I am looking to book a trip for 2 pax in 2024 with a one way ticket of HKG--DBX--ORD. My monitoring of F award availability indicates that F awards tend to only have one seat available initially. I realize that I could book 1 pax in F if I can catch the availability the first day the flight becomes available in the reservation system, and then I could book the 2nd pax in J and monitor until closer in to actual flight date to see if I can find another F award. But not being a frequent traveler on EK, and liking to get things locked in earlier, does anyone have any advice on whether my upgrade strategy (with the only consideration being which path yields the higher probability of getting the upgrade) should be: A) Buy a J ticket and use miles to upgrade, or B) Book a J award and upgrade with cash? It seems F rev tickets are way overpriced currently, so I don't consider that a realistic option .