Are you paying for this trip, or someone else? I assume you realize to upgrade with miles you will need a K or higher fare. If you are paying out of your own pocket, it may make more sense to just do a straight mileage award for J (potentially as low as 140K roundtrip). Also, while there's a very real possibility that upgrade award availability will go away, as long as there is still inventory availability, the amount miles is unlikely to change between now and then.
Award tickets don't earn MQMs.
Look at fares and classes carefully if you're thinking about using miles to upgrade. Higher fare classes (IIRC M and above) require fewer miles for the upgrade, so this can make sense if the price difference isn't much. Of course, B and above not only require fewer miles to upgrade (and get priority for free elite upgrades) but also earn 150% MQMs.