Upgrade and Itinerary Change

[_mo_]

Hi Everyone,

wondering if any of the experienced travellers can help me here.

I am planning to go MEL-DME and AMS-MEL later in May with EK/QF via DXB.

I want to order a classic upgrade for the return DXB-MEL leg.

Problem is that classic upgrades can only be ordered on a "Saver" or higher fares, not on "Sale". When I am trying to book a multi-city itinerary, the Qantas web-site wil only allow me to select either "Sale" fare for all flights or bumps me up to "Flexi". If I am booking a normal round-trip (not multi-city) flight either to/from DME or to/from AMS it will allow me to select "Sale" for the outbound flights (no upgrades there) and "Saver" for the return flights.

So I am thinking of trying the following, and please can someone let me know why this may not work:

1. Book a round-trip fare MEL-DME-MEL, "sale" on outbound, "saver" on return.
2. Request the upgrade on DXB-MEL leg of the return flight.
3. If they give me the upgrade, change the return itinerary to AMS-DXB-MEL

I will pay the cnage fee, which is still cheaper than booking all-flexi fare. Question is -- would changing the return itinerary cancel the upgrade?

Thanks a ton for your help!

 

[DeKa]

You should call and ask to book Saver in both ways if you can see it's there.
I've done this before and had the phone booking fee waived.

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF _mo_.

So I am thinking of trying the following, and please can someone let me know why this may not work:

1. Book a round-trip fare MEL-DME-MEL, "sale" on outbound, "saver" on return.
2. Request the upgrade on DXB-MEL leg of the return flight.
3. If they give me the upgrade, change the return itinerary to AMS-DXB-MEL

I will pay the cnage fee, which is still cheaper than booking all-flexi fare. Question is -- would changing the return itinerary cancel the upgrade?

Thanks a ton for your help!

Your upgrade request on Qantas is not going to clear at best until ~3 days from return leg so that leaves changing the return leg quite late.

Also I am not so sure you can change the itinerary and still keep the upgrade request in place.

 

[Anna]

I want to order a classic upgrade for the return DXB-MEL leg.

Welcome to AFF.

You can't 'order' a classic upgrade on an international flight. You can request an upgrade if your fare class is eligible and you are on a QF plane and QF flight number. QF will let you know whether your upgrade request is successful around 24 hours before you fly - possibly a bit earlier, but sometimes even later. But you definitely can't confirm an international points upgrade at the time of booking. So that leaves you very short notice to change your return flight leg to AMS - DXB and you might even find there is no availability at such short notice.

 

[eminere]

I want to order a classic upgrade for the return DXB-MEL leg.

You might already know this but make sure that flight is operated by QF.

 

[_mo_]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I ended up doing the following:

1. Ordered MEL-DME-MEL return flights, outbound "sale", return "saver" (eligible for upgrade).
2. Called the customer service to change the return flights from DME to AMS, got that for $140 extra.
3. Requested the upgrade on the return led DXB-MEL (QF10, on QF metal).
4. Crossed the fingers for the upgrade to come through

All in all it saved me about $800, and I still have a chance of an upgrade.

I will let you know if I get lucky

Thanks again and safe travels.