Originally Posted by
Jotapay
Hello,
I am taking a trip to Amsterdam in the spring with my wife, and I am trying to fly business class. I have about 200k UR points I was hoping to use in this endeavor. It seems my flight options are United or KLM, which is actually a code share with Delta on most options. I think because there are no direct flights It doesn't give me the option of a word travel on KLM. And Delta and United the tickets are required and absurd amount of points. So, I want to buy it ticket and economy and use my points to upgrade to business. It looks like on United I can pay $500 plus $20,000 points. However, on KLM I can't figure out how many points it will take me to upgrade, and if it's even possible. Has anyone done this before? I'm nervous to buy the KLM ticket in case I am not able to upgrade or it takes too many points. I've tried talking to KLM customer service but they can't tell me how many points it will take to upgrade before I buy the ticket. Any advice out there? Thanks in advance!
They actually can (as they have a list of miles needed for upgrade from certain classes), you just have to ask the right questions, or at least give them some input. What they mean is, that unless they know the booking class, they can't quote you anything. At that point, you can just ask whether there is any "O" availability (this is the upgrade class for non-Flying Blue Platinum members (as they also have the "Z" inventory at their disposal).
Just look on expedia.com for the ticket you'd like to book (expedia shows the booking classes), and then call KLM, stating that you'd like to ask how much it would be in FB miles to upgrade from booking class "(state here the booking class that you found on expedia)", to Business (booking class "O") and if they have any inventory.
Good luck on your travels!