Originally Posted by sdsearch

There are other ways to upgrade than certificates! And those other ways don't require you to be elite at all (tho they may be made more likely by you being elite, in cases where the upgrade requires a waiting list).


To the OP:

Welcome to FlyerTalk, mashmario.

You have to be more specific about where you're flying from, how much you're willling to connect to get the upgrade on the main flight, how far ahead you can book, and what fares you want to upgrade from.

On the latter point, most airlines (AA being the main exception) won't even let you upgrade with miles from most discount economy fares! You have to start by buyhing a more expensive (sometimes way more expensive) fare, and then if you don't get the upgrade you still paid for the more expensive fare. AA uses a "co-pay" system instead, where you can upgrade from almost any fare, but in addition to miles you have to pay several hundred dollars each way to upgrade.

The reason I asked about where you're willing to fly from is because AA only flies to Japan (from several US cities) and to Shanghai (and coming up Beijing) but in those cases only one in the middle of the country, and so if you're on the west coast that may feel like "backtracking". (And AA flies nowhere else in Asia, other than Delhi, so far, so for anywhere else you could only upgrade that far and then have to take connecting flights in coach after that, on their partners in Japan and China.)

On the other hand, AA miles (to use for the milesage part of those miles+co-pay upgrades) are probably easier to accumulate quickly (from non-flying activities) than the miles for most other airlines, but that again depends on lots of things like how often you fly, how often you stay in hotels, how often you eat out and are willing to eat at specific restaurants only, how good your credit score is and are you willing to apply for Citi credit cards over and over and over, etc).

Meanwhile, upgrades are far from always available, and you may need to subscribe to a tool such as ExpertFlyer to be able to find flights on which you can likely confirm an upgrade right after booking (that's the only way to not have to worry about getting in line behind elites who have prority on upgrades in waiting lists).