QF or LA across to South America?

[doctau]

I'm probably going to be going on a trip to South America later this year and was trying to figure out whether it was better to fly Qantas or LAN in terms of metal and marketing carrier.

Obviously my domestic and trans-Tasman flights will be on QF metal, and my intra-America flights on LA metal. I've flown a long-haul Y trip with each one once before (QF to DFW in '12 and LA to SCL in '10) and preferred the LA flight of the two but I don't know if they're better in general to choose the metal across the pacific.


Since I'm not going to be flying full Y, going with LA would give me full economy SCs compared to discount SCs for QF. On the other hand QF marketing and metal would let me use points to upgrade to QE or J if I'm lucky. I've got a few questions:
1) If I fly a LA marketed flight on QF metal and use my QFF number, would it be counted as a LA flight (so full Y SCs) or a QF flight (so discount SCs)
2) If I fly a QF marketed flight on LA metal, can I use points to upgrade? I'm guessing the answer is either that it's not possible, or that it unlikely because LA pax will get priority for upgrades

 

[rotor]

Since I'm not going to be flying full Y, going with LA would give me full economy SCs compared to discount SCs for QF. On the other hand QF marketing and metal would let me use points to upgrade to QE or J if I'm lucky. I've got a few questions:
1) If I fly a LA marketed flight on QF metal and use my QFF number, would it be counted as a LA flight (so full Y SCs) or a QF flight (so discount SCs)

Unfortunately no, as I learned recently, while the T&C designates the booking class as Economy on LAN (as opposed to Discount Economy), you will not earn Y SCs - you will still earn only Discount Economy SCs. Check out the status credits table on the QF site.

Anything that isn't Y earns Discount Economy, regardless of the T&C.

Unless you want to argue with Qantas on this point. Let me know how you go

 

[doctau]

Anything that isn't Y earns Discount Economy, regardless of the T&C.

Unless you want to argue with Qantas on this point. Let me know how you go

You mean the LAN section of Frequent Flyer - About the Program - Terms & Conditions ? There is a mix of airlines which list classes split into Discount Economy and Economy and those which don't, so I would have assumed the terms listed there were right - that page is what they used to argue why I wouldn't get anything for a W class flight on AA last year (W seems to earn now, it wasnt' listed at the time).

My previous LAN flight in late '10 had the points and SCs credited in early '11 and definitely were the Economy numbers not Discount Economy numbers. I may just have been lucky that time, but I wouldn't have thought being given what the Ts&Cs say I should get would have been down to luck.

 

[opusman]

You can't use Qantas FF points to upgrade on anything other than Qantas metal.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Another thread on the same topic (but J class)
http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/help-choosing-lan-qf-j-50720.html

Very few economy flights book into the Y bucket

 

[tekkyy]

I booked the trans-Tasman leg (SYD-AKL) of the LA flight in March. They cancelled at the airport and put us onto QF. I got 40 SC for it.