mannej]

Are exit doors not plug type?

Isn't that to prevent doors blowing open in flight?

 

[albatross710]

Are exit doors not plug type?

Isn't that to prevent doors blowing open in flight?

Please don't let the facts get in the way of so many Hollywood movies.

 

[yo yo ma]

In my 2 odd years as a gold i never got an Op-Up. Your sure fire way is to to a points upgrade...

Have to agree with this... I've never had one on QF in 5 years as gold. The points upgrade is your best bet.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Fly on a heavy holiday route over school holidays.
Chances much better!

Agreed - the only time I have had an upgrade was a long time ago flying CNS-SYD in school holidays, where the flight was totally overbooked, so they were moving Gold Status into J. This was pre Jetstar.....Amusingly Master FM and I were Gold while Mr FM and the two Miss FM's were silver. Master FM and I were upgraded, but Mr FM swapped boarding passes and made him sit in Y with his sisters

 

[Limewood]

Happened to us twice recent years, got upgraded to j first flight we took from CNS after joining Qantas Club for some reason, then 18months later became S Gold first trip after once again into J, last year on CX wife was upgraded to J on overnighter back to CNS. Some years ago was upped at Q gate going SYD / SFO from J to F, we must be lucky.

 

[simongr]

I have had 111 flights with QF as a platinum and only had one upgrade due to the prior aircraft going tech.