Originally Posted by
brownkc
I like the idea of saving up for an international business class upgrade. How do you read the chart to get 20,000 miles for the upgrade from economy to business between the US and Europe? I assumed that Upgrade from Economy (the first line - Y or B) would mean an upgrade to the next class (business) which would be 10,000. But then, that would mean an upgrade from business to first is 20k (the second line - J, C or D).
Once again all of the help is appreciated.
Not all economy fares are the same. Y and B are full-fare economy tickets and at times they may be more expensive than even business class. Any economy ticket you buy will most probably be in one of the other fare buckets, which are listed at the bottom of the pdf in a separate chart. Depending on your fare bucket, there will be a co-pay which can be as high as $500 for S/T/K/L tickets. You will see your fare bucket when you get to the purchase page, it will say:
Cabin: Economy (V) (of course V might be something else). Also, keep in mind that this is for a one-way upgrade. It's up to you to decide if you want to spend all your miles on this plus a co-pay in the hundreds.
If you just want to taste international business class, there are some domestic flights operated by 3-class aircrafts. SFO-ORD on a 747 comes to mind. In that case the upgrade is much cheaper at 15,000 miles and a $50 co-pay. It's a shorter flight, but also a cheaper upgrade and you get the same hard product.