Will Qantas always fill premium cabins with upgrade requests?

[Flyboi420]

Potentially silly question, but is it safe to assume that most of the time if a business or PE seat is available, and someone has requested classic upgrade rewards, the seat would get filled?

In what scenarios would they not take the points and put the passenger in a seat that otherwise would’ve been empty?

 

[Warragul]

You may get varied responses to thse questions. Ive been on long haul QF flights with a few business class seats empty and no indication that they were not to be used so maybe they don't fill them up all the time. But I assume they would fill them.

The scenario for not filling is (perhaps) make the cabin surrounds less crowded for those who paid a J class fare, but I can't see that happening a lot of the time. Weight limitation perhaps?

At the end of the day we're making educated guesses based off our experience.

 

[serfty]

A decade ago, there would often be many seats in premium cabins vacant.

These days those seats are "monetised" fully and generally with Qantas' "as late as the gate" upgrades, it is rare an operational premium seat is vacant on departure. They will upgrade from the queue until there are no more possible.

 

[SYD]

A decade ago, there would often be many seats in premium cabins vacant.

These days those seats are "monetised" fully and generally with Qantas' "as late as the gate" upgrades, it is rare an operational premium seat is vacant on departure.

I have an up coming CR whY flight that look pretty full in J and PE (via seat map and fare availability) months out but we still received an email to do a classic upgrade 3 wks out and the a Bid upgrade 2 wks out!

I don’t recall ever receiving a Bid offer on a CR seat before.

Anyway, we’ll see what it’s like on the day.

 

[justinbrett]

I have an up coming CR whY flight that look pretty full in J and PE (via seat map and fare availability) months out but we still received an email to do a classic upgrade 3 wks out and the a Bid upgrade 2 wks out!

I don’t recall ever receiving a Bid offer on a CR seat before.

Anyway, we’ll see what it’s like on the day.

You can just go to the link whether you get an email or not. Unless you’re on a non upgradable fare you can bid for any flight.

 

[Quickstatus]

In what scenarios would they not take the points and put the passenger in a seat that otherwise would’ve been empty?

The only scenario would be that the seat was broken.
I wonder if shadows are even a thing anymore where a "VVVIP" might have an adjacent seat blocked off - occupied by their shadow.

 

[elanshin]

Out of a dozen medium - long haul QF flights ive only had 2 that J wasn't full.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Don't forget that you have to upgrade everyone or no one on a booking.
I know I have often had success with upgrade requests - and even scored a few OPUPs - because I've been a solo PAX.
So I think sometimes single seats may be unfilled because there are no solo PAX upgrade requests to fill them.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I wonder if shadows are even a thing anymore where a "VVVIP" might have an adjacent seat blocked off - occupied by their shadow.

I think they are only a thing in business on the B737 or A321 etc where the business seat is just a slightly wider recliner.
Otherwise they only exist in economy.

 

[Josh]

I think the answer is generally "yes", but a few circumstances I've noted over the last few years:

1. We flew on a full J cabin to JNB last year. Unfortunately our seats were broken and couldn't automatically recline. But fortunately, there was two pax who missed their connecting flights, so we were able to move into their seats. So it seems QF won't necessarily fill seats if it's from a missed connection.

2. Working in the industry pre-covid, I noted that they would often (but maybe not always) leave 1 J seat free, and this was often filled by staff travellers.

 

[HMcM]

I've limited experience but from a trip over to the US earlier in the year MEL-DFW-MEL booked in PE
MEL-DFW: Upgrade request granted a couple of days before (as NB I has pretty happy with that), I had an empty seat next to me in business.
DFW-MEL: Upgrade not granted, during the flight I did notice that there were at least 2 empty business seats, maybe I just didn't select gate upgrade for that flight? Or nobody else put in for an upgrade? Wasn't too fussed as I ended up having nobody sitting next to me in PE so was pretty comfy.