Upgrades on Emirates or Qatar

[dvt]

I'm currently booked with Qatar to London in Y. I am hoping for the option to bid for an upgrade to J but I am reading lots of threads highlighting the cost to upgrade on Qatar are pretty high and poor value.

On the other hand I am reading that upgrades on Emirates are more reasonable and common. They also appear to hand out more op ups or free upgrades.

Given that the lounge situation in Doha is pretty poor, I am considering paying the $360 USD cancellation fee with Qatar and booking onto Emirates for a better lounge experience or greater chance of upgrades (free or paid).

I am currently OWE and will be flying from Melbourne on 17th April.

Any thoughts or suggestions on my situation are greatly appreciated!

 

[Forg]

Can you get into an EK lounge flying Y on an EK ticket, with OWE membership?
The thing about the free upgrade is that you don't know if you'll get it, and the chances are less than 50:50, so you do have to plan for Y.

*edit*
Typo fixed; ta kelvedon (and for answer too).

 

[kelvedon]

Can you get into an EY lounge flying Y on an EY ticket, with OWE membership?
The thing about the free upgrade is that you don't know if you'll get it, and the chances are less than 50:50, so you do have to plan for Y.

Yes you can access the EK lounge in Dubai
flying Y if you are QF gold
I presume you meant Emirates

 

[SYD]

My recent QR experience of J -> F upgrade offers was particularly poor value IMHO (~$2k per sector on SYD-DOH-CDG x4 A380). Whilst not QSuites, the J hard and soft product are both very good on the A380.

But the step improvement from whY to J might be a lot different proposition. Even if it means using the OWE Lounge in DOH, 14 hrs in J v Y is probably more important than a 2 hr layover?

Of course, if you’re a QF OWE than you can use the EK DXB 1st Lounges regardless of class of travel.