Regarding upgrades on QF, does Flex Economy get upgraded first over Economy fare?

Regarding upgrades on QF, does Flex Economy get upgraded first over Economy fare? Presuming all things around status being equal.

No I don't think, but it's cheaper to upgrade from flex

It is whole mystery and lottery. No transparent explanation was ever given by Qantas. Though common wisdom says that pax with higher status have better chances, single travelers have better chances, middle-age travelers (not too old and definitely not kids) have better chances. How those criteria overlap and mixes only Qantas knows. Good Luck.

"middle-age travelers (not too old and definitely not kids) have better chances"

First time we've ever heard that one – what would somebody's age have to do with it?

Status, most definitely. Number of passengers on the booking, of course – say, if there are only x number of seats available for passengers to upgrade into. But age? I'd highly doubt it.

Simple – they not like to hassle themselves with elderly people and for sure do not like to see kids in business. Guaranteed.

Qantas doesn't like to "hassle themselves with elderly people"? Now we've heard everything...

Chris, I have all reasons to believe so. I was lucky enough to have voluntary airline upgrade more than once. My parents that flew Europe-Australia as least 4 times more then me never get such luxury. And I NEVER heard about such upgrade from any of my friends, though personally know young ones who indeed received an upgrade. It is simple business reason – who know if older passenger will ever flew again and they by statistics made more troubles anyway. Point upgrade is the same as voluntary upgrade – everything happens at airline discretion. Plus there even more reasons to take points from younger passengers – older could simply die with those points and never claim them. Harsh but true. Any business is harsh to people anyway.

And do not confuse (or do not imply that I confused) between rich old people that buying business seats and older ones that sitting at the back of the plane.

That's nonsense, Serg. Qantas are quite happy to have kids and 'elderly people' in business class, I do a lot of flying with QF J to Asia and the USA and see plenty of kids and 'seniors'. Their money or their points have exactly the same value to Qantas as yours or anybody elses. And you're completely wrong about "point upgrade is the same as voluntary upgrade – everything happens at airline discretion". No no no. Everything is done by computer these days, mainly based on your status, even the "voluntary upgrade" or "op-up" when you are at checkin or the lounge or the boarding gate and are upgraded from Y+ to J or J to F without even using points, that's mainly about there being overbooking and you have the status to be top on the QF "pax to upgrade" list.

Mal,

“Point upgrade is the same as voluntary upgrade” in sense that QF has sole decision what to do and you have no rights whatsoever to complain that someone has upgrade instead of you. Moreover I firmly believe that the same program picking candidates for both kind of upgrade at the same time simply giving absolute precedence to point upgrade. For them it does not matter from whom they drain those points – I am sure that they never have shortage of requests. So they pick candidates for upgrade based on the same rules as for voluntary upgrade – pax with status have priority, lonely travelers have priority, one-leg pax (meaning flying one leg without changing plane, not one-legged :-)))) have priority and seniors and pax with kids sitting at the bottom of the list. And of course I cannot tell you who will win – pax with infant and lots of status vs sole pax with moderate status, though I guess that you guessing my guess and I also guess that you guessing that my guess is right one :-))))

Of course Qantas welcomes paying passengers in all classes, but this is not what we talking about here. And bear in mind that apart of written rules (that we do not know in this case anyway, there only “guides”) there are plenty of unspoken rules. For example I was working for company that have unspoken policy do not employ unmarried young workers – they figured out that married people (and especially those with kids) far more reliable and make far less troubles. But of course they cannot make such “policy” official for obvious reason.

Also you welcome to have your own opinion, but so do I and indeed I have one and no arguments above convincing me to change mine. Basically they not even arguments, but sheer emotions based on assumption that Qantas running his business only for sole reason to pleasure people and let me assure you that this is wrong assumption. It could be PARTIALLY, in fact VERY partially like that ages ago when Qantas was state airline, but it definitely not the case in nowadays deregulated zoo.

No more posts about upvoting or downvoting here, please: the topic is economy upgrades on Qantas, so let's stay on that topic.

Russell: my understanding is that the economy fare type doesn't have a direct impact on normal points-based upgrades or on-the-spot upgrades, although if you apply for an upgrade using the points+pay auction mechanism then yes, fare types come into play as a factor in 'winning' the auction.

Cheers David, makes sense.