I just subscribed to the Forum, so this reply is pretty late and maybe not of interest anymore.

Anyway, I am an AV Platino Ejecutivo member and it is true that you get upgrades without redeeming miles or upgrade certificates ONLY on domestic flights within Colombia.

Just yesterday I completed a round trip Bogota-Cali-Medellin-Bogota, and on all 3 flights I was offered a courtesy upgrade, which I refused as I was travelling with my wife, and she is just about to reach the Gold status. So we would have needed 10.000 miles to upgrade her which is not worth it. I already flew a couple of time in C on domestic routes, but there is NO difference in service at all, only the seats are a bit wider and so is the pitch.

I am using my upgrade certificates normally for my regular trips to Europe, and every second trip I purchase C class regular fare tickets.

The earned miles I spend for domestic tickets with the entire family, so that the 5 of us can travel to the coast (Santa Marta or Cartagena) once or twice a year.

Altogether one can say that the AV Plus programme is pretty good and provides good value as already stated in previous comments.