brian98, welcome to FT and the BA forum, and great to see you've come out of lurk mode and dipped your toe in!

I've not travelled in F on the 787-9, only seen it from the front row of CW, but I would have to say the difference is extremely marked compared to CW, and if the price was right I'd probably pay to sit there. As for upgrade value - well, that's all very much a personal view, and will depend on so many factors including how much spare cash (or Avios if there's award availability) you have available. I was quoted £649 to upgrade LHR-SIN a few weeks ago on an A380, and declined because I didn't think it good value - you might well have snapped their hand off!

One thing that is certain is that you would not have F/CCR access on your outbound trip if you only upgrade the inbound (and vice versa). You would have access to the CCR ahead of your NCL flight though, but you may need to keep hold of your F boarding passes to show to the CCR lounge agent.