Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
Would it be worth buying some miles, given that there's no guarantee that you'll be able to use them for the upgrade?
When I bought up to Business on AF with SkyMiles I was able to arrange it a couple of weeks before the flight. So the OP could call to check the availability before buying miles. I called AF (yes, it was a DL agent, I’m sure) to do it. It was a very fast and easy process, unlike buying up from PE to Upperclass on VS, which took a long time on the phone, with a DL agent calling a VS agent.