Originally Posted by
channa
Look also at JFK. You have better odds of securing that upgrade since the p.s. fleet has a much more favorable coach to premium cabin ratio.
But do you really want to drop an extra 10K miles for the upgrade between JFK and SFO/LAX? Remember that *A upgrades are priced on a per segment basis so you pay for each segment you choose to upgrade.
Too bad for the OP that UA isn't going to the instant-upgrade approach on Y/B fares on the p.s. routes. That would be a nice way to get the transcon for "free" while just paying miles for the longer segment.
The cheapest B fare on JFK-SYD I'm seeing is ~$4500+ and you'd still have to pay the 30K miles on top of that for LAX/SFO-SYD. Another 10K if you want biz on the transcon.