Using Miles to Upgrade
 

I'm taking a trip (pleasure) to Florida this June, and am planning to buy a cheap coach ticket and use miles 20K miles to sit up front.

Since there will be 2 of us, I am not willing to try my luck at the airport for the space available companion upgrade. So I have to burn 40K miles.

In general, how many of you elites use 20K miles to upgrade vs. the complimentary upgrade within the 3/2/1 day window? Under what circumstances would you burn the miles and when would you roll the dice?

Any Flight to the west coast will get the 20,000 mile upgrade. This trip is just too long to risk the elite upgrade. I figure that I will earn 6000+ miles on the trip each way, includiong the elite bouns. So in essence, I am upgrading for 4000 miles.

I don't upgrade in advance anything on the East Coast, that I will risk on the elite upgrade.

BTW,

My wife will not connect when we go to Orlando. She would rather fly coach (UGH) on Delta Express and go non-stop than fly F/C on CO and connect in Newark. So once a year, I get stuck in the back. She claims this humbles me.

I do much the same thing---choose flights carefully and upgrade in advance on the long hauls.

So when I go DCA-LAX or SFO, this usually involves avoiding IAH and opting to go through Cleveland, instead. (sometimes EWR, but it's getting harder and harder to find the advance opportunities there.)

I don't bother on any east coast hops and "risked it" on three dca-tpa runs this fall. As a platinum, I had no problems upgrading through Cleveland.

CameraGuy, I can relate to your wife.

I'm a CO Elite who just took a 4-hour flight on Southwest ... because it was the only non-stop and my fiancee prefers non-stops.

And yes, it was a "humbling" experience.

I have the same distance rule (or did when I had elite last year):

I frequently fly EWR-LAX and EWR-PBI.

ALWAYS confirm EWR-LAX with miles and risk the elite from EWR-PBI. Only got it about 25% of time.

Tute84,

What level Elite were you last year that you only got the free upgrade 25% of the time to PBI?

After hearing that, I am glad I used miles to upgrade my upcoming vacation from BOS to PBI (via EWR, of course.

Silver

I used to have the same problem with my girlfriend perferring direct flights ... until I was able to get her to earn elite status on DL, and after a few rides in FC she's a convert to not minding the connections.

that's exactly why i try to get status on airlines other the co. i live in jc, and it's somewhat difficult to get upgrades when your living in a hub that serves a metro area of 17 million people.