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Redeeming top value award flights can be a tricky business. Every carrier has a unique set of rules and region definitions, requiring a different number of miles for each destination and class of travel. When you add upgrades into the mix, it can start to feel like a full-time job.
You need to dig through award charts and program T&C’s to determine which fare classes are eligible for upgrades, the number of miles required, calculate if the cash price of the ticket plus the miles needed to upgrade offers a decent return, and find availability to upgrade into the class of travel you want to fly. We've done the digging and figured out a few examples where substantial value with upgrades can be had; hopefully, you'll find some more for us to add to the table!
Examples of When to Upgrade Airline Tickets With Miles
| ANA Mileage Club: Seattle to Tokyo - 25,000 miles from Economy to Business |
| British Airways Avios: New York to London - 20,000 Avios from Premium Economy to Business |
| Alitalia MilleMiglia: US to Rome - 12,500 miles from Premium Economy to Business |
| Singapore KrisFlyer: New York to Frankfurt - 21,000 miles from Premium Economy to Business |
There are three primary ways you can upgrade to a better seat.
- If you have elite status with the airline – Most frequent flyer programs offer complimentary upgrades to elite members
- Paying cash to upgrade – Either when you buy the ticket or when you check-in, some airlines also let you bid for upgrades.
- Upgrading with points and miles – Need to find upgrade availability, often requires purchasing a particular fare class, provides certainty over complimentary upgrades
TIP: If you pay for your upgrade, use the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® to offset the cost with travel credits or fixed-value points. These cards also offer the best travel protection!
When Should You Upgrade a Paid Ticket with Miles?
Most of us have a minimum value in mind when redeeming miles for award flights, and we should apply the same principals to upgrades. There is no reason to upgrade a ticket with miles if it means purchasing a higher fare class at a significant premium, nor does it make sense to upgrade if the airline requires a hefty copay in addition to your miles.
The trick to determining value is to break down the price difference between the cheapest fare we would otherwise purchase and an upgradeable fare, combine the difference with the number of miles required for the upgrade, and calculate the return on your miles.
Confused yet? Don’t worry, below we've listed a few of our favorite upgrade options between the US and Europe and put together an example flying between the US and Japan on ANA to show how the numbers roll out, offer a few tips on finding upgrade availability, and show the available value.
Before we get into the details, it’s worth noting that some airlines allow you to upgrade multiple classes (e.g., straight from economy to business class), while others only allow you to upgrade a single class from the one purchased (e.g., from economy to premium economy). It’s important to understand the rules for each program before you purchase your ticket to ensure you can upgrade to your desired class of travel.
ANA Mileage Club Seattle > Tokyo for 25K Economy to Business
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep pushing it until there's a devaluation, ANA has some of the best value awards of any frequent flyer program in the world, and this includes upgrades. The Mileage Club Upgrade Award Chart is sector-based and allows you to upgrade directly from economy to business.
The example we’ve put together is purchasing an upgradable economy fare from Seattle to Tokyo on ANA, and redeeming 25K miles upgrading to business class. Seattle > Tokyo comes in 4,769 miles, so we are safely within the 25K upgrade zone.
The cheapest economy fares to Tokyo on our dates cost $663.10. But as they are a ‘Special‘ fare, we can’t upgrade those tickets to business class. Instead, we’ve got to select the ‘Basic Plus’ fare at $959.10, so we’re $296 out of pocket to purchase the upgradable seat.
The cheapest business class fare for the same flight is $3,647.10. A difference of $2,688 between the cost of an upgradeable fare and the cost of a seat up the pointy end of the plane. To make it fair, we’re also going to deduct the $296 difference between the economy fares, as 99% of the time we’re likely buying the least expensive fares we can. Then we’ll divide the difference by the required mileage to upgrade, 25K miles.
Breaking down the numbers:
- $3,647,10 – $959.10 = $2,688
- $2,688 – $296 = $2,393
- $2,393 / 25,000 = 9.6¢ per mile
Achieving 9.6¢ per mile for an award is an excellent redemption.
The next thing to get a handle on is upgrade availability. ANA lets you search with upgrade availability highlighted in the flight details section.
Unfortunately, the majority of searches show the upgrade as ‘Waitlisted,’ not what you want to see before transferring over your hard earned Amex or Marriott points. The situation is compounded by ANA’s website, which forces you to look through each date manually until you find upgrade space.
The solution is finding ANA business class award space available to partners via the United website. If you can find Business Saver Award space on an ANA-operated flight via United’s website, that space is available to book as an ANA International Upgrade.
Don’t have any ANA miles? Mileage Club is a transfer partner of Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy, so you can transfer points from cards like the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card and The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express. Remember, when you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, you’ll receive an additional 5,000 miles in your ANA account, so your upgrade will only set you back 60K Marriott points.
BA Avios New York > London for 20K Premium Economy to Business
Crossing the Atlantic, Avios provide a great hack if you can land cheap Premium Economy tickets on BA. To calculate an upgrade from Premium Economy to Business, deduct the number of Avios required for Premium Economy from those required for Business class. Remember, the Avios award chart is distance-based, so the price will vary based on where you're flying from, for example:
- 60,000 (business) – 40,000 (premium economy) = 20,000 Avios to upgrade
Initially, the Avios required may look like a rough deal after you’ve paid out hard cash for a ticket. The value here is that you won’t pay carrier-imposed surcharges on upgrade awards which are the big killer on Avios business class redemptions to/from Europe; thanks, Gilbert from God Save The Points. Rather than paying roughly 60,000 Avios with an additional $500+ in fuel surcharges, if you can bag a one-way Premium Economy ticket in the range of $500/600, you can then upgrade with half the miles and pay no carrier-imposed surcharges.
You can find upgrade award availability on BA's website the same way you would search for standard Executive Club awards. Simply search for available award space in the cabin you want to upgrade to on the date you're booked. If there's availability, you can upgrade to the next class. All but the three lowest economy fare classes qualify for upgrades, so you can upgrade any paid premium economy or business class ticket.
Alitalia MilleMiglia US > Rome for 12.5K Premium Economy to Business
Despite tearing most of the value out of its award chart in 2016, one of the gems Alitalia left untouched can be found in the upgrade award chart. You can upgrade directly from Economy > Business for 25K or from Premium Economy > Business for 12.5K. Where Alitalia stands out from the crowd here is availability. There doesn’t need to be business class award availability to upgrade. As long as there are business class tickets for sale in the right fare class (down to the lowest fare bucket), you can upgrade your economy ticket to business class with miles. It’s a unique feature and takes some of the legwork out of searching for upgrade availability.
In a post on One Mile at a Time, Tiffany points out that although the English language version of MilleMiglia’s upgrade award chart states 12,500 miles to upgrade from premium economy to business class between North America and Italy, some reservations agents will charge the 15K miles quoted on the Russian version. While 2,500 miles isn’t going to tip the value into negative territory, YMMV depending on the booking rep. This is hands down the best value upgrade option between the US and Europe.
KrisFlyer New York >> Frankfurt for 21K Premium Economy to Business
Taking advantage of Singapore Airlines’ 5th freedom route between New York and Frankfurt, you can upgrade from Premium Economy > Business class for just 21K KrisFlyer miles. Again, this is dependant on landing a Premium Economy fare cheap enough to get a decent ROI on your miles. But with the cost of transatlantic travel dropping year on year, this is an often ignored award travel sweet spot that has become more valuable as the cost of flights has come down.
You need to pick up a ticket in Y, B, or E booking classes to upgrade from Economy, but any Premium Economy or Business class ticket should qualify for an upgrade. In our example above, a round-trip premium economy fare tips the scales at $1273.88, plus we would need 52K miles to upgrade to business for the entire trip. Why 52K miles?
While you can only upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy if there's saver award space, KrisFlyer lets you upgrade from Premium Economy to Business (and Business to First) when both saver and standard space is available. In this case, the outbound flight has saver upgrade space available for 21K miles, and the inbound flight to JFK only has standard upgrade availability which costs an additional 10K miles or 31K miles. As a comparison, for the same dates, you can land a round-trip business class fare for $2503.88. The return isn't quite what you'd get from the ANA example above, but 2.4¢ per mile still comes in above our minimum redeemable value for KrisFlyer miles.
What makes this option valuable isn't so much the cent-per-mile value, but that KrisFlyer is a transfer partner of the four big transferable rewards currencies, allowing you to book an upgrade to business even when your points are spread thin.
When It's Not Good Value to Upgrade with Miles
Typically, if you’re thinking of upgrading to a higher class of travel using U.S. legacy carrier miles, or for domestic flights, you're throwing value out the window. Flying from the US to Europe on Delta, for instance, requires that you purchase higher fare classes if you want to upgrade on international flights with miles. These fare classes often cost more than the cheapest business class tickets for the same destinations. Delta then charges up to 60,000 miles to upgrade that flight one-way from Economy to Business class. To put this in perspective, you can fly round-trip to Europe in business on Delta by redeeming 80,000 Korean miles plus fees & taxes on a SkyTeam partner award.
The key is to treat upgrades the same as you would any award flight and only redeem miles for an upgrade if the value exceeds your baseline.
Final Thoughts
Getting up the front of the plane and into business or first class is the name of the game for most points and miles fans. But if you don’t have the miles for a premium cabin award flight, purchasing an inexpensive Economy or Premium Economy seat and upgrading with miles could be the perfect solution.
Under the right circumstances, upgrading a paid flight to a higher class with miles can offer an even better return than a straight-out award flight. However, be wary of the terms and conditions for each program as they vary widely between carriers.
There’s a lot of info to soak in, so if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments and we’ll do our best to provide an answer. If you've got a great use of miles to upgrade an economy or premium economy ticket, please share it with us, and we'll add it to the list!
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Traveling to Africa in August and wondering what the best way is to use my 400k amex points in order to fly business class. Buy coach and upgrade, use for award tkts etc.
Great info. Not sure this will ever work out for me. As I tend to travel during holidays
WoW, didn’t know that it was so involved just upgrading your flight with points. I’ve got lot’s of reading material to go through now, Thanks!
Wow, didn’t realize it was so involved upgrading via points. Lot’s of reading material here! Thanks!
Points out plus cash ban works out on one airlines. Not AA or uA or DU only with points
Thanks, this is definitely a topic one could use help with. I always wondered if such complexity is targeted directly at travel hackers? If you have a lot of miles to redeem, I would assume you either a) travel hack, or b) travel a lot, likely in commercial or business class, and make probably significant enough a living that you don’t want to deal with that much complexity anyway? Is it meant as a deterrent in some form?
The complexity with everything in airline loyalty programs, in my opinion, has to deal with making it harder for people to redeem. Airlines want to provide options, to have the appearance of flexibility, but they have mechanisms that they want customers to use. You’ll find those mechanisms are often the easiest to redeem with — and provide some of the worst value.
Thanks for the info.
Thanks, good info. I still prefer to travel as frugally as possible, in terms of how I spend my miles. Maybe it’s b/c I don’t have a very large surplus, but biz class over economy doesn’t really justify the extra few thousands for me, even on trips between the US and Asia.
It’s a pity that with a lot of these upgrades using miles you have to also pay additional taxes and fees.
It’s certainly true that just as the value of the FF miles we earn seems to go down, so also have the upgrade awards become more costly and more difficult to clear. Tomorrow I’m flying IAD-AMS on UA and it’s 20K miles + $550 to upgrade an economy ticket to business. Am waitlisted and it looks like chances of clearing the list are slim to none. Oh well….
Swissair used to secretly sell ZRH-LAX First-Class upgrades at their F-check-in counter 30 minutes prior to departure, first-come first-serve and subject to availability, for a mere CHF 1’000.00 (~$1’050.00), rather than for miles. Mind you the fare for this segment is nowadays a whopping CHF 13’237.00 (~$13’750.00), so well worth this fee. Wish Swiss would reinstate this secret program I was successfully able to use many times…
Excellent information! Thx!
some airlines are much easier to upgrade with miles than others
This is a useful guide. It can be difficult to figure out when mileage upgrade makes sense.
good examples on upgrading with miles.
All the calculations certainly make me guess (and second guess) whether I’ll be making the right ‘decision’. Good thing I don’t have enough miles to worry about this for now!
We tried Air Canada yesterday and they are very difficult to deal with.
Values for upgrading at Alitalia are very attractive.
BA have a webpage explaining how it works to use Avios to upgrade your BA, Iberia or American Airlines flights here:
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/spending-avios/upgrading-with-avios
The link is super helpful. A super complicated process however.
Thanks for this link. I didn’t know you could upgrade American Airlines flights with Avios until reading this.
Yikes. Lots to think about. Thanks for the info.
If only I had enough miles for a upgrade. ?
Actually its not that hard especially if u r based in the USA. Many credit cards throw out generous amount of miles as sign-up bonus.
Very useful and appreciate the details. Perhaps, you can turn this into a series of posts with different articles walking through the ugprade process with different careers / alliances.
Thanks for the info
Certainly a tricky field to navigate
That is interesting about the British Airways upgrade. I always thought you had to pay additional “tax and charges” when you upgraded from premium economy to business class.
Upgrades with miles is something that I never think about. Partly because it is so complicated but also, I want to be sure I’m traveling in business class. I don’t want to hope there will be upgrade space available later. So I’m actually willing to use more miles upfront to be sure of the seat.
Couldn’t you purchase cash economy on UR points, which cash to the airlines, then use Avios on BA to upgrade? Is that reasonable?
Yes, absolutely.
My head is spinning. No because your post was not clear – It is very clear. It is just because of all the diferences from airline to airline and flight to flight, Sheesh!
good to know but it is complicated.
I guess I’m cheap, but upgrading for a few hours isn’t worth it unless they are practically giving it to me.
I’ll consider this on my next BA flight
Seems like the answer is that is usually isn’t worth it.
Geez, what a convoluted process, no wonder I’ve never attempted to upgrade with miles.
Last year I did an upgrade using AAdvantage from coach to business for 25k + $350 from SFO to HKG. Was that a bad move?
That is for you to decide. For me, I likely wouldn’t pony up that much unless it was confirmable in advance — and then I’d still have to decide if it were worth doing that versus having the cash in my pocket and the miles for another trip.
I think if it was confirmed online when you did it – makes good sense. International is really the only time it makes sense to use miles on business
Thanks for the info!
Any advice on getting a worth while upgrade into the premium cabin on flights from London to Bangkok next summer? I’ve currently got 167k Amex MR points I can transfer and a couple thousand points scattered across different airlines in Europe, the highest being Turkish Airlines at 24k. I don’t know where to start when it comes to redeeming and getting good value from it.
Why not price would what it would be on British Airways? If you’re looking for help with an Award Booking, you might reach out to our service: https://awardwallet.com/awardBooking/add
Always wondered if it was worth it. Guess its only really useful if you have a large amount to burn
As you say, it is a mess understand the rules and then find an agent for the upgrade.
Sometimes I have used optiontown where you pay a fee (non refundable) and then some money for the upgrade (refundable if you don’t obtain the upgrade).
It’s valid only for some airlines and it is not very straightforward but economically it is very convenient.
I had two upgrade in business for two internal flight with Vietnam Airlines for very few money.
Interesting, but you are supposed to pay the additional fuel surcharge when upgrading BA tickets using Avios. Perhaps somebody got lucky or the ex-USA rules are different.
I truly appreciate the efforts to find ways to use miles to upgrade to business class on overnight flights when it really makes a difference. My issue is the time it takes to manage partner scenarios and the likelihood that you come up empty if you are attending a conference or other event with set dates and do not have flexibility. Avios? Just take a look at their calendar for the next three months even using miles for a business class seat at a high premium – no plan ahead. NOTHING. I would be very happy to pay someone with greater expertise than i have to manage this part. I just seem to pay a LOT for a business class seat, and get miles for it that are not worth a whole lot because the redemption for a business class seat say to Europe is about 200K miles.
On BA it used to be you could only upgrade using miles a fully flexible sold seat, if this is still the case the cost of that seat can be as high as the next tier up.
This is not the case.
I love how thorough this guide is! Super useful when I really want to have comfort
I’ve always been suprised by how stingy airlines are when it comes to upgrading with miles. Shouldn’t that be something they push customers towards, rather than simply free seats?
Exactly! It surprised me for long! Many airlines asking for almost the same miles for upgrade awards and free seats in biz!!! Ridiculous
I’ve been trying to upgrade my singapore economy for a while but it just goes to a blank page
Sounds like a problem with your web browser. Perhaps try another one or simply give them a call to address your concerns.
When it comes to ME3 miles… that is all miles are practically good for. Especially Emirates… their miles are pretty much useless except for upgrades.
thanks for good info
I would not fully agree that no air US based Airlines offer any value when upgrading using miles and money . In fact American allows you to upgrade off of any fair into business event deeply discounted fares and with American slashing the systemwide upgrades for their 100,000 mile level elite flyers from 8 to 4 per year, which is distinctly less generous than United (United’s six global upgrades if they offer per year to 100,000 mile level elite fliers), you can go from a deeply discounted coach seat into a many thousand dollar level Business class seat for 25,000 miles and $350 co-pay Internationally. Happy flying .
Of the 3, AA is the closest to having a deal to get excited about — the challenge being you have no easy way to track upgrade space, and the $350 + 25,000 while not terrible, isn’t inexpensive. If you do find a $300-$500 round-trip international fare then you’re in good company, for sure. Also if you’ve got a pile of miles and can never get sAAver award space this could pay off as well.
Excellent points made, especially with the global upgrade reduction for AA EXP members as well.
Great info. Can you give some examples using Qantas frequent flyer points please. I am wondering if the value would be better if upgrading a flight from asia to europe rather than the flight eminating from Australia
Sue, Australian Business Traveller has a great breakdown of when to use Qantas points for upgrades here – https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-business-class-upgrade-guide
Can someone share some insights or best practice for Europe to the US? Especially west coast?
Sure. Look at the BA and Alitalia examples — both work from the west coast as well.
What about upgrading Air France tickets with miles? It seems from their calculator that it would be 15,000 miles one-way to upgrade from economy to Business?
But the fare class required (Y) is $$$
It shows on their website that several fare classes are upgradeable. Am I mistaken that V and L fare classes aren’t upgradeable for the 15k points?
While most fares are upgradable, only Y for 15,000 miles. Other fares classes will cost much more.
This summer I used miles to upgrade from ORD to PEK on AA. Believe it or not, the ticket only cost me $364. I used 25,000 miles and $350 for the upgrade. In my mind, well worth the cost for such a long flight.
In this example, yes, you got a great deal! Price mistakes and fare wars in certain cases work out great. Luckily your base fare was so inexpensive that the upgrade cost wasn’t bad when you totaled it out. Nicely done!
Thanks! I felt the same. Especially because the upgrade was confirmed well before the flight. The added luggage allowance and access to Admiral’s Club lounges were just icing on the cake!
Also, flying on the new Dreamliner was quite a treat. I arrived rested and well fed 🙂
If it weren’t for these stupid surcharges…
But those classes eligible to be upgraded by miles are so expensive, sometimes even more expensive than buy discounted biz class.
In the examples that we have listed, they’re comparatively low.
If you travel for work, I find the discounted fares booked by our corporate travel agency are in higher fare buckets and upgradeable.
Thanks, some good tips here.
Howie, do you know the code for an economy seat on United that is upgradeable with Miles? Looking for a few tickets to Asia and want to bump up after a economy priced ticket. Thx
The number of miles required varies based on your origin/destination and fare class: https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/awards/upgrade/mileage-upgrade-pricing.aspx. Identify the region within Asia you’re flying in to and then you’ll see the price for each fare classes.
I normally only upgrade with miles for work trips in Full Fare Y.
Which is crazy because often-times discounted business class tickets are priced under Y fares! But, if work will pay for that but not business class you do what you gotta do for the upgrade!
This was one of the most complicated post I have read.lol
Do u have any suggestions for maximizing upgrades to business with points from San Francisco. Thanks
From alone is only half of the equation. To is the other part needed.
Interesting. I know several folks who use miles exclusively for upgrades that they would otherwise have to pay for.
I generally don’t find the value in these situations, but as noted, there are rare occasions for relatively specific trips.
How does this work with AA miles when one can not find any saver award availability? Would it be possible to give a couple of examples in a future blog post? USA/Europe; USA/Australia
The problem is that these upgrades it isn’t a particularly good value: https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/upgrade-with-miles.jsp and finding that upgrade space requires using a service like ExpertFlyer.com, which can show if upgrade space is available.
Thank you!