Upgrading to Business or First Class
 

I am debating between which credit cards to get or to get one at all. My main goal is to upgrade my coach seat(s) on international flights (once a year) to business or first class. How easy is it to upgrade with the Chase Ultimate Rewards, or for that matter any credit card points or frequent flyer programs?

Thanks!

Welcome to FlyerTalk. Using miles or points to upgrade a paid ticket is determined by the rules of the frequent flyer program of the airline operating the flights. How you earned those miles or points (e.g. by flying, or through a credit card) is not important.

If you primarily fly one airline you should understand their mileage upgrade requirements, then look for a credit card which works with their program. Be aware that few airlines offer upgrades from the lowest price economy class tickets, most require purchase of a more expensive ticket or a money co-payment in conjunction with the mileage upgrade.

If you fly various airlines you should look for a card with the largest number of airline transfer partners. In order these would be:

• Starwood Preferred Guest (credit cards issued by American Express)
• American Express Membership Rewards
• Diners Club Rewards (not accepting applications for new personal accounts in Canada or USA)
• Chase Ultimate Rewards

Thank you very much Mia. At this point I am not tied to any specific frequent flyer program, but I fly out of LAX and given that I want to use FF points for upgrades vs. free tickets, one of the two airlines I would eventually focus on would be either AA or UAL.

The Chase Ultimate Rewards is UAL, if I am correct.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be converted to United miles. See information about United's upgrade options here:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...t-02-01-14.pdf

I am not a UA flyer, but it appears that an upgrade from discounted economy requires 20,000 miles plus $550 one-way (40,000 miles & $1100 round trip), in addition to the cost of the paid ticket.

Mia, thank you very much! This is very helpful!

One way business class tickets can be had for 25k miles + $5 if booked far enough in advance. That sounds like a much better option than upgrading a ticket.

How far in advance? And do you mean the BC ticket for 25000 miles or upgrade from coach to BC?

That is for the full BC ticket, but it is domestic and you are asking about international. It's still a better deal to get the full ticket, though, not using miles to upgrade. And it's actually much easier to get these tickets when it's *not* in advance (like 2-3 days before departure). But sometimes you can get them far in advance.

You mean buy the full ticket or get the full tickets using FF miles?

He probably meant getting the full ticket using miles, rather than booking an economy ticket with cash and upgrading with miles.

I'd recommend that, too. And, about his advice getting the ticket closer to departure: be aware that, unless you're an elite, United will pass on a $75 close-in booking fee.

Correct.

Super. Very helpful. Thanks!

You will usually find that any upgrade-able fares are the most expensive economy fares and are usually not far off from the cheapest business fare. I have not had any luck finding an upgrade-able economy fare that remotely makes sense, financially.

I used to (several years ago) try to upgrade to biz.

But, it never worked out. Would not have ended up saving money and would have used a lot of miles.

Eventually, I concluded that just using miles for a biz or F ticket was much easier and cheaper.