Originally Posted by
grannieflyer
Living in Australia does not help of course.
Why not?
You've got the entire Etihad network, plus that of Virgin Australia, available for redeeming flights.
Originally Posted by
grannieflyer
But, and this makes me mad, Etihad are now sending me emails daily asking me to 'bid for upgrades' from J to F for the AUH/LHR sectors, suggested prices are quite silly, could have booked all F for less in the first place. But, it got me thinking, why not ask for a fare upgrade using my miles (more than enough still in my account), unable to even apply on line, had to phone, so I did, to get the response, 'so sorry grannieflier even though you are gold, no upgrades using miles available'.
If the prices are high, then there probably are not many seats available. Even though there may be seats available to buy/upgrade into using cash, this does not mean that there will be seats available to buy/upgrade into using miles. The number of seats available for purchase/upgrade with miles is limited - it stands to reason that they prefer to get as much cold hard cash in, rather than selling lots of the seats for miles. Of course, there is no harm trying again closer to the flight, as when the chances of being able to sell seats for cash is diminishing, any unsold seats may again be made available for those willing to spend miles on them.