Simple (?) Emirates upgrade question

[juddles]

Hi there all,

have a relatively simple question, and probably no solution exists, but thought I would put it out there:

In a month or so I am flying from BNE to sth America - the ticket was purchased via an online agency, and the first leg is BNE-AKL on QF8770 - this is a codeshare - it is an Emirates A380 aircraft.

I am flying in business - the ticket booked into I class.

I am aware that it is not possible to do a points upgrade of a QF ticket if it is not QF metal. But I wanted to know if there is any way I could attempt an upgrade to F? That would be an amazing experience for me, even if it is a relatively short flight.

I am QF WP.

 

[opusman]

If you have EK points you can ask for an upgrade at the airport (unlike QF they allow ODU on international flights), although I'm not sure if that's possible when booked on a QF code.

 

[Mattg]

I'm not aware of any way to upgrade with points in your situation. I guess it probably wouldn't hurt to ask at checkin if they would sell you a last-minute cash upgrade (subject to availability) though?

 

[juddles]

... I guess it probably wouldn't hurt to ask at checkin if they would sell you a last-minute cash upgrade (subject to availability) though?...

I have recently got expertflyer subscription but just not sure how to use it yet - am I able to check how many seats are available in F?

(BTW, the flight is 13th April, QF8770 = EK434)

 

[Mattg]

I have recently got expertflyer subscription but just not sure how to use it yet - am I able to check how many seats are available in F?

(BTW, the flight is 13th April, QF8770 = EK434)

Expert Flyer won't tell you the exact number of F seats available, but it does give a pretty good indication.

I did a "flight availability" search for your flight (QF8770 on 13/4) and it come up with this:

F4 A4 J7 C7 D7 I7 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9

Basically, F is "flex" first class and A is "First saver". J, C, D and I are Business fare classes (in order from most to least expensive) and the rest are economy. 4 is the maximum number of F class seats that EF will display (for Emirates, anyway) while 7 is the max for Business and 9 for Economy. So a "4" for the "A" fare class basically implies that there are still plenty of available seats. In fact, the entire plane appears lightly loaded.

If you were to check again the day before the flight and there was still "A" availability, that would be a pretty good indicator that there are still empty First seats.

 

[pomkiwi]

I'm not aware of any way to upgrade with points in your situation. I guess it probably wouldn't hurt to ask at checkin if they would sell you a last-minute cash upgrade (subject to availability) though?

They will be happy to sell you the upgrade but it will be at the cost of the full fare difference and almost certainly with a change fee based on your ticket T&Cs.