Originally Posted by
salsarocks
I am trying to get 4 business class award seats for the whole family from Madrid to South America with Iberia but it drives me nuts as they only release 2 J award seats per flight. Long story short, I've snatched the 2 J tickets for that flight, hoping that 2 more J seats will pop up closer to departure day but this never happened. There are 2 PE tickets that I can book now via Avios and then try to upgrade them using cash but no-one is able to give me a price for that upgrade. Does anyone have a recent experience or how much it will cost? Obviously we cannot turn up at the airport and have the negotiations at the check-in gate (difference between travelling solo vs with kids
) as -in worst case scenario- we'll end up sitting in different classes!
Thanks in advance
Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're never going to get 4 Business Class award seats to South America on the same flight.
You might get lucky at OLCI - or slightly before - if Iberia decides to sell upgrades cheaply. But otherwise there's no way to upgrade an Avios PE ticket to Business Class without 2 more award seats being released. (which is really rare)
And you can't actually "upgrade", you would need to cancel your existing PE tickets and book brand new J tickets. (so your Avios balance needs to be large enough to cope, since Avios aren't immediately refunded unless you book via BA)
If travelling in separate classes is a problem, your only choice is to pay for 2 tickets and use Avios for 2 at the time of booking.
And FWIW, "South America" is a big place. Stating your actual destination helps people with experience in that destination to tell you what the "promotional upgrade" might cost if it comes around. And cities with more than 1 flight per day have a slightly higher chance of seeing more award space open than a destination with only 1 daily flight.
A final option is to become an Iberia Plus Oro member or higher, and then force open award space using double the Avios. (which isn't so terrible if you book during a promotional discount period)