Nice little op-up

[Timtammi]

My husband (also business partner), one of our employees and myself flew MEL-SYD-HKG on Saturday.

I had booked my flight separately as I was hoping for a J upgrade with my points. Hubby had decided he didnt want to spend his and would stay in cattle with our employee.

I noticed when checking seats and availability a couple of days before the flight that cattle showed completely chockers with plenty of availability in J. I should add that I'm QG, hubby is too and our employee is NB. I was pretty hopeful on the upgrade and sure enough I saw the night before that it had come through.

On check-in at MEL at the international transfer desk hubby and employee changed their seat allocations slightly for QF127 so that they were now A and C as C had been vacated by me and they thought it might be more likely that nobody else would be moved to B.

When we boarded in Syd, I was ahead of them and took my seat in 23F (I think? and aisle seat anyway) and they then proceeded to walk past me waving their newly issued premium economy boarding passes. Seems they had been pulled aside at the premium check-in gate and issued the upgrade. Very nice! I was a bit jealous actually as they didnt have to spend their points, although maybe it wouldnt have happened if there had been the 3 of us.

Now I've heard this is fairly rare for QF. Would it be because the economy cabin was so fully booked? Or possibly because when we checked in at Mel the check-in person new that I had been upgraded and they hadn't because they were teasing me? Although if that was the case I would have thought the upgrade would have happened there rather than in Sydney? Perhaps they were overbooked and looking for some premium pax to upgrade (but then hubby is only QG and the other person only NB!).

Anyway, very nice for them and a great flight was had by all.

Cheers

 

[Mal]

Congrats!

Qantas has been 'upping quite a few passengers recently due to overbooking in Economy, and less bookings occuring in PE / J / F etc.

Some people have reported getting phone calls before flights asking them if they want a points or cash upgrade (even if their fare was never eligible for a points upgrade).

So I suppose Qantas tries to sort out overbookings through points upgrades, no-shows, offered upgrades etc, and then op-ups passengers if required.

As always, the chance is still pretty small - so people shouldn't expect to be upgraded (or try to blag one at the gate/club/check-in etc).

(As an aside, my recent SYD-HKG-SYD trip had me upgraded to PE (seat only, economy service) to HKG and upgraded (full PE) on the way back. Went well, except for the uncouth CSS/CSM who specifically visited each upgradee and announced to all within hearing distance that they were upgraded "due to a plane change". :shock: )

 

[Alanslegal]

Very nice op-uo win timtammi

Am I right to assume that both your hubby and employee were on the same booking, and thus the NB employee got the op-up benefit as well.

 

[Timtammi]

Yes they were on the same booking. I had booked mine separately because I knew in advance I was going to try for the points upgrade.

Unfortunately the flight home on Friday is a non-upgradeable type so I have a feeling its all going to be a bit of a let down after the nice flight over. Maybe by then we will be so tired it wont matter!

Cheers