<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sgopal2:
Why not just buy a full Y fare and then just use 5K miles to upgrade?
A full Y fare is upgradable to BizFirst on the spot, I believe and no Hokey is needed. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
The full Y fares are not cheap, but still cheaper than paying full fare BizFirst.</font>
You are correct on all counts, but there's a big piece of the picture missing that applies only to the HNL routes: There's a D8 fare that's only $400 more round-trip than the Y8 fare. It's true that the J/J8 fare is about double the Y8 fare, but I can't imagine anyone actually buying the J fare to HNL. Unlike other BusinessFirst routes, there always seems to be a D fare published with the same (lack of)restrictions as J, and more importantly, D inventory is almost always available (it rarely is any different than J inventory).
So, for routes to HNL only, I can't ever imagine it making sense to buy a full Y ticket and upgrade. Not only do you spend a lot of miles to save just a bit on the ticket, you lose the 50% elite-qualifying class-of-service bonus miles.
However, sgopal2 offers excellent advice on BusinessFirst routes other than to HNL.