Originally Posted by
TravelinSperry
Thank you - you guys may have just saved me a lot of miles! I am attempting to find an upgradeable fare from LAX over the pacific (NRT, ICN, TPE, etc.). I want to buy economy and then use miles/co-pay to upgrade. But no matter what dates I search all that is avail are waitlist options.
In practice you want to look for flights to Asia where there is 'R' availability where you can instantly upgrade. Some routes have consistently more availability than others. I am finding availability on the following routes:
LAX - NRT (Available dates Oct, Nov outbound, , Dec outbound. December return)
SFO - HND (Tokyo Haneda) (Dates available Oct, Nov & Dec outbound and return)
SFO - CTU (Chengdu) (Dates available Oct, Nov & Dec outbound and return)
SFO - KIX (Osaka) (Dates available Oct, Nov & Dec outbound and return)
HND is a good jump off point to the rest of Asia either from it of from NRT which is a doable train ride away from HDN). CTU and KIX are not as good connection point-wise.
Tip: I usually look for availability on Wednesdays first. I usually do the lookups segment by segment. e.g. find the long flight (SFO - HND) and then add in the shorter hops (LAX - SFO & HND/NRT - BKK).
Tip: User expert mode to see the fare classes. Using the the selection to find upgradeable fares seems to not work well at all.