Unlucky or was my method flawed?

[browski]

Ok, so 10 days ago I was flying SYD-JNB in economy on Qantas. I had put in for an upgrade to J or PE. Checking on-line 12 hours out, I received the message that I was declined. Fair enough the flight was overbooked with Springboks returning to Sth Africa with all their silverware.
At the Syd Intl Business lounge I asked if there were any chance for a points upgrade. Answer "no", overbooked. I then asked if they (the Qantas J lounge staff) would inform me of any late upgrade opportunities and that I would be in the J lounge until boarding. "No problem", they said.
The flight is called and as I depart the lounge for the gate, I request once more, but alas, "very full flight".

On the 14 hour flight I use up my 7 hour laptop battery life and ask the hostess if there is anywhere I can recharge. She kindly informs me that there is a spare seat in PE and that she would take my laptop there for recharging - which she did.

So..............was I just unlucky for the potential points upgrade or was my approach flawed? Can anyone advise?

 

[simongr]

We all know that QF do not upgrade people to use up every seat so that they can potentially sell those empty seats at the last minute at a premium. SO i suspect that was the case.

QF wont allow ODU for int'l flights so that was never going to happen. Given that PE was not full there was little chance of an op up either.

 

[david870mdg]

On the 14 hour flight I use up my 7 hour laptop battery life ?

7 hours??? Can you elaborate???
Seems like a good battery!!

Maybe QF blocked that seat for whatever reason...
Nice of the FA to offer that service. Not something you would expect.

 

[toowongman]

7 hours??? Can you elaborate???
Seems like a good battery!!

A lot of newer machines are capable of this sort of battery life now. You can get more with some netbooks as well, e.g. ASUS | Eee PC 1005HA-PU1X Seashell Netbook | 1005HA-PU1X-BK

 

[oz_mark]

Even if you have a net-book with a lesser battery (e.g. a 4 cell battery), getting hold of a 6 cell battery can give you a longer battery life.

 

[serfty]

I tote an ageing Laptop with a battery life of ~45 minutes. I also total a clip-on "6 Hour Battery" which when attached I can get about 8 hours I total.

I am investigating a new laptop - battery life of 6+ hours is one of my criteria.

As far as the OP's strategy goes; there's nothing wrong with asking politely as they did.

 

[samh004]

My MacBook has a 5 hour battery, and it's a several year old one. The new ones advertise 8.

 

[Lucky_man]

At the Syd Intl Business lounge I asked if there were any chance for a points upgrade. Answer "no", overbooked. I then asked if they (the Qantas J lounge staff) would inform me of any late upgrade opportunities and that I would be in the J lounge until boarding. "No problem", they said.
The flight is called and as I depart the lounge for the gate, I request once more, but alas, "very full flight".

I think the Business class lounges answer this way because it is not untrue and ultimately until you are walking down the air bridge with an Economy seat number on the BP you wont start to come to terms with the reallity of what is going to happen (ie hours in small seat).

What they say is not untrue - they said they would tell you if the opportunity arises. The opportunity will never arise so there will never be a need to tell you.

The F lounge is a slightly different story - but they make the decisions (always let them know if it is your honeymoon or similar) and will reissue your boarding pass generally without having a discussion with you - either to you or at the gate.

 

[aus_flyer]

The F lounge is a slightly different story - but they make the decisions (always let them know if it is your honeymoon or similar) and will reissue your boarding pass generally without having a discussion with you - either to you or at the gate.

Can you elaborate?

 

[harvyk]

They only have a few seats which they allocate to upgrades. Also they usually only bump people up if the Y cabin has been oversold and it becomes a choice of leaving the person on the ground, or putting them into a higher class of service. In that case they will bump the person up, but usually that is a decision made within a couple of hours of the flight taking off, and I'm under the impression that it's those people who check in later who "win" the op-up.

If the Y cabin has been filled exactly (in other words 100% sold, and filled, but not oversold), and there are no more upgrade opportunities then unfortunately you're stuck in Y.

 

[SnowYeti]

My MacBook has a 5 hour battery, and it's a several year old one. The new ones advertise 8.

Turn off Blue Tooth, Wifi and turn the screen down. Also don't run any intensive video apps (like watching movies). I guess it all depends what you're doing. Using laptop on the plane to write my blogs, and emails gives me several hours of batt life ... the new Mac's have great batteries, although user inaccessible to change.

 

[serfty]

Preloading a movie onto the hard drive and watching from there rather than directly from a DVD does save a lot of power in-flight. (Plus you don't need to lug fragile DVD's around).

 

[russianrob]

Given that there is NO chance to sell a PE or J seat within 45-60mins of the flight (try and get through LAX security under that time!), I still do not understand why Qantas refuse to give upgrades. Our points are a "debt" they owe us, and we want to spend them.
Nothing p#@s's me off more than being refused and getting on board to find empty seats. I really don't buy this. I'll happily eat "down cabin" food if that's their other argument.
And while I'm at it, if I'm spending points to BUY an upgrade why are we refused the PE or J points?

 

[browski]

Thanks RedRoo, you've made my point better than I did.
I was not requesting for an OpUp, I was asking for a points upgrade.

Remember, I applied for the Upgrade days before the flight, only to be informed that the seats were oversold. However the reality (an hour frrom the flight) was that there were indeed spare seats - so why should a J/PE seat go unused.

Is it laziness from the QP staff? Is it company policy? Was it merely an oversight from the QP staff (maybe they simply forgot my request)? Is it nastiness?

 

[simongr]

One of the problems is staffing - not just food. If there are empty seats then they don't need staff to support those seats.

 

[ejb]

Hi all,

I still think the reason they fly with empty J/F seats when people have requested upgrades is QF limiting the availablity to maintain people buying J/F tix.

If you could always get an upgrade you would only ever pay for Y and burn points to fly J/F and this would hurt QF's bottom line.

ejb

 

[Dalescott]

Had the same problem with Emirates, had the points. But no upgrade, spoke to the FA on flight. Her reply was "ow the upgrade seats are all gone" "But there are empty seats" was my reply to her. She just shrugged her shoulders. And this was the last time that I flaw with Emirates. It seems to me that this is a common problem with Airlines, in that they are not flexible. We now use Star Alliance airlines, variaty being the spice of life, and we find it is saving money.

 

[Dave Noble]

Thanks RedRoo, you've made my point better than I did.
I was not requesting for an OpUp, I was asking for a points upgrade.

Remember, I applied for the Upgrade days before the flight, only to be informed that the seats were oversold. However the reality (an hour frrom the flight) was that there were indeed spare seats - so why should a J/PE seat go unused.

Is it laziness from the QP staff? Is it company policy? Was it merely an oversight from the QP staff (maybe they simply forgot my request)? Is it nastiness?

The staff do not process on departure upgrades for international flights. If the powers that be decide to decline the upgrade, the only time that the upgrade would occur is if selected for an involuntary upgrade

Seats were fully sold in the booking class that was required for the upgrade

Dave

 

[browski]

The staff do not process on departure upgrades for international flights. If the powers that be decide to decline the upgrade, the only time that the upgrade would occur is if selected for an involuntary upgrade

Seats were fully sold in the booking class that was required for the upgrade

Dave

Dave, as a moderator, you would be well aware that stating the obvious only progresses your post count, not the debate.

 

[Dave Noble]

Dave, as a moderator, you would be well aware that stating the obvious only progresses your post count, not the debate.

Your questioning in the post suggests a lack of understanding of the rules of upgrades since it is nothing to do with laziness of the QC staff given that they have nothing to do with the allocation of upgrades.