My first op-up and I had to decline it...

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kpc

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I was due to fly back at 1845 from Bne to Syd on QF 555 today, which was scheduled to be a 767-300. Anyway, I left my meeting early and got to the Bne QP at 1500, and asked to be put on the 1615 flight to Syd. I was told that I had been upgraded to J:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen: if I wanted to wait for my original flight;) as it was full (I later noted on the QF website that the flight was operated by a 737-800). Anyway, I said thanks but that I was not really prepared to wait 3.5 hours (I know thadocta would be quite happy to spend 3.5 hours at the QP!!) for a J seat for an 1 hour flight, and they could give it to someone else!:p

Anyway, it got me thinking...I'm Qantas Gold and there would almost certainly be platinums on that flight....so maybe (?probably) the fact that I was on a "B" economy fare may have pushed me ahead of the platinums on the op-up list?!

So would a QF NB travelling on a "B" fare be opup in front of a QF WP travelling on an "O" or "N" fare?

PS: If the flight was 3 hours or more, I may have waited for the later flight....
PPS: At 1500, the CSA at the Bne QP said if I walked quickly, he would put me on the 1515 flight to Syd, and he would ask them to hold the nosebridge for me. In true thadocta style, I said I would like to have a few drinks for an hour and then catch the 1615 flight...
 
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I'd be thinking most platinum members would be flying J or Y to be able to reach and maintain the platinum level.

You'd be making a hell of a lot of short haul flights on red-e-deals to achieve platinum.
 
I was told that op-ups do the assignment based on fare class then status within the fare class.
Who knows that flight may not have had many elites anyway?
 
Altair said:
I was told that op-ups do the assignment based on fare class then status within the fare class.
Who knows that flight may not have had many elites anyway?

My last involuntary upgrade was on a red-e-deal O class ticket, so I am sure that that isn't the way it is always done

Dave
 
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Similarly, when a/c has a cabin higher than the one sold on the route I always get a seat in that cabin (okay not F seat when paid Y on 2-class route but business seat on domestic NZ and first seat if paid business on 2-class route) regardless if I am on the lowest sale fare or a last minute full fare (that isn't Y so treated as discount economy).
 
Dave Noble said:
My last involuntary upgrade was on a red-e-deal O class ticket, so I am sure that that isn't the way it is always done

Dave
Well that leaves me some hope if I ever get that higher tier.
Like Kiwi Flyer I always get the business class seat if available, flying QF NZ Domestic but that was when I was flying on the higher WHY fare brackets.
 
justinbrett said:
I'd be thinking most platinum members would be flying J or Y to be able to reach and maintain the platinum level.

You'd be making a hell of a lot of short haul flights on red-e-deals to achieve platinum.
Not necessarily. Some companies have policies that may have people in J for long-haul international flights (say longer than 8 hours) and economy for all else including the 1 hour domestic flights.

I generally travel business class on ATW tickets, but economy on anything domestic or trips to Asia. So I could achieve Platinum status on the long-haul international flights and travel economy on a BNE-SYD flight.
 
indeed for me over 50 domestic flights @ 10 SCs a pop in the second half of this year, plus a few @ 15 SCs (and not counting all the domestic flights on NZ in the same period)
 
kpc said:
I was told that I had been upgraded to J:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen: if I wanted to wait for my original flight;) as it was full (I later noted on the QF website that the flight was operated by a 737-800)....
As op-ups don't happen that often I would have waited the extra hours just for the bragging rights. ;)
 
Just over a year since my last op-up (my first as a newly minted WP); MEL-BNE on an 'O' class ticket. (Aircraft for the previous flight went U/S and PAX from that needed to be reaccomodated).
 
My first and only op-up was as a Gold 4 years ago - in Brisbane funnily enough. None since acquiring WP:( - all paid for with points.

I agree you don't need to travel in J/F to get platinum - all domestic on H or B will get you there (& keep you there) as long as you fly SYD - MEL/BNE enough and throw in a few ADL or PER trips as well.

Cheers
 
NM said:
Not necessarily. Some companies have policies that may have people in J for long-haul international flights (say longer than 8 hours) and economy for all else including the 1 hour domestic flights.

I generally travel business class on ATW tickets, but economy on anything domestic or trips to Asia. So I could achieve Platinum status on the long-haul international flights and travel economy on a BNE-SYD flight.

I think this is a pretty common set of rules. My previous (multi-national) employer had a 6hr rule between Y and J. Of course, every time I had to fly transpac the national office decided to ban J to make the books look good <sigh>. The rule was ultimately scraped in favour of a intra-continent vs. intercontinental one. This p'd off my Indian colleagues no end, as they had to fly Y between India & Japan whereas we got fly J to SIN from Oz.

Ultimately, that is the good thing about Oz, everyone knows it's miles from anywhere (even if it's not), so they understand it if you complain about flying times for meetings (and want J seats).

mt
 
mainly tailfirst said:
I think this is a pretty common set of rules. My previous (multi-national) employer had a 6hr rule between Y and J.
I wish you had mentioned that set of rules to my previous employer. Bangkok 9 hours, Singapore 7.5 hours, Kuala Lumpur 8.5 hours, Jakarta 7 hours all in cattle class.

And they had the hide to expect you to front for work in Asia then next morning after travelling overnight in your own time and the same when returning to Oz. Just as well I had the common sense to tell them to go and get stuffed and if they wanted me to travel it would be on my terms.
 
Ahhhh .... memories.

My first op-up was about 10 years ago flying QF from Sydney to Christchurch. I had cashed in points for my fare but my future wife had paid for hers (it later transpired that she had BA points she could have used!).

Anyway, at the airport we check in at the QC line and I am told that I have been upgraded to Business. My first reaction was surprise that they would do this on an economy award (though I had just qualified Silver), and then disappointment when I realised that I would have to decline as I was not travelling alone. The CIC said "Oh - that's a shame!" and asked to see Liz's ticket. She then tapped away for a while and handed us both J boarding passes!

Even more incredible was the return journey, as Liz left a day before me on a direct flight to Sydney but the only award flight I could get when booking was the next day via Melbourne! When I fronted up the CIC said "Would you prefer to take the direct flight to Sydney, as it will save you 3 hours and I can get you into business class?" Even after the journey over this still made my jaw drop before I stammered "Errr .... yes - that would be fine."

These were my first and last op-ups on Qantas, and if they offered me one these days I reckon I could handle 3 hours in the QC waiting for it. Actually on the sort of fares I have to purchase there is no chance of shifting to an earlier flight anyway.


Cheers,

Andrew

.
 
JohnK said:
I wish you had mentioned that set of rules to my previous employer. Bangkok 9 hours, Singapore 7.5 hours, Kuala Lumpur 8.5 hours, Jakarta 7 hours all in cattle class.

And they had the hide to expect you to front for work in Asia then next morning after travelling overnight in your own time and the same when returning to Oz. Just as well I had the common sense to tell them to go and get stuffed and if they wanted me to travel it would be on my terms.
Our policy is that the starting point for all travel is Y. Travel in J requires VP and Finance approval. So any J travel requires justification for each trip. Now for an ATW itinerary with around 100 hours of flight time in a 3 week period it is fairly simple justification if you can find a VP who is willing to pay. In my case, the Australian VP will never approve business class travel, so all my business class trips are approved and funded outside Australia. Any travel to Asia (as a standalone trip, not part of a ATW itinerary) is approved and funded by Australia or Asia regions, so is always economy.
 
Here it is Y for anything under 9 hours, but the finance manager just returned from Europe flying in Y even though he could take J. He now believes that it is not worth the J fare, but he did draw the line at EK, he feels that the number of stops extra to get from WLG to Europe is not worth any savings....oh he flew SQ. Our new Director General has stated that we are not to travel on the Flexible tickets but super savers etc. For NZ domestic only Y fare class gets the full economy SC:evil: and looking at the NZ site all flights for this and the remaining travel appears not to have the lowest, non-Airpoint earning flights:rolleyes: . Of course we are not allowed to use these flights for FF points nor use the lounges even if we pay for our own membership:confused:
I am now trying to arrange a meeting with the finance manager and others up in Auckland, wow all of Friday is very expensive (no surprise), however found the 737-400 and will go for that, trying for the J seats and this manager enjoys the benefit of QC & KC thanks to me.;)
 
Also Y unless CEO approval. Fortunately can upgrade by personal means.

Altair said:
I am now trying to arrange a meeting with the finance manager and others up in Auckland, wow all of Friday is very expensive (no surprise), however found the 737-400 and will go for that, trying for the J seats and this manager enjoys the benefit of QC & KC thanks to me.;)

Note that Jet Connect often switches a/c around at short notice. Their fleet is rather stretched so doesn't take much to cause a shuffle.
 
Kiwi Flyer said:
Also Y unless CEO approval. Fortunately can upgrade by personal means.



Note that Jet Connect often switches a/c around at short notice. Their fleet is rather stretched so doesn't take much to cause a shuffle.
Yes I know. I have seen it happen twice before my eyes where I lost a J seat:( and where I gained a J seat:)
Oh I also looked for NZ A320 but could not see one.
 
Tomorrow's NZ A320 domestic flights scheduled are

AKL-CHC 0900, 1300
AKL-WLG 1700
CHC-AKL 0655, 1100, 1500
WLG-CHC 1845
 
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