Originally Posted by
no1cub17
Just depends on what your priorities are. Yes this can be a frustrating hobby but also incredibly rewarding. A little luck helps too. We've waitlisted and not gotten upgrades many times, but have also cleared DFW-HKG a week out. You win some you lose some. Might be too late now (you've already bought your ticket), but there *might* be C space available on other flights to europe - I imagine you're starting in OKC or SWO, so in that case DFW-CDG or ORD-CDG would be worth looking into as well. If you want to deal with a connection then maybe via LHR. It's rare but with some searching (get an EF sub if you think it'll be worth your while), you can get your money's worth.
Or as others have suggested - if J is just $900 more than Y, just upfare your ticket.
Boomer!!!
You can't say boomer! I work for the 'other' school in OK.
And actually, we are flying SWO-DFW-LGA in basic economy coach three days prior and spending some time in NY, then going JFK-CDG for a week (and after paris, again, three days in NY). This set up shaved 600$ from a direct SWO-DFW-CDG itenerary per ticket and visiting NY sounded like a worthwhile 'stopover' for a $1200 savings. The JFK-CDG tickets I got were cheap (630, including tax and fees round trip), which led to this itinerary to begin with. I wasn't too concerned with business class vs coach in setting up my itinerary, but a month's gone by since booking, and my thought was heck, I should get business class on the red-eye, and I have tons of points from the citi exec card sign up and the mileage upgrade seems like a fair (though not necessarily great) way to get some value out of points. But lo-and-behold, you see my childish rant today. I should have read more in FT before and managed my expectations of what I thought was a benefit. I am not new to travel, but I am new to frequent-travel programs.