Originally Posted by
dannieboiz
I book refundable fares anyways, I just didn't realized that mileage upgrades work differently. So you make reservation then call to upgrade.. also just realized that it takes 15k miles for F upgrades. The trips I'm looking at are really short and price between F and refundable is under $100, I think just booking F would make more sense for my situation.
In that case, you may be interested in a miles & money award ticket. When searching for award flights, you can change the "miles only" drop-down box to "miles and money". Then change the fare type to your preference (in your case, refundable F). When you search for flights, you can choose a discount up to $100 for 10K miles or up to $200 for 20K (max discount is 50% off the pre-tax fare). Booking a ticket this way, you still earn miles as if you paid all cash. (Just be warned that coach tickets booked this way are not upgrade eligible, so it is a true case of want-F-buy-F).