When to Buy an Upgrade Using Qantas FF Points

[bertair]

My wife wants to book a sleeper for a long leg (SYD/DBX, rtn) with Qantas or Emirates on a trip to Europe.
Between us we have well over 150K Qantas FF Points.
Looking at the QF web site when we try to book Business Class Seats using our Points, it returns invariably: None Available.
If we try to book and pay,there are no problems choosing a flight.
In either case this is for flights well over 6 months into the future by the way.
A colleague suggests that we book a flight in economy for a flight of our choosing using cash or credit card, then applying for an upgrade and pay with our points the difference closer to the time of departure. He says we should have no trouble getting the upgrade.
I guess it also depends on how far ahead one should try to do this I guess.
This seems to me a gamble as it is possible that we could be stuck with ECY seats if there are no Business Class available when we go to get an upgrade using our points.
We would either have a choice of paying (not using points) for the upgrade or cancelling the flights, then trying to get other flights where it may be possible to get an upgrade with our points.Thus we would have the points still unused when we departed, but having to pay out full fares for Business Class seats.

The way Qantas seems be be sending the wrong signals, or a least the media reporting about its future, we are looking to make the most our points that we have been saving for such a trip and not see them devalued or lost as is possible any time soon I fear.
I may be wrong about this, but while Qantas has been great in the past, times are tough and unless they are getting Full Fare paying passengers, any users of their points are being discouraged by the harsh rules and difficulty in making what should be a simple reservation procedure, so frustrating.
Advice on what to do is welcomed please.

 

[yohy?!]

sadly 150k is not going to get you 2 return tickets in business class to dubai.

you can get 1 return premium economy classic award for 144k plus taxes/fines

https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/do/dyns/auth/PointsRedeemed

there should be better availability in premium economy also.

 

[Newk]

Hi Bertair

Lots of things to discuss here. I am sure others will chip in.
The QFF classic awards are snapped up fairly quickly and you will find a lot of people on here watch the clock tick over (at 0000 GMT I THINK, a certain number of days out).
Despite that I have looked at six months out, ticking the flexible with dates box and see a reasonable availability.
Another tip if you don't find availability on days you want is to try different departure cities. So instead of Sydney, try Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth or Brisbane and worry about getting there if the need arises. If doing this though be very aware of the *your flight from x to y is in economy".
Buying economy and applying for points upgrade is a valid tactic BUT it is lottery and you may not find out until just before your flight; you need to be very careful that your fare bucket is upgradeable; and it is status dependent.
Possibly paying for premium economy and applying for a points upgrade will suit you.
Note also that a return business flight SYD/DXB is 192,000 points per person. This can be found out by doing a dummy booking and I am sure that there are tables somewhere too. So your plan may need some modification.
Please spend some time reading through AFF and you will find many tips about all of this stuff, possibly including tips on how to increase your points tally. You may also find many similar questions and the answers thereto.

 

[Limewood]

You could also consider getting cheap flights to Hong Kong and fly to Europe from there, many seat available from there on Cathay pacific and Emirates. As said 150K QFF points don't go very far.

 

[boylero]

at approx 1.6m points I guess you can appreciate what 150k points will get you,

 

[bertair]

at approx 1.6m points I guess you can appreciate what 150k points will get you,

????? What has 1.6 m points got to do with the question ?? My 150+ points is per passenger... Just checked and have something like 400 K, so that should be enough, with points left over !

 

[drewbles]

????? What has 1.6 m points got to do with the question ?? My 150+ points is per passenger... Just checked and have something like 400 K, so that should be enough, with points left over !

I can only assume the 1.6m is an ASA (Any Seat Award), or JASA as we call them here (Business Any Seat).

QF releases inventory at 353 days out, with premium (Business and First) usually the first to be snapped up. Silver, Gold, Platinum, Platinum 1 and Chairmans lounge members will have better availability than a Bronze member, and Platinum and above can request for classic award inventory to be made available (which i've had 100% success with).

Unfortunately, 6 months is 'soon' in QF world. Have you tried playing around with the award booking engine and selecting the option to be flexible with dates? You should see a calendar with coloured 'seats', perhaps showing business availability for you as a Classic award.

Seats for Sale != Seats available for Classic Awards though unfortunately, and QF typically don't release more seats 'closer to departure'. Your only options really are:

- Be flexible with your dates (and hope something is available)
- Buy a fare that's upgradeable (cheapest fares are not eligible) and play the 'upgrade lottery' (ie, you're behind Chairmans Lounge, Platinum 1, Platinum, Gold and Silver Frequent Flyers in the upgrade list)
- Consider flying another airline

The last one isn't as mad as it seems. Some airlines do stunning Business fares to Europe these days, and as others have mentioned, if you don't mind slumming it in economy up to Asia, you can find even better deals, and save your QF FF points for later (and plan a year or so out).