Plese help with my first "complex" reward attempt
 

I am trying to figure the most efficient means of accomplishing a more complex reward and was hoping to run it by you all before even starting.

Here is the ideal:

In May 2009 dergon_gf and myself want to go CLE- Rome for a week. Dates flexible, somewhat.

I would like us both to fly BF.

For her I would like to use miles for a reward from my account.

I want to buy the ticket to maximize EQMs (it's going to be close making gold again for 2010 and if I don't get EQMs for this one I'll prolly come up short).

I am thinking of buying an H fare and waitlisting myself on the same flights she gets her reward travel.

With my calculations that's gonna be 140k miles (her reward and my upgrade) + one H-fare ticket price.

So ....is this the best approach? Am I making this overcomplicated? Where do I start?

I've never done anything beyond a simple upgrade phone call and this seems quite daunting.

Thanks much in advance for your wisdom. :)

Some people will tell you that the best approach is buying the lowest fare and paying the upgrade fees since you can still be upgraded at the airport for INTL BF.
What are the prices for the lowest fare for your trip ?

Currently looking at approx. $1,200 for cheapos ($500 each way fee) and $2,300 for H.




edit: and about $ 4,000 for purchased BF

I'd start by trying to find the single reward seat now. Use the calendar to find dates. If the dates work, try searching for an upgradable flight on the same dates. Repeat until you can find a pair that works. Book them. That's all there is to it. ;)

And you have a 24-hour cancel policy that works in your favor to try to get on the same flight.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that CO has switched to a 764/762 combo for FCO service for next May, so the BF capacity is lower than it is this year. That will work against you. Plus CO doesn't release inventory in the front cabin this early, so you'll have to keep watching that. As for the H+$100 or lower fare + higher copay, check the prices and figure out which makes more sense. Sounds like you will be going for the H to get the EQMs, but make sure that you're not paying too much for them.

If you can confirm the upgrade at the time of booking the $300 for the extra EQMs is a pretty good deal.

sbm12 is right , sounds like the H fare is the better deal with the extra eqms

ONLY if the upgrade clears. Otherwise it was $1100 more than needed to be spent, which isn't a great deal for the EQMs. If you cannot confirm the upgrade at time of booking it is a risky move.

Yeah , thats what I meant , If he can confirm at booking then its a better deal .

It might be hard to find the upgrade reward for May right now. The hardest will be to find standard reward for the dates you want. If you get that I would grab them first. And if you cannot get the upgrade seat for those flights, you can:

a) roll the dice (sbm12's advice is good about pros and cons of H fare, and I think fare-class plays into BF upgrades so H would be almost at the top...though I could be wrong on that)

b) book a reward travel ticket yourself on that flight and go on a MR to get gold at another time

Fare class does not affect upgrade priorities. Unless you really need the extra EQM, buy the cheapest fare instead.

I'm basically doing the same thing from EWR. I ended up getting a BF standard award from EWR-LHR for my wife and a discounted $2400 BF fare for myself (zero miles or copay). Then a British Air RT from LHR to FCO for $175 each for myself and my wife. Going we're on CO and returning on Virgin Upper Class. Obviously going direct to Rome is better but you'll have a tougher time finding seats. I like buying an H fare rather than the discounted fare as the total usually is about the same with copays and you receive 150$eqms, but I usually don't book unless there's an UG available at time of booking.

OK ----- So you experts out there.

CLE-FCO wanting to upgrade for Dates 6/5/09 out & 6/14/09 home......


Looks like I'm going to have to waitlist no matter what. Do you think the better chance to clear (mostly worried about the TATL part) is CLE-LHR-FCO or CLE-EWR-FCO .......or some weird combination of the two each way?

Thanks again.

((still in a dilemma as to whether to buy the B (old H) fare or cheapos, fyi))

With no justification other than the 5 glasses of rum consumed on my flight to POS tonight, I think that you are more likely to clear on EWR-FCO than CLE-LHR. Lots more seats on the plane for BF and less demand, I think.

Like I said, completely a guess, but that's where I think you'll do better.

And I'll bet the words jumped right off the page of that book you bought. :p

Just an update on prices:

CLE-EWR-FCO

Cheapo $1547 +$400 + $400 for fees +40k miles = $2347 at 100% 9,584 EQM

B Fare $2500 +$100 + $100 for fees +40k miles = $2700 at 150% 14,376 EQM