Originally Posted by
aster
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If I'm going to be in Y then I might as well take the non-stop route, but with the Finnair upgrade system drifting towards waitlists it's a tough call as to how to utilise those AY points (same dilemma with SQ, but availability is there). Should I just burn 160k on a 1-way flight and forget about the issue?
Yeah, this is the main issue these days. If one wants to be in J , Finnair upgrades are not great as they have turned into a lottery.
At first glance, booking an award in J is safer, but then again, upgrades and awards are now the same fare bucket, and so if you can't see upgrade space, you won't get an award either. The only upside is, if you can get the award waitlisted, at least you do not risk getting stuck with an unusable Y ticket. If an waitlisted award doesn't clear you can always cancel it. Then you must make other arrangements, but you could be proactive and cancel the waitlisted award at say T-58 when you have almost 2 months time to make those arrangements.