why buy a ticket then upgrade?

[darkice]

Hi guys, not a big flyer so don't quite understand all the tips and tricks. I'm wondering what the advantage is of buying a ticket then upgrading? Isn't it better to get a reward seat in the first place?

Is it because lack of points?

Am I missing something?

 

[Febs]

Lack of points, availability of award seats, could be one of hundreds of reasons.

Keep in mind corporate travellers travel on someone else's dime most of the time too. So work pays for J, you use your own points to upgrade to F, for example.

Cheers,
Febs.

 

[andye]

Some reasons:

A Y ticket will usually include most of the taxes payable. So if you upgrade the cost is usually only the points specified with little or no copay.

Some companies will only pay for Y/Y+ and traveller may want to travel J/F

A reward flight isn't available at the time you want to fly. Upgrade availability may come in later but you can't wait until that last-minute reward availability comes in

Not enough points at the time

Need the ~/eligible sectors/SCs from base fare

You are not flying QFi (where the upgrade process is a skewed lottery with an expensive ticket) and can guarantee the upgrade at booking

 

[Denali]

Im not a frequent flyer like most here but when flying on reward seats, I/hubby will not get sector recognition, status credits or points. If I/my employer buys a Y+ or Y seat and I use points to upgrade, I get the former at original ticket purchase so it helps maintain flyer status.

 

[YSSY]

Current employer pays for flexi Y, so upgrading uses few points and is worthwhile. Normally the points earned on the flexi-Y ticket just about covers the upgrade...

 

[andye]

Hadn't realised this was in the VFF thread so copay less of an issue

Another reason is if you have free Platinum upgrades

 

[dmitri]

it depends on the situation I suppose. I flew to vegas for a 4 day bucks party. I bought cheap red-e deal Y tickets and used points to upgrade to J. My reasoning was I would't be getting much sleep for the next 4 days so having a flat bed would help on the way out, then battling a 4 day bender hang over on the return in economy would be the closest to hell I could imagine, so again the flat bed was a god send.

 

[darkice]

Thanks guys

Makes much more sense to me now

I guess when you're flying long distance and on premium economy or higher the status credits are a big bonus.

 

[Ausbt]

it depends on the situation I suppose. I flew to vegas for a 4 day bucks party

Presume you are intending to post up a detailed TR of that one, with pics?

 

[Mattg]

It can also offer better value for your points. For example, a standard SYD-MEL flight costs $155 (though could be as low as $99 during a sale). A business class ticket costs roughly $725. So, if you pay for a cheap economy ticket then upgrade with 10,000 points then you effectively get 5.7 cents per point in value. A business reward seat costs 16,000 points plus about $32 in taxes. So the effective point value is 4.3 cents per point. And naturally the difference will be larger if you snagged the economy seat during a sale.

(Either way, both are an excellent use of points.)

 

[dmitri]

Presume you are intending to post up a detailed TR of that one, with pics?

We did a hang over style viewing, looked at the photos once then deleted all evidence, mostly out of shame