Upgrading J to F on QF11

[wanderer_au]

All,

I'll be flying for work in J on QF11, from SYD through to JFK in mid-late January. After a few days, I'll fly AA from NY to DC (I prefer flying in to DCA, I'm such a tourist) and I'm open about how I come home - either AA to DFW, and then QF8, or back to NYC and QF12 all the way home.

I'm going to treat myself to an F points upgrade bid for one of the flights across the pond.

Planning to try for SYD-LAX, because I'll also be able to try out the SYD F lounge, which I've never been inside before.

ExpertFlyer's seat map says three F seats are taken, but the rest appear empty.

Is this normal this far out? Is it a good omen, or should I write the exercise off because the award seats might have already been allocated?

Will the freezing weather in NYC and sunny Australian summers successfully combine to repel other potential upgraders? J looks pretty full on my flight, as opposed to Y, Y+ and F, so that's a bit of a worry.

All advice would be extremely welcome - I've never flown F and would really love to. All suggestions welcome. Cheers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

All,

I'll be flying for work in J on QF11, from SYD through to JFK in mid-late January. After a few days, I'll fly AA from NY to DC (I prefer flying in to DCA, I'm such a tourist) and I'm open about how I come home - either AA to DFW, and then QF8, or back to NYC and QF12 all the way home.

I'm going to treat myself to an F points upgrade bid for one of the flights across the pond.

Planning to try for SYD-LAX, because I'll also be able to try out the SYD F lounge, which I've never been inside before.

ExpertFlyer's seat map says three F seats are taken, but the rest appear empty.

Is this normal this far out? Is it a good omen, or should I write the exercise off because the award seats might have already been allocated?

Will the freezing weather in NYC and sunny Australian summers successfully combine to repel other potential upgraders? J looks pretty full on my flight, as opposed to Y, Y+ and F, so that's a bit of a worry.

All advice would be extremely welcome - I've never flown F and would really love to. All suggestions welcome. Cheers.

The number of allocated seats is not a reflection of loading on the flight, especially this far in advance. Some passengers don't reserve seats at the time of booking.

You have nothing to lose by putting in an upgrade. If you are platinum or platinum 1 you may have a good chance. There will likely be other plats and P1s already on the upgrade waiting list.

 

[SeatBackForward]

The number of allocated seats is not a reflection of loading on the flight, especially this far in advance. Some passengers don't reserve seats at the time of booking.

You have nothing to lose by putting in an upgrade. If you are platinum or platinum 1 you may have a good chance. There will likely be other plats and P1s already on the upgrade waiting list.

I'll take a punt the OP isn't platinum from the "never been in SYD FLounge" before note.

The OP might want to check out the lounge thread to see if anyone can offer a spot on the particular day also.

 

[legroom]

".... Award seats have already been allocated ....."

Don't think so

My SMS didn't arrive until T-60 or so (WP).

Prior to that, EF showed only one seat taken.

I logged in about 5 min after the SMS seeing 2 more seats had been taken (? WP1, ? faster keyboard warrior).

At T-24 all middle F seats were vacant but on departure they were filled up.

Good luck !

 

[wanderer_au]

Thanks all. Alas I am only SG, but will bid for upgrades on both SYD-LAX and DFW-SYD. In for a penny...

Checking out the lounge guest thread is a good idea too - a back up if the upgrade doesn't work.

One possible reason it's so busy in J is because I'm going to events in NYC and DC that are being sponsored by QF, and they are offering dissos to, and I think have put aside seats for, sponsors (ie my shop). Therefore my thinking (and hope) is that J is busier because a larger than usual number of people will be in J on that flight, in order to go to the same events that I will be attending.

We'll see soon enough!!

 

[amaroo]

Best of luck. We were extremly lucky when the lottery gods upgraded the four of us from J > F on QF11 mid Dec 2013.

 

[emeline]

Hello! I recently upgraded from J to F on both QF11 and QF12 as a SG. Look at the loadings as opposed to the seat map - it'll give you a better idea at how many seats are remaining.

On QF11 the loadings stayed at F9 A8 until about a week before the flight and then slowly went down to F4 A0, and then at T-28 I got the wonderful text message.

I didn't think I had a hope of getting the upgrade on QF12 - I had to re request my upgrade when I had to push my flight by a couple of days for medical reasons. At the time I changed my flights (about 48 hours before the flight) the loading was F1 A0. Then about 30 hours before the flight I got a text message saying my upgrade was successful. I still find it strange I was upgraded - perhaps Qantas were doing it because I had been unwell, or perhaps it was just luck.

It's definitely worth the points though, F was wonderful! Put your upgrade request in for both ways, and then if you don't get upgraded on the way over you still have a chance on the way back