Originally Posted by
BobTL
It’s unfortunately not the case regarding the dynamics on upgrades by miles.
They are very dynamic and that makes it unpredictable.
AF will make you think: if I want to fly J, I need to buy J.
I have been traveling around 10 years with AFKL and never had a long haul upgrade of 25k miles from Y to J. That is maybe the case when you buy a very expensive Y ticket in the Y,B or M fareclass.
Normally it follows roughly the award scheme and that often 50/60.000.
But you are right, TO needs to call PSL and they will tell.
Originally Posted by
irishguy28
In the last published upgrade chart, that came into force in 2013, these were the mileage amounts required for an upgrade from Economy to Business on Europe-North America:
15,000 miles: Fare Class Y to Business O
25,000 miles: Fare Classes B/M/U to Business O
35,000 miles: Fare classes K/H to Business O
45,000 miles: Fare classes L/Q to Business O
Given that there is no upgrade chart anymore, I would be very, very surprised to see an amount of as few as 25,000 miles being sought for an upgrade on a transatlantic sector, unless perhaps the economy ticket was issued in the most expensive (Y/B) classes.
The price will, of course, depend on the underlying economy fare. Where from 2013 the number of fare classes that could be upgraded from was raised to 8, the current system supposedly allows upgrades from ANY economy fare class. Clearly, the lower the economy fareclass, the more miles would be required.
I hear you
BobTL and
irishguy28, and yet, my personal experience is that those are the upgrade price in miles that were quoted
and applied to me.
I know about the upgrade chart from 2013 and that everything has become dynamic, and yet, I can assure you that:
- no later than in March 2019, I offered a RT CDG-JFK flight for a friend of mine, which I booked in Economy (U/R) and used 25,000 miles to upgrade him to business class since there was availabilities in "O".
- for my own trips, I always purchase in Premium Economy in "W" both legs and upgrade into business class using availability in "Z/award" for FB Elite.
I have mentioned this many times already in other posts (this
one for example). I remember reading in another post somewhere here that for some reasons, the price applied to upgrade in advance using miles doesn't always follow the dynamic pricing rules. I will try to find it again and quote the FTer who wrote that.
See attached the screenshots of the upgrade for my friend (25,000 miles, trip in March 2019) as well as my own upgrade for 22,500 miles back in January 2019.
Cheers,
vinnyc
Initial Fare = U
Upgraded Fare = O
Cost of Upgrade from U to O
Confirmation Email from Flying Blue
Cost of Upgrade from W to Z/award