Originally Posted by
bjmad
Hi everybody,
I am trying to maximize the use of my miles (and money!) and I don't know how to do it :-) I am EK Plat, I'd like to travel with my wife and baby from MAD to SYD in F. These are the options I have: buy F tickets for everybody for 13kEUR, buy 1 F ticket for the baby and myself (6.5kEUR) and buy a F ticket using miles for my wife (337k miles), buy two J tickets for 8kEUR and upgrade us with miles (250k miles) which sounds like the best option assuming there are some availabilities.
My question is could I upgrade from J to F having a baby on the PNR?
Thanks for your help!
If upgrades are available, then buying J tickets for all of you and trying to upgrade all of you with miles may be the best option. However, in your case F seems to be just at a 60% premium to J which is quite unusual. So, you may want to just an purchase F ticket and use miles to get the other F ticket - lowest cost option that gets the entire family into F. Unless if the 87K extra miles for the J upgrade is worth more to you than 1.5k euros, then you may want to try the J options for 8K but then the upgrades have to be available.
You may want to explore another option - Buy an F ticket for your wife + baby, and buy a J ticket for yourself and try to upgrade yourself . The benefit is that, as a Plat, you can push the EK call center to release seats for you or get yourself waitlisted for the upgrade. It has usually worked in my case but there is a chance it might not. But then you also have a chance to snagging a free op-up in case F inventory is left unsold on the day of your flight. It has always worked for me and I planned my travel so that the upgrade was available on the longer leg and even if the upgrade wasn't available on the shorter leg, we would be apart for only 2.5 hours or so. In the end, it all worked out several weeks before the travel date with EK releasing seats.
BTW, I've upgraded my infant daughter from Y to J twice with miles though never to F, but I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to do a J-F upgrade.
**Be sure to check upgrade availability before you make any purchases.**