Beginner's Guide to Qantas Business Class

So I took a flight from Perth to Sydney on Sunday for work and decided to try out Business Class on the Qantas flight over. Since I felt somewhat like a kid flying for the first time, I thought I would write a short entry about the lessons I learnt from the experience.

How much is it to upgrade? It cost me 16,000 frequent flyer points to upgrade a flight from Perth to Sydney. This will depend on your flight's ticket class, my ticket was on the super saver.

Whether the flight upgrade is worth doing is really up to each individual. From a money perspective, upgrading using points is much more worthwhile than buying a business class ticket. For example, a flight from Perth to Sydney on the cheapest ticket one way is $248. A Business Class ticket on the same flight is $1595. IF an upgrade using frequent flyer points is available, for 16,000 points (equivalent to $112 in gift cards) you can get an upgrade that is worth $1347, if you value the Business Class ticket in the same way.


The question most people often ask would be, is the Business Class upgrade worth doing?

Is the flight worth upgrading - time? When I was already on the flight, I suddenly remembered that the Perth to Sydney flight is actually only 3 hours. The flight back to Perth is 4.5 hours. Should have upgraded the flight back instead.

Is the flight worth upgrading - plane model? The flight I took was on a 747 and I didn't have time to read up much about it. It was a relatively old plane and sitting in Business class didn't really feel all that special. The person seated next to me was still quite close even though we each had our own arm rest. Leg room of course was ample, but the entertainment system was quite old and unimpressive. The entertainment system in economy class on an A330 Virgin flight was better.

Is the flight worth upgrading - meal time? If you are flying a red eye and need to get some sleep, perhaps its worth spending to get an upgrade so that you can be well rested when you land. However, if you are looking at the food, it would probably be better to upgrade a flight that includes dinner vs a morning flight with breakfast.


Next post, we'll look at what you get with a Qantas Business Class ticket.