QF upgrade strategy to USA

[serfty]

What’s the source for that?

Anecdotal evaluation by many people over many years.

International upgrade request pecking order

International Upgrades - the pecking order

 

[dvt]

I would go for the Dallas flights. Several reasons:

1. Even if not upgraded you get the longest sectors in at least PE and cuts out a bit of time - you can still connect to FLL(or MIA or whatever you prefer) from DFW and arrive in the evening and it's on a couple of hours extra flying (in Y, but hopefullY MCE per status)
2. As noted above pax on the 380 J can be upped to F so one has possibly more chance to get into J
3. A380 operating may or may not have the suites by that point. Probably not, but you never know


I would also try to fly oiver BEFORE that Friday. Several reasons:

If you fly on say Wednesday better chance of upgrade and IF weather or other delays get in the way your cruise is not impacted and you can have a day or two with partner in Florida anyway... surely a bonus?

For ex I would not plan to fly in on the Friday with a cruise starting Saturday. Not from Oz to the east coast.

Coming back, if you could push back to depart easter Monday or even the Tueday a much better chance for upgrade IMHO.

Thanks for the detailed reply. We actually go on the cruise the following Friday so we have a week in the US will a couple of stops before FLL visiting friends. I am however, almost certainly moving the departure to Thursday rather than Friday with the hope that I can increase the upgrade probability. Dallas is now also my preference given all of the feedback.

 

[justinbrett]

Qantas are using the AA premium lounge in Terminal D. I was surprised to be directed there in July 2018 when flying on QF8 as a SG in Y.

I checked the Qantas website at the time (and again a few minutes ago) which confirms this:
Lounge Locations | North America | Dallas Fort Worth International Airport | Associated Lounges

The website is calling it a Temporary Associated Lounge (Qantas Business Lounge)

Those lounges were always going to close when AA's new lounges opened, so I guess they did it early. I was there in September and I thought the other lounges were still open, but I was flying AA so wasn't paying much attention.

As I said before, the temp AA lounge is better than the old QF associated lounge. It was the size of my living room. No great loss.

I'm in Dallas last weekend in June, hoping the flagship lounge is open when I fly out (1st July).