Upgrading Y to J using miles
 

Does anyone have experience upgrading a full fare ONE WAY economy class (Y ) to business (J) with miles?

I have an upcoming long haul flight from JFK/LGA>PVG in economy class paid by my company and am looking for the easiest way/airline/alliance to upgrade with miles. Also, is it possible to upgrade via alliance partners? For example, transfer UR points to Flying Blue and upgrade Korean Air?

I have a ton of UR and Marriott points at my disposal (prefer using UR) but would like to find an optimum way to redeem. Considering mostly Star Alliance or Skyteam, preferred airlines are KE, NH, CX, UA, MU, AC. Thanks.

Is Y generic Y (as in economy) or a real Y fare booking class (tends to be super expensive)?
What airlines? This is the Star Alliance forum, but you mention Skyteam airlines,

UA thread, but the generally same for other airlines/ffp's--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...-carriers.html
Some other similar threads in other forums

I expect you will be flying in the seat your company paid for.

OP's other thread in Skyteam forum--->https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/skyt...ing-miles.html

It's pretty easy to do with UA miles for a Star Alliance airline, assuming upgrade availability is open at the time you try to apply the upgrade, there are no upgrade standbys on Star Alliance upgrades.

I assume the reason you're booking full fare Y instead of P or Z (discounted business) is company policy? As full Y is going to be more expensive than P and Z in many cases.

I've never used the upgrade programs outside of Star Alliance, so can't really advise about Skyteam or OneWorld, but for *A, definitely UA is quite easy to use as it's all online. Your other option from UR is SQ miles which may or may not be a better value, check their upgrade award chart to be sure, upgrade inventory for other *A carriers is identical whether using MileagePlus or KrisFlyer miles.