V-Flyer

Advice please: Hubby and I are visiting Australia Nov 2006 and want to book our flights early in 2006. By then we will have enough FC miles for PE all the way. However, can we pay for an upgrade to UC - can't see anything on website and Miles for Money is too expensive? Next question - if not, is it best to sleep for the first 10 hrs (ie book UC first leg only) and awake for last 10hrs (PE), or vice versa, as we land in Sydney at 0630hrs?
Many thanks.

Originally posted by SANDYT
Advice please: Hubby and I are visiting Australia Nov 2006 and want to book our flights early in 2006. By then we will have enough FC miles for PE all the way. However, can we pay for an upgrade to UC - can't see anything on website and Miles for Money is too expensive?

The only way to PAY for an upgrade from a mileage ticket is on the day, at the airport, IF they're doing any "specials". Certainly not guaranteed, and cannot be done in advance.

It's worth trying on the day, if that's the only option available to you, but have you considered paying for Economy/Premium tickets, and using your miles to upgrade that one to an Upper Class reward? (B or S class - There's a restriction on the SYD route to mean that L tickets are invalid for an upgrade from Economy - section 4.3.8 here)

"Free" PE Ticket = 112,500
Upgrade from PE (paid) to Upper = 80,000
Upgrade from Y (paid) to Uppper = 120,000

The key here is that the bottom two Upper class options can be guaranteed in advance, PLUS you still earn miles on the ticket that you paid for pre-upgrade. With the other option, what happens at the airport, with the PE mileage ticket, well - happens at the airport... [B)]

Many, many thanks Paul - I'm researching that option now!

Sandy

If it helps, the lowest B class is £850 + tax.

So, for £850 and 107k miles (120k - 13.2k miles earned for a B fare), you get a guaranteed upper class trip (x4 sectors in total) to SYD [y]