I'm reviving an old thread, but there's my scenario: I have transferable miles, and I want to book EK F/J for my sister - she does not have any miles. Routing is DXB-YYZ

If/once F award space opens up, is it possible to call in and make a fare/ticket changes from J to F instead of the upgrade option?
I've tried to search this topic but only come up with discussions around mile upgrades, and can't find anything about repricing the award.
Also, in my scenario - I have miles to spare and my sister does not, so she cannot upgrade regardless, i'm hoping I can reprice and pay the difference with my own EK miles on an award for my sister

They would just cancel the J Flex Plus and book a new one in F if it became available,. The miles would be returned instantly to your account in order to make the new booking

Thanks. Glad to hear miles are returned instantly. My first time booking with EK miles

Perhaps that's generally true, assuming you can find a saver award. But then even if the total price in cash plus miles were the same for buying Y and upgrading versus buying a J award, there is the modest benefit of the extra miles earned if you buy Y and upgrade. Maybe buying a J award has modest additional benefits too (some chance of an op-up to F (must be rare), maybe more protection against a downgrade (not sure if this is an issue)).

I have gotten supposedly special prices, less than two weeks out, for upgrades on U.S. flights recently, where they cross out the miles required and replace it. This is for an upgrade confirmable at booking, or technically a separate transaction the instant after you book. In these cases the cash outlay for Y was around the same as the taxes and fees for a J award and the miles were the same or fewer for the upgrade. I don't think I have even seen a corresponding "discount" on straight awards, and rarely see saver awards anyway.

Example: I just paid around $1,350 for a flex-plus Y one-way DXB-DFW with an upgrade for 81,900 miles at booking, around a week before the flight. (I looked for the straight award for the same flight, and I think it priced out at 138,000 miles.) The flight earned a paltry 5,000 miles. For the return, I had booked a straight J award (flex-plus) ORD-DXB three months in advance for 138,000 miles and around $850 in taxes and fees. These are, depressingly, both about as good as redemptions get to the U.S. most of the time these days, and I found the upgrade award a slightly better value. Considering the earned miles, it cost around $500 to save 61,000 miles, which is pretty much a wash in my view, but I am on the borderline for requalifying for Gold and don't have any miles expiring soon, so I took it. They also offered a flex Y ticket with instant upgrade on DXB-DFW, for less cash and more miles of course, but I found that a slightly worse value.

Note that these were both for B777 routes, while I would have preferred the A380. I was limiting myself to routes in the Central or Pacific time zones as I was traveling to PHX. (I am really hoping they start flights to PHX/LAS/DEN.) DFW was suboptimal for this trip, as I needed two flights to get to PHX on UA, but I liked the flight timing, leaving DXB at 2:00am arriving 8:00am, instead of a daytime flight like the majority of U.S. outbound itineraries.

Barely book EK flights so I figured this would be the best place to ask this question

​​​​​​Want to book EK DXB-MED one way

For a flex plus award in J it costs 30000 miles.

If I book flex plus economy, it is 10000 miles, and it mentions I can upgrade to business for 11700 miles.

Before I transfer the points, I wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything and that I should book the economy ticket and upgrade.

As long as there�s saver availability in J, this would work. Saver availability can be checked by doing a dummy return booking as they can�t be booked one-way.

So there would need to be a saver J award on the flight for an upgrade to be avaliable?

I am unable to see it on Emirate's website as it only shows Flex plus, but it does show a business class award available on the flight on the Qantas award search. Would that indicate that a saver award is available?

AFAIK, if you can�t see it on the EK website, it�s normally not available. I know nothing about Qantas. Might be worth calling EK to see if they have saver availability. I�ve had it once where it wasn�t showing on the website but when I called in, there was a seat.

Trying to use Expertflyer to track Business Saver awards. Do these come from the 'D' fare bucket? EF does not seem to list D, only 'O', which I assume has the Flex Plus awards. Any insights?

Yes, Saver awards come from D bucket. For a few years now, EF does not show award buckets in any class anymore, so there is no straightforward way to check availability apart from trying to book one.

I checked EF and I see O class availability. Is O Class available to upgrade from a Flex fare in coach or can it be used to book an outright award reservation in J?

Is there any other tool, e.g seats.aero, roame etc that gives more access to other buckets inc F?

O is a business flex award bucket so yes, it can be booked as an expensive (double priced) award but it does not mean an upgrade is available. For that you need D, a saver award or regular priced upgrade.

The above is completely correct, but just for clarity: O class is also a Business Class Saver fare, which you can just book with cash.

Still kind of confusing, I see that O Class is a classic rewards (use miles to book). if I see offer available on a one-way ticket and ability to upgrade to next class with Miles, is that also O class?

How and when do you find saver level class availability and why would this only be of use for upgrading a saver level ticket usually a few days before departure?

The (understandable) confusion here is that 'O' bucket is used for two purposes:
1. The most common one is a commercial, cash Business Saver fare. It is the lowest cost fare that still gets chauffeur drive, lounge access and seat selection (the cheapest fare is 'Special' which books into 'H' bucket). Saver is upgradeable with cask or miles, but miles upgrades are only available at check in or on board. Check in starts at T-48 hours, so you don't have to be physically at a check in desk. Obviously you will need more miles to upgrade than from a Flex or a Flex+ fare. 'Special' fares are not upgradeable with miles (but I guess they are upgradeable with cash, not sure).
2. The other one is a Flex Business award. If you try to book a classic award (which, as mentioned earlier books in 'D' bucket) and it is not available, you will be offered a flex award in 'O' bucket (at considerably more miles, I have no experience at how many, but I have heard it is double the amount for 'D').

If you want to check 'D' bucket availability, there is a workaround as a classic award books into the same bucket (D) as an upgrade. So you look for classic award availability (there is a 'switch' for that on the booking page). Make sure that you search for a return trip award, as there is no such ting as a one-way classic award. Just put in a random date for the return flight and only look at what is presented as miles required for the outbound. If that number of miles equals what you find in the mileage calculator (under 'Loyalty' on the website), it is 'bingo'!

Hope this clarifies things a bit!