armei

i plan to fly a round-trip from Bangkok-London this July.

I have enough ROP to upgrade an econ ticket to a business one however, i called ROP center and found that there is no business award ticket available just yet or not at all... (and that they suggested me to wait for availability, hopefully, around June)

So here come a thought, what if i buy a econ ticket on any date that award ticket is available and then upgrade it to business' using ROP, then later postpone the flight to my July trip?

any comments would be appreciated.

BinSabai

yes possible within period ticket is valid and mileage are valid

gadget

As I was considering the same recently (different European city), please note that an upgrade is 110,000 where a full ticket is 130,000 miles. Hardly worth spending all that money on the economy ticket. Also, if there is no other capacity on TG, which was the case for me, 144,000 gets you a full ticket on any Star Alliance airline.

armei

Thank BinSabai, i will check such period condition of the ticket (supposingly the Econ one right)

armei

Thank for the info, i will also check another SA to see flight to London. And how was your flight to EU? how did you manage to redeem for the flight?

ChampagneSocialist

armei, given that you have enough miles to consider an upgrade, the chances are that you will already be ROP Gold or even Platinum? Don't forget that Gold/Platinum members have a 'birthday gift' of one 50% discount on roundtrip redemption flights, each year.

That means roundtrip business BKK-Europe is 65,000 miles return rather than 130,000.

kiam

Award ticket (130,000 miles) allows waitlist. If you are Gold, the chance of waitlist to be cleared is high (as long as waitlist is still allowed and flight is not full). Therefore, waitlist on your preferred dates, wait 1-2 weeks, once confirmed, you can issue the ticket. Knowing that your trip is still 4-5 months away, the chance of getting the waitlist cleared is even higher.

Don't waste 110,000 for the upgrade unless you need the Q miles from that trip to be retain your status (especially if Gold).

Do this before the "New Priority Aware" is rolled out or else 130,000 might not be enough.

PS Note that even General/Silver status should also get the waitlist cleared if booked 4-5 months in advance and not during peak holidays.

BinSabai

yes indeed!

armei

thank for your suggestion. I managed to redeem 2 awards business tickets for 130,000 each on my desired flight already.

To me surprise, it only took me 3 days for get the waitlist cleared up! And get to fly A380 both flights round-trip.

Cheers!