Qantas International Flight Business Upgrade Help I Am Drowning

knobbs on 09/01/2018 - 12:00
Last edited 09/01/2018 - 12:02

The wife and I will be travelling to the US/Canada for 5 weeks later this year (if she ever gets leave approved, bloody QLD Health). Doing San Fran, Big Sur, LA, LV, Zion, Disneyland/Universal and all that. Possibly New York if it doesn't work out too expensive to fly from one coast to the other and back for a few days.

I am looking at possibly getting business class over to the US/Canada, whichever we fly into 1st, probably Canada. We have 75k Virgin, 230k Qantas, 100k amex ascent points. So I was trying to look into how to get some business upgrades through Qantas but jeez it is very confusing. Reading through this link it seems you have to have a high status and Qantas club to be in the running to upgrade. At the same time though need to buy a more expensive ticket to reduce the points cost a lot, gamble much?

Seeing as neither of us have any status with an airline I have almost written it off. However my father has Gold + Qantas club. Is there a way we can transfer him points (family transfer). He then requests for flight upgrades on his account but for our tickets?

I am open to any other suggestions people might have in use of the points we have.

Hoping to travel over in business rather than back in business, gotta start it in style.
Any tips for flights between US/Canda/New York while over there. Book everything at once same airline, book international separate then US/Canada/NY separately?

PS. Last year we flew to Germany via Singapore on Singapore Airlines business (thank you Mr Amex). Are Qantas going to be anything similar to that?

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Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 09/01/2018 - 12:15
    -3

    Bye….

    • knobbs on 09/01/2018 - 12:27
      -2

      Cya

      • [Deactivated] on 09/01/2018 - 12:37
        -2

        Hi….

  • theoracle30 on 09/01/2018 - 12:19
    +1

    Transferring to your father won't help - depends on the status of the travellers in most cases (except is someone has Platinum One, in which case they can use their status for other people).

    Best bet is to book Business awards outright, but you'll have to be very flexible with dates and routes and carriers, as it's a premium route with little availability. Try weekdays, off-peaks seasons etc. For example, there's often very good availability on New Year's Eve or Christmas Eve, I've previously found.

    • knobbs on 09/01/2018 - 12:31

      Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately though as she works for QLD health she has almost 0 flexibility. She applied for dates in November last year and they still can't tell her whether she will be able to take. We are looking at around end of August through to September

  • Halo375 on 09/01/2018 - 12:58
    +1

    Buying an upgrade with points is not as hard as you may think. Generally Qantas will do their best to sell every business class seat. As they get closer to the date, they will then start allocating upgrades in order of status. I was a lowly Gold status flyer but managed to upgrade from economy to business 3 times over the past few years.

    The best you can do is give it a try, nothing is guaranteed. Try though to get a flight on the largest plane possible like an A380 - more business class seats, more chances of getting that upgrade.

  • keepa on 10/01/2018 - 08:57

    Flying mid week will increase your chances of getting an upgrade because the business travel load is typically lower. You can also put in 2 requests, the business request and a Y (economy) to W (premium economy) upgrade request which could be successful.

    A friend with 0 status got his Y>W upgrade request last year flying MEL>LAX on the a380 during a midweek flight. However in saying that, your upgrade request will be at the very bottom of the pile.

    Also note that the red-e deal fares are not always upgrade-able.

    • knobbs on 10/01/2018 - 09:29

      What is premium economy like? I thought it was basically another name for exit aisle with extra food or something.

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