American Express Membership Rewards - Amex Plat Companion tickets and upgrades with miles

I've laways considered the Amex companion upgrades a benefit I would never take advantage of as I very rarely purchase 'full' fare, traditionally always buying discount tickets well ahead of a well planned holiday.

Anyway I've started buying more expnsive fares so I can use my accumulated miles to upgrade these tickets to business class. Whenever I do this I am travelling with my girlfriend so am buying two tickets.

Question is, can I save some $$$ taking advantage of the 2 for 1 on full fare tickets.

To look at a recent scenario.....

Just paid about £1200 for 2 x United Airlines 'B' class (treated as full fare) tix EDI-SFO-RNO. Could I have bought these cheaper through the Amex scheme and are the resulting tickets upgradeable to business using 10,000 miles each way?

A: UA does not participate in the companion ticket deal, at least not in the U.S.

B: The companion ticket deal does not apply to coach tickets anyway.

C: Do you really expect to be permitted to upgrade a free ticket with miles?

Amex will charge you the full Y fare. This will be a lot more than what you paid for each B fare, and in all likelihood be more than you paid for both.

UA participates in the Amex companion ticket programme in the UK, but only for business or first tickets (I think).

You can never upgrade companion tickets using miles. This will be in both the miles rules as well as the companion ticket rules.

Have a nice trip though!

[This message has been edited by LondonElite (edited 09-04-2002).]

thanks.....

always worth investigsting these avenues....

Out of interest, if anyone lurkers on this board have actually used the companion ticket offer on QF or CX, what fare class is the companion ticket booked in if the primary ticket is full fare J? Is it U?