Originally Posted by
jdrtravel
You can buy certain domestic coach fares (k class or higher) and upgrade for 12,500 miles each way. This amount is changing next summer, but it is this price for now. Note that you should confirm upgrade availability prior to booking which you can only do by calling in.
Since you won't be able to get your call center fee waived for purchasing the ticket, I would do it this way:
1) select the route you want.
2) call in and ask the agent which flights/dates have upgrade availability for the amount of tickets you are buying.
3) Hang up, go online and purchase the tickets (or if you have a nice agent, perhaps they will hold for you while you do this)
4) call back right away and process the upgrades. If for some reason the upgrades don't process you have until midnight the following day to cancel the tickets with no fee.
I just purchased an upgradeable ticket and upgraded to business class on a summer 2016 flight to LHR. I was very surprised to not only have to pay a very hefty ticket price, but to also have to use 120,000 to upgrade (instead of 25,000 on each leg)! Apparently this change affects all flights happening after June 1, 2016. This seems like a HUGE hike in price!!!!!!!