I'm a GFL who did the decade-plus of 250k miles/yr on BA during the corporate grind, now settled into semi-retirement in the US and not flying BA much anymore, but still with a decent balance of miles, er, Avios in the account. I tend to only use them for the occasiona; intra-Europe short haul, since the mileage requirement, availability and especially the fake "taxes" are so high to use them for any long-haul flights.

However, for Mrs. Clack's 60th, I am obliged to make tickets appear for a US to Kenya routing for a safari at year-end, and I'm dreading doing the long haul in coach or even premium economy. So I'm wondering what you mileage experts do when faced with such a dilemma - assuming Club awards won't be available for free seats, is it possible to purchase economy or premium economy and upgrade to Club using miles, and can that be done on the website? I now find the BA website so clunky to use - so much white space and so few useful links, and I'm worried I'll just end up with purchased tickets with no chance to upgrade unless it can all be done in one step.

I know this is a very basic question, but other than booking an occasional LHR-CDG award using Avios from the Exec Club page, I'm really out of practice at this. Most times when I try to book a longer-haul award in the premium cabin, even six months out, no seats are ever available. So my Avios have just been sitting there with no way to use them to get a Club seat, it seems.

So any advice on how best to get at least the LHR-NBO portion in Club for almost one year from now would be greatly appreciated.