Upgrading on A3 using A3 miles
 

Upgrading on A3 flights using A3 miles...What kind of inventory does this need? "I" availability? Or is it automatic? Is this a good deal, it seems it is, 10k miles for a business upgrade on an international flight (10k miles I would value around $100)....Any experiences?

Yes, exactly, it needs I availability and, very important, no P, U or T fare (or any award ticket fare, like X), even if that's a "comfort flex" category.
I upgraded a ticket with miles just 1,5 months ago (well, that's when the flight was, the upgrade was requested a while before that). The only odd thing is, that you have to call in to get this upgrade (I find this especially strange, given the fact that you can request an upgrade with miles on a Star Alliance partner airline by filling out a form online, as well as given the fact, that these use the same inventory as award tickets and this could have easily been done through "manage my booking").Here's my take on how good a deal this is: At first glance it does seem like a good deal. However, since you have to have booked at minimum an S fare, this already costs around 90 Euros or 100$ for a 1000+ miles international route (not including a discount or taxes). If award availability is open, you can book this for 15x the distance, which means anything from 15.000 to usually 19.000 miles. The 10k miles for the upgrade you mentioned correspond to issuing a 18750 miles award ticket from the beginning (since it's 8x the distance for the upgrade, 15x for a full award ticket).
So if by buying that 90 Euro ticket (or a bit less if you get it discounted) you can use another 10k miles to upgrade, then you basically saved 8k or 9k miles by paying 90 Euros, which in my book isn't worth it and it's also a worse ratio than the "10k miles for 100$" you mentioned (unless of course you don't have the miles for the whole award ticket to begin with, which is a different story).
The main problems are two (and they are often present at the same time):
- ​​​You need to find that S fare to qualify for a miles upgrade and not pay too much. But award space is usually non-existent, when the cheapest fare is S or above. Also, if S isn't available, but award space is, then there's definitely no debate about which option is best (just go for the award ticket directly).
- The other issue is, where I availability is open, most of the time the available economy fare is a U, or even a P. There is a way to get the S fare to appear (booking via phone is not recommended, since you pay 20 Euros on top, basically going back to the point where this is simply not worth it), but it's tricky and in all honesty, having successfully done that once, I would rather not waste that much time and get my nerves cracked again (due to anxiety of perhaps not making the booking, before someone else reserves that award space).
The ticket I upgraded with miles, that I mentioned (if I remember correctly this was the very first ticket I upgraded with miles in my 5 years of constantly redeeming miles for tickets!), was an S fare which was already discounted by I think 20% due to a general promotion and I used a 30 Euros coupon code to get the net ticket price down to exactly 35 Euros (plus 32,69 Euros taxes ex-Athens, but you pay these anyway if you book an award ticket too). So instead of redeeming 18250 or so miles for the award ticket, I paid 35 Euros and redeemed just 9968 miles to get in a business class for which I also had a paid ticket (this time with a 30% code) which cost 135,80 Euros plus the same taxes. See the difference here? 9968 miles for precisely 100,80 Euros (well ok, the fully paid ticket also got me about 1700 more miles!).

I hope this didn't get confusing, the bottom line for me is: It is rarely really worth it, especially if you value a redemption for award space at that price (which is the same value I'd also give it). You're almost always better off booking an award ticket in business class straight away.

Well, it sounds "sexy" when you look at it but when you do your math it's not.
I find much better value long haul *A than those A3 upgrades.
J is cheap on most routes, no brainer if you want to fly J.

If you upgrade with miles and then cancel, do you lose the miles?

No (see T&Cs, chapter 11, paragraph 14 about that matter).
I don't believe there's any scenario within Miles&Bonus, where you lose any miles... :rolleyes:

You are not entirely correct in your belief that there is no scenario where you can lose miles within M&B. All miles are lost if you cancel an award flight within 30 minutes of departure (or at least that is what the rules say)!

When someone has written a few dozen pages of rules in something like 8 languages, there are definitely going to be cases, where some completely broken info will slip into them...
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7aa5ab8242.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c89f6420cb.jpg
So the Greek part reads basically "cancelation within 30min to departure is not possible" (and, in case this is difficult to comprehend, "not possible to cancel" simply means that after T - 30min you are considered to be a no-show and must pay the 30eur fee instead of the 20eur). The exact same thing is translated perfectly in French! In the German version paragraph 14 is missing altogether (well, the content is, not the number, they simply moved the stuff from 15 to 14). That's at least how much I can read.
Anyway, like I said, there is no scenario where your miles get lost. Otherwise that part mentioned in the English version would have been the stupidest rule ever, since canceling within 30min would lose you the miles but simply waiting a few minutes longer until departure and calling in a "no-show" would get them back.
Also the phrase "miles will be deducted" is as stupid as you can make it. The miles have already been deducted when you got upgraded! So what's that supposed to mean? It simply makes no sense. This sentence shouldn't even be there.
Again: You don't lose your miles.

Hello all,

I'm reviving this old thread to ask some practical questions about using A3 miles to upgrade A3 flights.

My situation: family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) booked on a “Family Fare” (booking class V/T) on BRU-SKG, returning a week later. Formerly A3 Gold, now simply blue but I have enough miles to cover upgrades for all 4 of us on both outbound and inbound flights.

My questions:
- are “Family Fare” tickets eligible for upgrades?
- I’ve read it needs I class availability for upgrades. Is doing a dummy award booking a good way to confirm availability in I?
- assuming there is I < 4, is it possible to upgrade some of the group, eg 1 adult + 1 child?
- does A3 continue to release I inventory in the days/hours leading up to a flight?

Thanks in advance for your advice 🙂

That's a good question! The text in the T&Cs hasn't been updated! Neither has it been updated in the section that describes the use of tier-related upgrade vouchers (though it can be assumed, that there was no need for the latter to be upgraded, since the way it was written theoretically still covers everything).
I have successfully upgraded Family fare tickets with vouchers, so I would assume the same would be possible with miles as well, however, since the only way to upgrade with miles is via customer service anyway, I guess you'd have to ask them for a definitive answer to that (since the two upgrade methods already differ, in fact favouring the use of vouchers, in that with miles all PUT fares are excluded, whereas with vouchers just light PUT are, so even though very unlikely, there could be a different treatment regarding family vs flex too).Yes. Start with 1 passenger and keep adding until availability disappears. It isn't common though for Aegean flights to offer 4xI.Yes, but they'd have to split the booking for that, so perhaps a thing to consider ;).Yes (however regarding "days", not "hours") and no. It depends on several factors (most of which are quite easy to guess) ;).