QF Points Upgrade - what's new ?

[legroom]

Friends

I was looking for some pointers in the way points upgrade is handled by QF and came across this thread where the most relevant post was - in 2008 - as follows

"...[h=2]Re: International Upgrades - the pecking order[/h]

My understanding is that QF do Y-J international points upgrades as follows:

(1) Chairman's Lounge - they start with passenger on highest fare bucket - ie W working their way down through T, then Y, then B etc down to the lowest upgradeable economy class.

(2) They will then work through the platinums in fare bucket order, then Golds in fare bucket order, then silvers down the fare buckets , then bronzes down the fare buckets, then non QFF members down the fare buckets.

(3) If there is a tie at one of the fare buckets - for example two Silver members both with a B class economy seat wishing to upgrade to J (and only one upgradeable seat left), they will give the upgrade to the member who first joined the Qantas Frequent Flyer system - ie the lower of the membership numbers. The date of upgrade request is irrelevant - the upgrade request simply needs to be made between 90 days and 24 hours before the flight leaves its first port.

NOTE:

(1) It is a matter of debate whether status of account from which points are coming is the decider. Qantas says it is not but the evidence as gathered on this site is that it is the status of the member requesting the upgrade. My own personal view based on upgrades on the busy Pacific route and from talking to Qantas staff is that the upgrade is ordered on the status of the requesting account.

Therefore, for the present request if the upgrade request comes out of your account, it will be based on your status (Gold).

I would assume that if while working down the request order Qantas gets to a 3 seat request such as yours and there are only 2 upgradeable seats at that point, they would skip you and move down to the next request.

(2) I note that your question refers to a Y-PE upgrade request but I have no reason to think that principles which QF would apply would be different to a Y-J request - ie QF would work down members' QFF status and fare buckets...."


My question to those in the know is: has anything changed in 2013 ?

Still in the following order:

1) Status (CL > P1 > WP > SG > PS > NB)
2) Fare bucket
3) Date of QFF joining

What's your take on the issue of the timing of the upgrade request now in 2013?

Still a relevant factor or not ?

Thanks for sharing​

 

[serfty]

I firmly believe that since the full implementation of Altea that PVC is now used rather than fare bucket.

(I also believe that "Time of request" has not been a tie breaker for many years.)

 

[legroom]

I firmly believe that since the full implementation of Altea that PVC is now used rather than fare bucket.

(I also believe that "Time of request" has not been a tie breaker for many years.)

Excuse my dim ignorance, serfty

What is PVC ?

Is that some type of plastic ?

 

[mannej]

I believe it should be PCV - perceived customer value

 

[legroom]

I firmly believe that since the full implementation of Altea that PVC is now used rather than fare bucket.

(I also believe that "Time of request" has not been a tie breaker for many years.)

Granted that you meant PCV and not China-made PVC, would the status still trump PCV then ?

Say a high-PCV SG vs a low-PCV WP/P1, which one would get the points upgrade then?

Thanks

 

[serfty]

I believe it should be PCV - perceived customer value

Correct.

It's a rating Qantas apply to every passenger on every flight in relation to Qantas' perception of each customer "Value" to Qantas.

There's some more discussion here:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....e-request-cl-gold-flyer-41414.html#post648427

Granted that you meant PCV and not China-made PVC, would the status still trump PCV then ?

Say a high-PCV SG vs a low-PCV WP/P1, which one would get the points upgrade then?

Thanks

Status is documented in the T&C's. SO that would still be the case.

The rest, including use of PVC and/or fare class is (relatively informed) conjecture on this site.

More here:http://www.australianfrequentflyer....riority-upgrades-fare-class-status-42418.html

 

[Mardi]

If status is involved in any way is it the status of the requestor or the higher of the statuses held by the two travellers? I'm gold and my husband is platinum. I've put in for an upgrade on our flight to LAX in October because I have the points. If it comes down to status will it be based on my gold or my husband's platinum?

 

[serfty]

If status is involved in any way is it the status of the requestor or the higher of the statuses held by the two travellers? I'm gold and my husband is platinum. ...

See the discussion in this thread I linked to earlier: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....e-request-cl-gold-flyer-41414.html#post647614

 

[JohnM]

I firmly believe that since the full implementation of Altea that PVC is now used rather than fare bucket.

(I also believe that "Time of request" has not been a tie breaker for many years.)

What is Altea? Am I guessing in the ballpark that it's a more powerful database that can better index customer history than what was previously used?

 

[serfty]

Altea is a departure system Qantas first implemented middle of 2008.

Issues with seat allocation first came to notice around the time of this thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....fury-economy-passengers-14036.html#post182339

 

[legroom]

If status is involved in any way is it the status of the requestor or the higher of the statuses held by the two travellers? I'm gold and my husband is platinum. I've put in for an upgrade on our flight to LAX in October because I have the points. If it comes down to status will it be based on my gold or my husband's platinum?

From what I have read on AFF so far (courtesy of Prof Serfty's referral), Plat will trump SG anytime.

If I were you, I'd seriously consider transferring points to your hubby who then makes the upgrade request himself.

That would carry more clout from what I have read so far.