PER-SYD in J

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ddd

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I'll be flying SYD-KTA in October, and I'm hoping to fly business on the return PER-SYD leg using points. If I've done me reading correctly, upgrading from discount economy is 30,000 points, whereas using points to book a one way PER-SYD ticket is only 35500 points + $19.95. On the surface it seems obvious to just book with points because (again, assuming I'm reading everything correctly), a points booking is cheaper and is guaranteed, whereas a points upgrade points you on a waitlist until 72 hours prior to the flight. Am I completely missing something here?

My main issue is that this is a flight for work, so everything has to be booked through the authorised travel agent and approved by somebody, meaning that booking the PER-SYD leg myself is a bureaucratic nightmare (e.g. work travel insurance won't cover me if something goes wrong).

What are the odds of actually getting the upgrade? If it makes a difference, I'm gold VA from Feb this year, and I'll have reached enough status to renew by June. They also book on the cheapest fare available, so booking a Freedom fare (which reduces the points required to upgrade to 9,900) is basically out of the question because it's 3 times the price of a Getaway fare at the moment...

I've also checked availability and there's plenty, which isn't particularly surprising given how far out the flight is.
 
Generally you're correct, it's better value to use points outright than to pay for the flight and upgrade. But if you need to book this as a revenue booking due to work policy, don't worry - for Virgin Australia flights, upgrades can be confirmed instantly if there is a Business reward seat available on the flight.
 
If a rewards seat is available, as soon as the booking has been confirmed you can go into the booking and you will immediately get the upgrade.
If no upgrade is available, then waitlist.
If you don't get it as part of the waitlist, then you can upgrade in the Lounge.

I'm yet to encounter not getting an upgrade.
 
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The PER T2 VA lounge is one of the newer ones, apart from the BNE one, ...
The PER lounge would be worth a visit, in J either the 737 or the 330 if you are lucky would be a good thing to get to visit.
Its on my bucket list.
737 J on VA, this I have not yet tried, but on the 330 before they put in 1 x 2 x 1 seating, was great, when I did it, VA in PER was still in T3 and the lounge was downstairs, with no outside views.
Now at T2, would be better.
Now, if VA could guarantee that flight trans Australia as provided by a 330, will be 100% flown by a 330, I would be happy to say go with that.
BUT, its a pity, that even though you might book with a 330 in mind, and hopefully you get to fly that, in the end, there is a chance your plane might get swapped for a 737.
Au to HKG on VA, now they have committed to this being flown with the 330, and no new 330s coming into operation, guess we have to say, then that there would be less 330s on the domestic runs.
J on the 737 would be better than Y of course but still, if on the booking, its listed as to be provided by a 330, it should be a 330.
 
I've lived in Perth previously and done VA's trans-con a lot, as a Velocity Gold and now Platinum member.

In my experiences, you've got a good chance with a waitlisted upgrade assuming you aren't travelling during a peak holiday period, and the aircraft is an A330 with 20 J seats. I've never missed out on one.

Having said that, if you can snag an immediate confirmed upgrade if there's award space, then I'd get onto that ASAP.
 
The PER T2 VA lounge is one of the newer ones, apart from the BNE one, ...
The PER lounge would be worth a visit, in J either the 737 or the 330 if you are lucky would be a good thing to get to visit.
Its on my bucket list.
737 J on VA, this I have not yet tried, but on the 330 before they put in 1 x 2 x 1 seating, was great, when I did it, VA in PER was still in T3 and the lounge was downstairs, with no outside views.
Now at T2, would be better.
Now, if VA could guarantee that flight trans Australia as provided by a 330, will be 100% flown by a 330, I would be happy to say go with that.
BUT, its a pity, that even though you might book with a 330 in mind, and hopefully you get to fly that, in the end, there is a chance your plane might get swapped for a 737.
Au to HKG on VA, now they have committed to this being flown with the 330, and no new 330s coming into operation, guess we have to say, then that there would be less 330s on the domestic runs.
J on the 737 would be better than Y of course but still, if on the booking, its listed as to be provided by a 330, it should be a 330.

Perth T2 is mainly for charter FIFO flights now. Practically all scheduled flights go from the T1 pier, with only one or two which still use T2 and are WA only flights. There's not too much wrong with the T2 Lounge and is actually best comparable to the Adelaide lounge (with the lounge's I have visited).

The lounge in T1 is the newest un-refurbished lounge.

Qantas nor Virgin will guarantee an a330 service and you will also find that Qantas change aircraft from a330's to b737's either at the last minute or "shortly prior to departure".

A330's will always run between the East and West Coast, I imagine there will always be at least one airframe flying a domestic service.
 
VA BNE - PER seems to show a lot of 737s these days.
Am planning a bit of flying from BNE - PER and then a day later to ADL, looking for the 330 from BNE for the kicks of flying a wide bodied plane out of there just once, but apart from taking the Air NZ flight to AKL, it seems no 330 out from there.
But back to the gist of the OP, if you want a J seat, and don't mind if you get a 737, then go ahead.
Mind you, if you get the 330, wow, that one is nice in J, if you get an immediate upgrade to J, even on 737, good, but if you don't get the upgrade, you might have to slum it 4.5 hours in whY!
Have done a red eye PER - SYD on QF's 747 a long time ago, when they flew the 747 on that route, squashed in Y, coo, never again!
 
VA BNE - PER seems to show a lot of 737s these days.

It appears that the only 'regular' BNE-PER A330 is now a single flight on most (but not all) Fridays (VA474) and Sundays (VA470) until 5th October. From then it's the Sundays (VA470) only. There are around 4 one-off scheduled A330 flights on some other days with no discernible pattern.
 
The 330's have been redeployed to service Hong Kong. Little change of snagging one domestically now unfortunately.
 
The 330's have been redeployed to service Hong Kong. Little change of snagging one domestically now unfortunately.

I'm pretty sure some (not all) flights to/from Perth still use them.
 
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