Award Travel in November

[Brian Knudsen]

My wife and I are planning to travel to November to Europe for a vacation. My wife has a business conference in Paris for three days. We want to travel before the conference. Right now we are thinking on either Barcelona or London but we are open to suggestions. My question is this: Her company will pay for her round trip flight but only in economy. I was really hoping to fly round trip in business. (That's why most of us get into this game right?). I have enough points to fly us in business class. What is the most logical way of upgrading my wife's paid economy ticket to an award ticket in business class? I have 150K UR, 50k SPG, 78K AA, and 80k CTY. My wife is also an executive platinum elite with Marriott if that helps. Thanks in advance.

 

[italdesign]

What is the most logical way of upgrading my wife's paid economy ticket to an award ticket in business class?

There are two ways to achieve this.

1. Some airlines allow you to upgrade to biz class using miles, if you buy an eligible paid economy fare. They're mostly horrible deals, from what I heard.

2. Trade some of your points with someone with an extra upgrade certificate (AA SWU, UA GPU, etc). This is fairly complicated though. You need to make sure the paid flight is eligible for upgrade, and watch for upgrade space availability (if not available right away).

Personally, if I were in this situation, I would forget the company-paid option and just use my miles for something comfortable. Another option would be to rotate sitting in economy, for example she sits in Y outbound, you sit in Y inbound.

 

[Brian Knudsen]

There are two ways to achieve this.

1. Some airlines allow you to upgrade to biz class using miles, if you buy an eligible paid economy fare. They're mostly horrible deals, from what I heard.

2. Trade some of your points with someone with an extra upgrade certificate (AA SWU, UA GPU, etc). This is fairly complicated though. You need to make sure the paid flight is eligible for upgrade, and watch for upgrade space availability (if not available right away).

Personally, if I were in this situation, I would forget the company-paid option and just use my miles for something comfortable. Another option would be to rotate sitting in economy, for example she sits in Y outbound, you sit in Y inbound.

Ok. Thanks so much. That is definitely something I will consider.

 

[dukerau]

The structure of her company's flight purchase is relevant. Does she need to book using their tools? Or can she book and be reimbursed? If the latter, will they allow her to purchase any flight she wants and reimburse her the cost of an equivalent economy ticket? If those stars align, using BA could be interesting. BA Avios are horrible for award redemptions, but decent for upgrades. However, in order to upgrade to business class, you have to book premium economy since you're only allowed to upgrade 1 class (economy upgrades to premium economy). Also, "discount" (read: most) economy fares aren't eligible for upgrade, while (almost?) all premium economy fares are eligible. Often the cheapest upgrade-eligible premium economy fare is cheaper than the cheapest upgrade-eligible economy fare.

Anyway, if her company is flexible and there is business award (=upgrade) availability for 2 on the exact flights you want, you could purchase 2 premium economy round trips, have them reimburse an economy equivalent for her, and use Avios to upgrade both of you (but only for the long-haul as intra-Europe business class is pretty useless). Of course you should weigh that total cost/benefit against other approaches.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/20/upgrade-british-airways-avios/

 

[Brian Knudsen]

The structure of her company's flight purchase is relevant. Does she need to book using their tools? Or can she book and be reimbursed? If the latter, will they allow her to purchase any flight she wants and reimburse her the cost of an equivalent economy ticket? If those stars align, using BA could be interesting. BA Avios are horrible for award redemptions, but decent for upgrades. However, in order to upgrade to business class, you have to book premium economy since you're only allowed to upgrade 1 class (economy upgrades to premium economy). Also, "discount" (read: most) economy fares aren't eligible for upgrade, while (almost?) all premium economy fares are eligible. Often the cheapest upgrade-eligible premium economy fare is cheaper than the cheapest upgrade-eligible economy fare.

Anyway, if her company is flexible and there is business award (=upgrade) availability for 2 on the exact flights you want, you could purchase 2 premium economy round trips, have them reimburse an economy equivalent for her, and use Avios to upgrade both of you (but only for the long-haul as intra-Europe business class is pretty useless). Of course you should weigh that total cost/benefit against other approaches.

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/20/upgrade-british-airways-avios/

My wife can is "required" to use the company website but more often than not she uses the airlines website directly. She is required to use her company credit card though. Thanks for the tip though. I'll look into using avios.

 

[Josh F]

There are two ways to achieve this.

1. Some airlines allow you to upgrade to biz class using miles, if you buy an eligible paid economy fare. They're mostly horrible deals, from what I heard.

2. Trade some of your points with someone with an extra upgrade certificate (AA SWU, UA GPU, etc). This is fairly complicated though. You need to make sure the paid flight is eligible for upgrade, and watch for upgrade space availability (if not available right away).

Personally, if I were in this situation, I would forget the company-paid option and just use my miles for something comfortable. Another option would be to rotate sitting in economy, for example she sits in Y outbound, you sit in Y inbound.

I agree with you in regards to #1 (in most cases) as typically you're better just buying the biz ticket with miles in the first place, opposed to a more expensive economy fare and then upgrading with miles. However, if her company will pay for the more expensive upgradable economy ticket (potentially a big if), that would be a decent proposition as you'd save miles over buying the whole thing outright with miles.