Originally Posted by
Brostman
From my experience, the process of booking a lower class award ticket and upgrading later is a much higher cost of miles than booking straight into the higher class award if that inventory is available. I am currently waiting for incremental inventory to become available, and the premium to upgrade (vs. miles if booked directly into the higher class) is about 40% more miles. I don't think my situation has altered the equation, but I do have a two segment trip, and the added miles to upgrade both segments individually (J to F) is 40% higher than if I were able to book the flights in the higher class as a single "through fare" ticket.
Interesting, in this particular case, an economy award ticket was priced at ~23K miles + ~$85 vs. 54K + ~$250 for business. The upgrade cost in miles is quoted at 19,500 miles (and presumably no cash addition), so the savings here would be quite significant. I booked the economy award, but it's not showing availability in auto upgrade (the only class shown for business awards at the moment is Flex Plus, so I'm assuming that's the problem?). The business cabin is very empty, so I think the chances of using 19,500 to upgrade even at the airport or on the plane are quite good.