Point Upgrade Advice - Emirates v Qatar plus availability
 

Hi All

Looking for some help here because I don't normally do point upgrades, however, I am traveling for work and purchasing a ticket (limited to Economy) from London to Asia.

I was thinking of using Emirates or Qatar. On Emirates I can see how much it would cost in points to upgrade but currently there is no space in business for my dates (I called up to ask). Is there an easier way to see availability so I can flex my dates based on availability. I'm not sure how well just waiting and see will work if more seats become available but I would assume LHR to DXB is a pretty busy route! How do others go about doing this? There was availability on the DXB + leg for business but cost just as much in points for that part then the whole way, any experience on if other seats become available would they match the at booking cost or do you just end up wasting points.

On Qatar I'm not really sure if there is a way to check availability - I've had a bit of a look through the forum and seems the only way is to check award availability and hope it comes out of the same basket. Any experience here would be helpful too.

Some additional information.

• I have Amex Points as well as Avios available (more than enough to cover upgrades).
• Welcome any other thoughts on airlines

Also my first time posting so apologies if I should have posted somewhere else etc.

If only one sector is upgraded and the other one later becomes available you can call in to get the full upgrade at the reduced rate. Doing it on line it would charge you per sector and as you have seen will cost a lot more miles.

You can check on Emirates and Qatar in a similar manner. Emirates you look for Saver Business Reward seats (not Flex Plus Rewards) as these and upgrades come out of fare bucket "D". On Qatar you look for regularly priced reward seats as opposed to "2x" rewards (bucket "U" IIRC).

Thanks that’s really helpful.