Hi,

I'm just learning the ropes with good value use of points, and the general consensus seems to be that upgrades are better then redemptions.

I fly at least once a year between UK and Japan. An economy redemption for this is 50000 points. For that I can get 4 o/w upgrades to premium economy on the same route. But, by the looks of things, I can only upgrade on certain economy tickets. Right now all of the economy tickets that allow upgrades seem to cost more than the cheapest premium economy ticket. So the upgrade would cost more cash and I'd lose points.

Am I missing something here? Does anyone have advice on how to make this be profitable?