Immediate upgrade paying with cash vs points booking?

[Rusty776]

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on the upgrade process. In the past I’ve booked a domestic flight payed with cash and was able to immediately upgrade with points. I’ve made a recent domestic booking with points for economy but have been waitlisted for an upgrade. Is it as simple as paying cash vs points for domestic flight upgrades?
Thanks

 

[mviy]

For domestic if there are classic award seats available for business on that flight you should be able to immediately upgrade, I think. However, if you applied for the upgrade before your flights were ticketed the automatic upgrade wouldn’t work.

Though seeing you booked a points economy seat and are looking to upgrade that probably means there were no business class award seats available which would explain why you are on a waitlist.

 

[RichardMEL]

Yes, ticket booking needs to be fully ticketed before upgrading and remember there are not always U seats available for instant confirmation hence waitlist. However because QF is "Consistently Inconsistent(tm)" there is a known glitch where sometimes where the inventory exists the upgrade will not process and requires to either resubmit, or have it manually processed by an agent.

So as above check that the flight has J award space showing for the number of pax required. If so and still waitlist probably call QF (or try cancel the request and resubmit). If no J reward seats showing as available then WL it is.