Upgrade with miles availability
 

Hello gang, I tried to make some bookings to upgrade with miles, that expire by the end of this year, however while I see the award space in "I" class on the route, I don't see the offer to upgrade my flights in the manage my booking page, upgrade cabin page or the app. I was curious if it's worth to call the customer center to try manually? I need approx 3k miles by the end of november, and 50k miles expire by end of this year so it's best for me to use the upgrade option to kill two birds with one stone :)

What's your experience with the availability for upgrade with miles? Do they rely on I+J, only on I class, or it's just absolutely random? I booked few itineraries with Expedia with 24hr cancellation, all the routes had I-class available, but it seems nothing was available online.

Thanks!

upgrades have nothing to do with promo award booking space (I-class). J-class (deep discount business class) must be available in order to be able to process an upgrade. 24 hours prior to your flight you can upgrade as long as a business class seat is available (no restrictions on available business class booking classes)

Aren't those rules for voucher upgrades? That's not what I'm looking for.

I'm seeking for miles upgrade. But if you're right, it's kinda strange I can pay 35k miles + taxes to book business flight, but I can't pay taxes + economy class fare + 35k miles for the same routing?

check experflyer award availability ... Business Award is I-Class, Upgrade Award is J-Class

upgrades are treated differntly than award flights - on Air France for example I could upgrade oneway CDG-HKG of the NUE-CDG-HKG economy ticket for 90.000 miles - but could get the whole itinerary as business class award for 79.000 miles.

Right… very strange. Thank you!

FYI played around a little bit and it turned out J class was available on my routing, however only as married segment, separately the flight from Asia to Istanbul and Istanbul to Warsaw there was J0.

I called the airline and they told me I can't upgrade with miles, however I asked if I can upgrade with a voucher and they told me I can.

I refused, however,
it seems married segment is enough for voucher upgrade because you upgrade the whole route,
with miles we currently upgrade each segment separately, hence I believe there's J required on separate segments.

I switched my dates and managed to find J class on both segments separately and I was able to upgrade the Asia-Istanbul flight via website with two clicks. In general very good experience.

Hope it helps

So, were you able to upgrade with miles on the two separate segments? I booked a ticket for my wife SOF-IST-DTW in economy class. On the TK site it says you must contact them for business class upgrades... no upgrade options appear under her booking. She emailed TK is SOF as they are not answering the phone. The reply from TK is that there are no upgrades available as the original ticket was booked with miles.

I suggested she call a different office, or wait until within 24 hours of booking. It would be just fine to upgrade only the second segment if possible.

Thanks

Not sure if this is news to anyone but upgrade inventory is based on individual sectors.

Flying ABC-IST-DEF. As per Seats Aero, ABC-IST-DEF has J4 and I4 availability. However, the TK system only lets me upgrade leg 1 (ABC-IST) with miles. Upon checking both legs separately ABC-IST had J4 I0 but IST-DEF was J0 I0 & C4 D4.

This implies that upgrades are pulled from J and that even if there is open availability for a married segment, TK won't let you upgrade unless there's J availability on individual sectors. Sad