Thanks. I'm looking at March 2016 for my trip to LAX. Looks like a G class ticket (lowest upgradeable) is $649 pp r/t. The cheapest economy r/t, in N, is $499, which I think is about standard for when there's not a sale going on. So it's $250 for an upgrade to business on the 32B. Not a terrible deal. But you're right that purchasing outright isn't a bad deal: A K-UP ticket (KE30INUP) is just $1197 r/t.

My hangup on purchasing an award ticket (as opposed to upgrade) is that the BXP1 is just 650 points which seems so cheap. But I guess if they're hard to use in a cost-effective way then it's not really that "cheap" anymore and maybe I should redeem for a flight.