Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
I would be very surprised if one could use partner rules for upgrades for anything but very expensive fares. In addition, the miles needed to upgrade can be almost as many as the miles required for a premium cabin award ticket, so that upgrades often are a waste of miles.
I was told by UA a few days ago that for my U fare (discount economy) ticket in a few days, I could use 15K of my voyager miles + $75 to get an upgrade to business and there was 1 seat available to do that.
15K of voyager miles would get you hardly anything in South Africa domestic flight. In fact nothing really. So it seems like it's a great and very nice way to get bumped to business and leverage Voyager miles.