Upgrading with miles

Time to fes up - I am a cheap wad.[:I] Based on this I have booked a Q ticket for my upcoming LHR-JNB trip. The logic being that I can watch and see how bookings pan out - if it is getting busy at the back pay for the Q-L change then throw miles at the problem to move forward. If both PE and Y are looking full, pay to move Q-S, and throw more miles to move to the front. If it is empty then stay put.

Rang FC today to see how their bookings were coming along. They are of course not totally forthcoming with their booking info, but did say that they are far from full at the back. Nevertheless, I decided to enqire about the cost of a paid upgrade to PE. To my surprise they were able to quote for a move from Q to K without having to pay anything for the move from Q to L, if you see what I mean. As for miles upgrades they said I would have to pay for Q-L on both legs, then use the miles. But then they said that in all likelyhood I could upgrade on the day either with a FCo voucher or with FC miles, and would at most need to pay for Q-L one way. She then added that on the day i would probably get away with even paying that. Now this really surprised me, as I thought that you could hardly do anything changes wise with a Q.

The question is, is what I have been told correct? It was the premier team after all.[oo]

[RichardMannion]

That is a bit hard to answer....

If you want to pay in advance to change up a class, then technically there is a change fee but most of the time it is waived as you are alrady giving them more revenue.

If you want to use miles, then yes you would need to pay to move to L.

When dealing with airports on the day of departure, to borrow a line from Snatch 'All bets are off' . Some will want you to pay to shift from Q to L, but then you may want to compare this with the cost of just doing an 'on day rev' upgrade. Airlines like cash even more than miles, given a choice of a cash upgrade or a mileage upgrade.... [:I] Think about it, your plane is busy and some crazy fool is offering your cash or miles to upgrade, course you will take them without the usual fare class requirements.

Think of Q class as the everyday Economy fare class [ii]

Hope this helps, let me know if you need clarfication.

Thanks,
Richard

Now you've got me thinking. So everything's negotiable[}:)]

I think I have a plan[i]:
1) I have the 10k in my FC a/c for a econ to PE upgrade
2) I get a PE to UC voucher from FCo
3) When I get to the airport I offer them a FC upgrade with 10000 miles to PE, although I also mention I am also thinking of upgrading to S with filthy lucre combined with a FCo voucher to UC.... (stopping to add cheeky smile to face) but my wallets only coming out if its a good deal.[ii]

Originally posted by sailor99
Time to fes up - I am a cheap wad.[:I] Based on this I have booked a Q ticket for my upcoming LHR-JNB trip. The logic being that I can watch and see how bookings pan out - if it is getting busy at the back pay for the Q-L change then throw miles at the problem to move forward. If both PE and Y are looking full, pay to move Q-S, and throw more miles to move to the front. If it is empty then stay put.

Rang FC today to see how their bookings were coming along. They are of course not totally forthcoming with their booking info, but did say that they are far from full at the back. Nevertheless, I decided to enqire about the cost of a paid upgrade to PE. To my surprise they were able to quote for a move from Q to K without having to pay anything for the move from Q to L, if you see what I mean. As for miles upgrades they said I would have to pay for Q-L on both legs, then use the miles. But then they said that in all likelyhood I could upgrade on the day either with a FCo voucher or with FC miles, and would at most need to pay for Q-L one way. She then added that on the day i would probably get away with even paying that. Now this really surprised me, as I thought that you could hardly do anything changes wise with a Q.

The question is, is what I have been told correct? It was the premier team after all.[oo]

But how can you 'keep an eye on how bookings are going'? It isn't as if you can see how many seats are unsold at any particular time? At least, not unless you're selling them...

You cannot see exactly how many tickets are available. But you can get an idea of how full the flight is by looking at expertflyer.com. See the expertflyer forum on this site for more info.

Originally posted by sailor99
You cannot see exactly how many tickets are available. But you can get an idea of how full the flight is by looking at expertflyer.com. See the expertflyer forum on this site for more info.

Aha! Again, thanks....