I've been reading the board for quite some time now and have finally decided that I must tell my/our experiences with upgrades.
Begins with a booked FF premium economy seats from LAX to SYD - 3 years ago. My wife and I had arrived by train from San Diego 5hrs early to LAX ie about 5pm on the day of our flight QF 108.
Surprise surprise we were the first to check in and wow and upgrade to Business for both of us. The reason we were told was that Qantas were stuffing yanks in to the back end cheaply and pushing everyone forward. The crew who are supposed to NOT know who is an upgraded body but are told by the ground staff. Never the less the flight was fantastic. So an upgrade using bronze FF points from Prem Economy to Business with no prompting. The boarding pass just popped out of he printer.
Fast forward three years. We've saved up our points by gathering credit cards and their 150000 point offers but close them down before renewal time. So 400000 points later (not from flying or anything special, except for a few new credit cards) and we're of to LAX again return Business class using just our points. I know it sounds impossible to gather up that many points just from shopping and a few car deposits!!. Any way business class seats we have - both ways.
How hard is it ...Well it's hard to arrange these flights. I watched the qantas site for a couple of weeks prior to getting the exact dates we wanted ex SYD. They were released about 1pm on the day we booked and I reckon there was only three seats made available that day... I tested it after our confirmation..That was twelve months prior to our departure date. Well about 10 days into the 12 months.
So what did it take to get the seats? Lots of patience, time on a retirees hands to keep a look out and try to figure out how the seas were released. It worked
Coming home was the same problem but without a time restriction - who wants to get home anyway, but yep 2 more business class seats on QF108 in late October 2012 - all booked
Now how about costs for these seats.. Well that's another story. $1300+ return in charges and taxes for 2 people!! That's about 50% the cost to fly economy. After flying with Qantas in business you won't fly anything else.. The smell of fresh toast in the morning with vegemite is worth the cost
cheers and hope you all get an upgrade. We're off now
Begins with a booked FF premium economy seats from LAX to SYD - 3 years ago. My wife and I had arrived by train from San Diego 5hrs early to LAX ie about 5pm on the day of our flight QF 108.
Surprise surprise we were the first to check in and wow and upgrade to Business for both of us. The reason we were told was that Qantas were stuffing yanks in to the back end cheaply and pushing everyone forward. The crew who are supposed to NOT know who is an upgraded body but are told by the ground staff. Never the less the flight was fantastic. So an upgrade using bronze FF points from Prem Economy to Business with no prompting. The boarding pass just popped out of he printer.
Fast forward three years. We've saved up our points by gathering credit cards and their 150000 point offers but close them down before renewal time. So 400000 points later (not from flying or anything special, except for a few new credit cards) and we're of to LAX again return Business class using just our points. I know it sounds impossible to gather up that many points just from shopping and a few car deposits!!. Any way business class seats we have - both ways.
How hard is it ...Well it's hard to arrange these flights. I watched the qantas site for a couple of weeks prior to getting the exact dates we wanted ex SYD. They were released about 1pm on the day we booked and I reckon there was only three seats made available that day... I tested it after our confirmation..That was twelve months prior to our departure date. Well about 10 days into the 12 months.
So what did it take to get the seats? Lots of patience, time on a retirees hands to keep a look out and try to figure out how the seas were released. It worked
Coming home was the same problem but without a time restriction - who wants to get home anyway, but yep 2 more business class seats on QF108 in late October 2012 - all booked
Now how about costs for these seats.. Well that's another story. $1300+ return in charges and taxes for 2 people!! That's about 50% the cost to fly economy. After flying with Qantas in business you won't fly anything else.. The smell of fresh toast in the morning with vegemite is worth the cost
cheers and hope you all get an upgrade. We're off now
