QANTAS: introduces confirmed upgrades with cash

Qantas has added a new way to upgrade your seat that takes the element of chance out. Confirmed Upgrades is a fixed-price cash upgrade offer for selected passengers on selected Qantas flights, with confirmation (or not) within half a day.

This becomes the third form of upgrade you can use with Qantas.

• Confirmed Upgrades – invite-only cash upgrades, confirmed within 12 hours
• Classic Upgrade Rewards – use points to join a waitlist
• Bid Now Upgrades – an auction-style offer of points and/or cash

The selling point is the ability to have certainty about Confirmed Upgrades within a defined period. It reduces the chance element.

How Confirmed Upgrades work

Confirmed Upgrades are not available to everyone and are not available on every flight. Eligible passengers may receive an email invitation, see an offer in Manage Booking, or find it in the Qantas App under My Trips.

If the offer appears, you can accept it, pay the fixed cash price and wait for confirmation. The offer is time-limited and subject to availability.

Confirmed Upgrades may be offered to Premium Economy, Business or First, depending on the aircraft, route and cabin availability. The upgrade applies only to the specific flight segment included in the offer, not necessarily your entire itinerary.

International Economy Sale fares are not eligible, and neither are Qantas Group Travel bookings.

Where confirmed upgrades sit in the pecking order

Qantas’ traditional upgrade hierarchy gives Classic Upgrade Rewards the highest priority. being processed ahead of Bid Now Upgrades. They are prioritised according to factors including frequent flyer status, fare type and timing.

For example, a Platinum One member on a more expensive fare sits well ahead of a Bronze member on a cheaper fare.

Bid Now Upgrades sit behind Classic Upgrade Rewards. These allow eligible passengers to make an offer using cash or a combination of cash and points. Qantas processes Classic Upgrade Rewards first. Only after those have been dealt with are Bid Now Upgrades considered.

Confirmed Upgrades are different again. They are neither a request nor a bid. They are a take-it-or-leave-it cash offer. Confirmed Upgrades can effectively jump the queue in practice because those seats are removed from the pool before many waitlisted points and bid upgrades are finalised.

Advantage for travellers

For ordinary travellers, this is a useful new option because it turns the upgrade question into a simple value decision.

Is Premium Economy worth another few hundred dollars on a long overnight sector? What about Business? Is it worth paying extra for on a route where sleep matters? How about First Class? Is it worth whatever eye-watering number appears on the screen? That becomes a personal calculation, and not a status-driven lottery.

It also gives successful passengers earlier certainty. You know where you are sitting, can select from available seats in the upgraded cabin, and can plan around the better baggage, lounge and onboard benefits.

The catches

First, you need to be selected. You cannot simply request/demand a Confirmed Upgrade.

Second, Qantas has not published a neat public table of upgrade prices. The amount will vary by route, cabin, flight loads and probably how much Qantas thinks it can get away with.

Third, you earn Qantas Points and Status Credits based on your original fare, not the upgraded cabin.

Fourth, this adds another layer of complexity to an already opaque system. Qantas now has Classic Upgrade Rewards, Bid Now Upgrades, Domestic On Departure Upgrades and Confirmed Upgrades. And, we don’t know precisely how the priority within those upgrade categories works. For example, we don’t know who will be offered Confirmed Upgrades and why.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is a good addition to the upgrade landscape. It will make us, the passengers, think quickly and hard about whether we value an upgrade, and for how much. Only if our valuation accords with the price Qantas allocates will it be appealing.

I think this story is still unfolding. I suggest watching your socials and posts in specialised Qantas groups to see what the experience is like, and with that information, we may be able to piece together a profile of who gets offered upgrades and at what price.

Whatever way you look at this, Qantas is establishing a new income stream. The question is, will it come at the expense of points upgrades?