Ok, I'm a newbie at international travel. I just called Delta and the lowest fare to Dubai from MLB is $2118 (H) and the lowest upgradable fare is $3263.80 (B), and it takes 20k miles each way to upgrade. DL doesn't offer M on this route. She also told me that the AF portion of the flight is not upgradable on this route. She said it's only 6.5 hours.

I now can't find flights on DL to KWI or AUH, I thought I saw them earlier.

Is this the best I can do to obtain upgrades? I might have to decide tomorrow if I want to do this middle east assignment, and being able to upgrade is a big factor for me.

Would USAir be better? How do I upgrade there? I have no US miles, how much would it cost to buy miles to upgrade each flight?

Thanks in advance for any advice!