Best program/method for International upgrades
 

Okay - so here's my story: I live in NYC, I big and tall 6'3" 220lbs, I have family in Europe and long flights in coach just cramp me up from my legs to my style ;) I fly enough that I have elite on both United (Silver) and American (Platinum). I also fly to Austin, TX and hate the fact that all UA flies in there are the little pinner regional jets. I don't mind paying slightly more for my tickets, but there's no way in hell I'm gonna pay thousands of dollars for a biz class / first class seat. The only method that I've tried which has 100% successfully gotten me upgrades is to buy the VIP or 100k+ upgrades off ebay. My question to the forum is, given that I put in so many miles if I commited myself to one airline who should it be w/ the best possibility of getting International upgrades?

I will insert a caviat that I absolutely loathe Continental :mad: . They have screwed me when the chips were down and I pretty much refuse to fly them. Still, I'd like to hear all opinions on this matter as I'm truly interested :D .

Thanks!

klm is pretty good as you can upgrade at the airport if seats are availabel - which often is the case - but only on b and y fares - b price out pretty well in most cases (in the 800 and up range). You could also fly on PIA via manchester - they have 1000 C class tickets and use a 777 - thes tickets are only sold a few weeks before yhe flight date as they try and fill up the place with people flyign to pakistan - no miles and alcohol though....

If you don't mind backtracking through MSP or DTW to go to Europe, NWA/KLM is probably your best choice. NWA still flies into Austin via DTW and MSP with full size jets. It's not the best schedule in the world, but they can get you there with a FC cabin and good Plat upgrade prospects.

Robin

KLM isn't bad - still a haze though because they are partnered w/ Continental. I also love Virgin who is partered w/ Continental. All very frustrating.

UA and AA both have excellent programs for international upgrades. You should concentrate all your flying on one carrier and if necessary do a couple extra flights to achieve top tier status. You'll then have your own upgrades for your international flights - as well as having higher status, thus more easily clearing the upgrade list.

I would be very cautious about buying upgrades from eBay. If it has worked well for you, you are fortunate. I was talking to a friend yesterday, who happens to be an airline rez agent. She was speaking of cases where her airline has pulled upgrades when they have determined they were purchased on eBay.

Fly OK!
 

The FFP of Czech Airlines gives complimentary space-available u/gs to its elite members regardless of fare class (though silvers are charged 2000 miles per upgrade for longhaul segments).
Quite a few flights from EWR and JFK if you don't mind connecting in PRG (and IMHO it's a fab airport wrt connections so you shouldn't mind it!). Obviously not as much help for your domestic flts but you 'll at least be able to collect/redeem miles with the other Skyteam airlines.

If you are not going to do 100k per year, I would say that UA would be slightly better than AA, as you can use their E+, at least until they match AA and drop it, which I find as adequate on domestic and at least tolerable on international. (Though I have only had the NRT-HKG-NRT on UA international.) Otherwise, AA is still the easiest to UPG into business/first on both international and domestic travel, at the EXP level, given that eVP's have better (read lower) fare options and the unlimited domestic UPG's, which have been 99.9% (for me, only one DFW-SFO segment in the past 3 years-though some of that time, it was e-certs.)

Definitely, concentrate your flying into one program until you start all the MR activity to do multiple top elite status.

NW domestic upgrades for elites are great--I've only flown in Cattle Class a couple of times since I made silver, quite a few years ago.

Internationally, NW is a different story. B class mileage upgrades are pretty hard to get, and waitlisting is not offered. I generally buy B fares LAX-Europe, and about half the time I snag an upgrade--usually about 48 hours before the flight.

You can't join KLM's program with a US address--they'll just put you in NW's program.

If you fly enough to be Platinum on one airline, you should probably pick one that offers Plats system-wide upgrade certs you can use to upgrade discounted coach fares to Europe. Sadly, NW isn't one of them.

Its a shame you have such a negative view of Continental. I admit I have only been upgraded once and that was on USAirways, but from a customer service standpoint I think Continental is great. Much better than USAirways and AA. They've stepped up for me several times in the past. Whereas USAirways, especially out of their Philly hub, seem to make serious efforts to make your flying experience as awful as possible. And this is prior to them going Chap 11.

You might have a look at BA's FFP. You could use (quite reasonably priced now and then) WT+ as your default legroom/buttroom seat, and go for either mileage upgrades or op-ups, which seem to occur with slightly higher frequency than Y-J bumps on other carriers. You can earn miles on BA on your AA domestic travel too.

ebay
 

I'm not experienced buying anything off of ebay. What exactly do you "buy" with regards to frequent flyer miles from ebay? :confused:

Nothing. Don't do it. You'll eventually get busted and lose your u/g, as well as possibly all miles in your account. Not worth it. Play by the rules.

NW is great for domestic upgrades, but not international.

If you have to fly coach internationally, I'd rather be in UA "Economy Plus" or AA's "More Room in Coach" over NW or anyone else -- both have better legroom -- but unfortunately AA is in the process of putting more rows back into their "more room" planes (not all their planes had "more room" to begin with), and I don't know that I'd want to be putting all my eggs in UA's basket right now...so I have no good answers unfortunately...

Several people above mentioned KLM as beeing OK on upgrades. I have flown a fair amount of NW or KLM international flights, and have never figured out how to get KLM to part with an upgrade.

What do I have to do to get an international upgrade on KLM or NW?

Um, you aren't flying out of EWR much, are you?!