Frequent Flyer Upgrades - Share Business or Not

Lbunnybash on 27/11/2018 - 19:05

My wife and our 2 kids (boys age 3 and 4) will be flying Qantas to America. We are flying from Perth to Los Angeles via Brisbane, so the Pacific leg is on the Dreamliner.

My question is this:
I have enough miles to upgrade

All 4 tickets of the BNE to LAX flight to Premium economy or
2 tickets to Business class for the BNE to LAX flight.

My ideal situation is getting enough miles to upgrade all the tickets but isn't likely. The second best scenario is this:

Upgrade 2 of the tickets to Business Class and I would take 1 of the boys in Business class and my wife would take the other boy in Economy. Halfway through the flight, we would switch seats. So I would go back to Economy and she would come up to Business. We would only do the switch once.

What are the odds of the flight crew being ok with this?

I'd love any feedback from any of you who have information that might be helpful for me.

Thanks!

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Comments

  • Sunny84 on 27/11/2018 - 19:20
    +1

    IMHO a toddler in business is a waste as they don't even use the benefits of business..

    Another option could be to upgrade one adult pax on each direction? That way you would get additional luggage allowance both ways if that's any value to you.

    • bunnybash on 27/11/2018 - 19:29

      The advantage is that they get to sleep properly laying down…
      My wife is American so we've flown this route waaaay too many times but this is the first time since the youngest was born.

      That is a good suggestion though just upgrade one adult or something for the luggage and also the sleep.

  • harthagan on 27/11/2018 - 19:42

    I like your idea (assuming the flight crew permit it)

    It will alow all 4 of you to get at least a good 6 hour sleep on a flat bed and reduces your time squished up in economy by 50%

    Id only go the alternative of 1 business seat each way if your primary concern is your luggage allowance

    • bunnybash on 27/11/2018 - 19:49

      Yeah, a lie-flat bed for 6ish hours is a huge boon, even for kids. I don't want to put up with tired crying kids while we wait for customs. Which we usually have to wait for ages as for some reason my real name throws up some false flags so sometimes I am detained for 2 hours and sometimes 7 hours… Freakin DHS being incompetent. It's hilarious - they used to tell me that if I got a specific visa it would fix the problem but it never did, they used to tell me to get "visa x" before coming again, so I did… then they would be staring at visa x in my passport while telling me that I needed to get one, when I pointed out that I did indeed have it, they would then reiterate my need to get visa X.

      So yeah having tired, grumpy kids while we wait for this shenanigans isn't appealing. Also, I'm concerned to see how it all goes now that the Orange Drumpfkin is in change… part of me thinks they may just put me on a flight home.

      Anyways… glad to hear that another person thinks my idea has some merit.

  • Seraphin7 on 27/11/2018 - 19:53
    +5

    AFAIK sharing of a business class seat in the way you've described is not allowed.

    • bunnybash on 27/11/2018 - 19:54

      OK - I figured that might be the case but I want to try to figure out for 100% certainty before ruling it out.

      • Enzalicious on 27/11/2018 - 21:53

        I've seen someone do this before when flying business with qantas. The flight attendant told the passenger as long as the named person was in the seat for takeoff and landing they'd permit it.

        Sounds like it may be at the discretion of the flight crew. Just ring qantas and ask.

        • spal on 28/11/2018 - 07:46

          I have done that with Malaysia. I was flying with my daughter. I received a bidding upgrade and she didn't. After takeoff I travelled in economy and the daughter in business. She didn't have to come back to economy though. Yes, I did ask for the crews permission.

  • Halo375 on 27/11/2018 - 21:10

    I would reckon its not allowed, however if you all changed in the middle of the night I don’t think the flight attendants would notice as they have less staff on at that time (or after a shift change).

  • wellglued14 on 27/11/2018 - 21:39

    I think it'd be worth a call to the service line to ask - you said you've done the trip heaps of times, do you have status with them?

    • bunnybash on 28/11/2018 - 10:46

      Yeah I might just call. I do have status but not as high as it once was before we had 2 kids.

  • hasselbladsnapper on 27/11/2018 - 21:40
    +2

    As a quite regular business flyer,and having seen passengers escorted back to economy instantly they try to enter the business section, I would expect cabin transhipping back and forth would not be tolerated!.
    Youngsters are uncommon in Business, and I suspect if you are unlucky enough to have a disturbed child seat swapping you may well have unhappy passengers in addition to the cabin crew. The all fly Premium Economy would be the best option, and the baggage allowance is normaly higher than Economy.

  • try2bhelpful on 27/11/2018 - 22:00

    When are you flying - do you have any chance of getting a credit card etc beforehand to get enough points to upgrade all of you?

  • Kenb0 on 28/11/2018 - 00:28

    Are you sure you'll get the upgrade? I thought that it was pretty much a lottery now if you don't have enough status, and even if you do have status, if someone else with higher status requests the upgrade, more chance they'll get it instead of you

  • JimmyF on 28/11/2018 - 07:52

    Kids in business class. Just don't do it. Thanks everyone else in Business class.

    • bunnybash on 28/11/2018 - 10:45

      My kids are epically well behaved. Able to sit quietly and know to just tell us if they have an issue. If I thought there was any chance that they would disturb anyone in business class I wouldn't do it.

  • harthagan on 28/11/2018 - 11:56

    I'm pretty sure if you enquire the official response will be no it's not allowed.

    It's probably one of those things that if you get the right flight crew and you do it politely/quietly they might not raise a fuss especially if its done during the time when everyone is asleep and the flight crew are generally not nearly as active.

    Just a thought.

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