Consideration should also be given to the fact the request was only made 3 weeks prior to the flight. My understanding is that upgrade requests are made on status level and a "who joined the line first" basis. There may well have been multiple platinum and P1 flyers who simply booked earlier and ...

For what its worth the 70k points sign up bonus from my qantas premier mastercard were credited in the same monthly statement as me hitting the minimum spend.

Seat selection for Qantas for all unreserved seats generally opens up 72 hours before the scheduled flight. You still may not get seats in row 1 or 2 but you may be able to snag something forward of what is released for Gold FF status at the time of booking

Fatherdamo, you are correct - QF ticket is paid, whislt QR flights are redemption. Thanks for the help!

Hi Serg - PER-DOH QR operate the 777 which only offers Y / J (older 2-2-2 product). I have the opportunity to fly F ex. SYD and having never flown F I have chosen to take the opportunity. Being QFF Gold I also have not had an opportunity to experience the Sydney F Lounge.