Upgrade to Business on international flight

[michael9]

I am looking to fly to Europe later in the year and wanted to purchase an economy class ticket and then use points to do an immediate upgrade to business.
the way i understand Qantas to work is that you take your chances and see if an upgrade is available closer to your time of travel. Is this correct?
wheras I believe you can purchase a ticket with Singapore, and upgrade immediately.
any others like this?
Thanks

 

[opusman]

the way i understand Qantas to work is that you take your chances and see if an upgrade is available closer to your time of travel. Is this correct?

With Qantas you take your chances and basically find out at the airport (or, several hours before the flight.)

Other airline schemes may be different - from my own experience I know that MH/NW let you confirm a points upgrade in advance.

 

[michael9]

thanks, but what is MH/NW??

 

[mr_greg444]

thanks, but what is MH/NW??

MH is Malaysian Airlines
NW is Northwest Airlines

 

[tuapekastar]

thanks, but what is MH/NW??

MH is the IATA airline designator code for Malaysian Airlines, NW is same for Northwest Airlines.

This site can help with 'decoding' most airline (and airport) codes.

 

[Sprucegoose]

With Qantas you take your chances and basically find out at the airport (or, several hours before the flight.)

Other airline schemes may be different - from my own experience I know that MH/NW let you confirm a points upgrade in advance.

where does QP life stand in the order of importance these days?

 

[drron]

where does QP life stand in the order of importance these days?

Just above non-member of QFF from experience.

 

[Mal]

where does QP life stand in the order of importance these days?

Somewhere around silver? Either same, above or below. Not really sure these days.

 

[MelUser]

A clue to the status of Qantas Club Life passengers was gleaned by some travel recently undertaken by 2 friends (both QC life bronze qff though). They booked on BA in discount economy and their travel agent was able to get their seats preassigned. Then the booking was changed and a third person added - a non-Qantas Club member and QFF bronze.

The travel agent remarked that the booking had lost its premium passenger status with the addition of the 3rd person. All seat assignments were deleted by BA and all passengers were consigned to the pool of discount Y, non-tier status heap where seat allocations are done by BA 72 hours before flight departure.

What does this mean - QC Life must at least give you the one world equivalent status where BA allows preallocation of seats for discount economy travellers.

I have always suspected that QC Life makes you the equivalent of a Gold FF (not that QF would admit this publicly but if you have worked for any major corporations in the last 5 years the thrust on computer systems has been to make everything simple - ie cut down choices/categories to as few as possible).

Does anyone know at what one world status level BA starts allowing pre seating of discount Y travellers? This may well yield the answer.

 

[Dave Noble]

A clue to the status of Qantas Club Life passengers was gleaned by some travel recently undertaken by 2 friends (both QC life bronze qff though). They booked on BA in discount economy and their travel agent was able to get their seats preassigned. Then the booking was changed and a third person added - a non-Qantas Club member and QFF bronze.

The travel agent remarked that the booking had lost its premium passenger status with the addition of the 3rd person. All seat assignments were deleted by BA and all passengers were consigned to the pool of discount Y, non-tier status heap where seat allocations are done by BA 72 hours before flight departure.

What does this mean - QC Life must at least give you the one world equivalent status where BA allows preallocation of seats for discount economy travellers.

I have always suspected that QC Life makes you the equivalent of a Gold FF (not that QF would admit this publicly but if you have worked for any major corporations in the last 5 years the thrust on computer systems has been to make everything simple - ie cut down choices/categories to as few as possible).

Does anyone know at what one world status level BA starts allowing pre seating of discount Y travellers? This may well yield the answer.

I suspect that there may have been something else at work there since when pre-allocated seatng is permitted , it is permitted for all passengers on the PNR even if only 1 person has the status

According to a BA staff member on the FT board, Qantas club shows in the BA system as Ruby for some reason.

BA does not auto allocate at 72 hours , passengers can select seats when OLCI opens

The status level needed to be able to pre-allocate seats is OW Sapphire

Dave

 

[cjg]

I'm not sure about other airlines, but as others have touched on, Qantas works on your frequent flyer status. Chairman/Platinum members, then Gold, Silver, Bronze.

Qantas' website has a pretty good explanation:

Frequent Flyer - Using Points - Flight Upgrades - About Flight Upgrades

Good luck in getting your upgrade and I hope your trip goes well.