Originally Posted by
Mwenenzi
Welcome (again)
Your best ffp can be dependant on where you live medium or long term. CC earn is very dependant on where you live - where you will spend.
For upgrades the general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your freq flyer programme (no codeshares) with your airlines upgrade instrument (e.g. SWU). All subject to the t&c's of your FFP and your paid ticket. Low cost tickets are often not eligible for upgrades.
However as is the way with FFP's there are some upgrade exceptions
- on AA/BA/IB with higher priced economy fares using AA/BA/IB upgrade instruments
- on some BA tickets with Asia Miles
As you seem to be a OW flyer have a look here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
I would disagree with your general rule.
This is true for free elite upgrades in general, with partner elites being at the bottom of the list such as DL/AS (Hawaii flights excluded), or AF/KLM elites on DL.
However, there is a SkyTeam upgrade program to use miles on participating partners such as KE, although this requires full fares. DL miles and SWUs/GUCs can be used to upgrade on AF and KLM flights.
In *A, UA paper SWUs can be used for day of departure upgrades on LH.