Originally Posted by ft101

If only one sector is upgraded and the other one later becomes available you can call in to get the full upgrade at the reduced rate. Doing it on line it would charge you per sector and as you have seen will cost a lot more miles.

You can check on Emirates and Qatar in a similar manner. Emirates you look for Saver Business Reward seats (not Flex Plus Rewards) as these and upgrades come out of fare bucket "D". On Qatar you look for regularly priced reward seats as opposed to "2x" rewards (bucket "U" IIRC).