Hi all,
I have recently booked return flights to Dallas, Texas in the USA travelling with Qantas from Perth, with a connecting flight in Sydney.
Flights are in September 2017.
I am the only one travelling, and I have booked economy seats for the whole trip.
My wife recently let me know that she has about 300k worth of Qantas points, and I have about 45k worth of points, so between us I could -theoretically - upgrade to business for the SYD-DALLAS leg.
On the qantas site, this is about 11ok points (from memory) to go from economy to business each way.
However, when I go to ‘manage booking’ in qantas FF, it comes up as ‘unavailable’. I booked through the qantas website directly originally, and looking at the fare it appears to be an ‘O’ class, which is considered the discounted fare that ‘can’t’ be upgraded.
Any thoughts on getting around this? Cancelling the SYD-DALLAS leg and rebooking it under premium economy?
Bit of a stretch though considering I may not get the upgrade.
Hoping to get some other ideas as how I can try and use these points in this trip.
I am a poorly bronze class QFF.
Thanks for your help.
Hi Stanno,
The only real way to do what you’re thinking of doing is to call Qantas (or your travel agent if you booked through one) and pay the fare difference to upgrade your flights from their current O class to S class or higher. Anything lower than S class in economy falls into the discount economy fare basis which as you’ve discovered is non-upgradeable.
Once you pay that fare difference and upgrade, your ticket will take on the fare rules of that new higher booking class and you will be eligible to request an upgrade. As you’ve pointed out, you could also pay the fare difference up to premium economy as well, and then request an upgrade from premium to business which will suck up much less points.
To be honest I would think premium economy is the best thing for you to do, as your chances as a bronze frequent flyer for the upgrade would be low. September is a reasonably peak-ish season, and bearing in mind that from an S class economy fare you would be out-ranked by nearly everyone on the aircraft for that upgrade. It’s highly likely that if you paid the fare difference to an upgrade-eligible economy fare and don’t get it, then you’ve just paid an extra $400 or whatever for something you didn’t get. Whereas if you upgrade your ticket to premium economy a) you will now have a better upgrade priority to business class and b) even if you don’t get the upgrade, at least the money you’ve paid has got you something extra and you’ll be much more comfortable on the 15 hour flight.
Hope that helps!