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One of the best ways to redeem points and miles is for international business-class award tickets. Unfortunately, awards in some of the most premium cabins come at…well, a premium. But you also can access business and first class by purchasing a cash fare and upgrading with miles. And sometimes, it can make a lot of sense.
Here's a look at when it does and how you can upgrade your ticket with points and miles.
Ways To Upgrade Your Paid Airline Ticket
While every air carrier is different in what it allows, there are generally three primary ways to upgrade your economy or premium economy seat to a business- or first-class one:
- Earn elite status: Depending on the program and route you're flying, most carriers offer space-available complimentary upgrades to elite members.
- Pay cash to upgrade: Sometimes, you can buy an upgrade when you purchase the ticket or at check-in for your flight. Select carriers also let you bid for upgrades.
- Redeem points and miles to upgrade: You can upgrade using your airline miles if you've purchased a paid ticket in an eligible fare class.
In this post, we're taking a detailed look at the third option: upgrading with miles.
When It Makes Sense To Upgrade With Miles
For points and miles nerds, it's easy to get into the technical details of comparing price differences between cheap upgradable fares, what your miles are worth towards an upgrade, and coming to a mathematical conclusion about when it is and isn't a good time to upgrade. And while we'll inevitably get into that, keep in mind that the math isn't always necessary to determine when it does or doesn't make sense to upgrade.
Sometimes, all you need to do is ask yourself, “Is the cost to upgrade reasonable?” If so, it's likely worth it. If not, then it's worth passing on and redeeming your miles another day. Ultimately, relying on your gut instinct will guide you to the right conclusion on most occasions.
And before we get further into the details, we'd be remiss not to mention that each airline has unique rules about how to upgrade with miles, when you can upgrade, and what it costs. If you intend to upgrade with miles, ensure you understand each program's rules before you pull out your travel rewards credit card to book a ticket.
A Look at a Few Airlines That Offer Mileage Upgrades
Here's a look at three airlines that offer opportunities to upgrade with miles and some examples of when upgrades may or may not make sense.
American Airlines upgrade with miles
American Airlines AAdvantage miles are good for a lot of things, and upgrading to a better class of travel is one of them. Even better, American publishes a handy chart that shows how much you'll pay for an upgrade to the next class of travel on its flights. Plus, it shows the copay you'll be on the hook for — if one exists.
To emphasize that some upgrades present better value than others, we'll compare two examples, starting with a non-basic economy domestic ticket. The cost for jumping from the back of the plane to the front, space permitting, is 15,000 miles plus $75. If you think about where 15,000 AAdvantage miles can get you, plus $75 for that matter, this is an easy offer to pass on — especially because most domestic flights are only a couple of hours long.
However, there's one true use case for domestic mileage upgrades on American Airlines. If you can book a cheap Main Cabin fare and upgrade to a lie-flat seat on an internationally configured plane operating a domestic route, then maybe it's worth the splurge. We'll admit, that's pretty sweet.
On the other hand, upgrades on long-haul flights begin to make more sense. For example, if you book an economy ticket, you could upgrade to premium economy for 25,000 miles plus $350. If you booked yourself in premium economy with cash, you could move to international business class for the same amount.
Upgrading could be well worth the cost if you're traveling from the U.S. to Asia, the Middle East, or Oceania. Enjoying extra comfort for a reasonable outlay of miles plus a moderate copay can be a great alternative to paying 60,000+ AAdvantage miles for one-way awards on some of the carrier's longest routes. Even better, you don't have to spend your time looking for premium cabin award availability.
Singapore Airlines upgrade with miles
There exist many reasons to rave about Singapore Airlines' premium cabins. The carrier offers a stellar premium economy and business class product, and you can easily use KrisFlyer miles to jump to better classes of service. And the upgrade prices are compelling — especially on the carrier's fifth-freedom routes.
However, some KrisFlyer miles upgrades make more sense than others. For example, let's compare the costs of booking a business-class ticket on Singapore's route from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA). You can access business class in one of three ways:
- Book a standard economy ticket in fare classes M, H, or W and upgrade to business for 55,000 miles: You'll pay $650 on average for a one-way ticket.
- Book a premium economy ticket in fare classes P or L and upgrade to business for 31,000 miles: You'll pay $1,076 on average for a one-way ticket.
- Book a business-class award outright for 81,000 miles: Pay just $5.60 out of pocket for the taxes and fees.
On average, AwardWallet users redeem Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for 2.37¢ apiece. After accounting for what Singapore miles are typically worth and adding the out-of-pocket expenses, here's the “cost” of each option:
- Upgrade from economy to business: $2,014.00
- Upgrade from premium economy to business: $1,844.80
- Book a business class award outright: $2,014.40
While the middle option offers the best value, it's not for everyone. Spending $1,000 out of pocket only to redeem an additional 31,000 miles is an expensive proposition. But as we mentioned at the outset, upgrading only makes sense if it's reasonable for you.
Emirates upgrade with miles
Emirates also offers plenty to rave about, courtesy of its incredible business and first-class cabins. And like most premium products, booking yourself into one of the carrier's posh seats requires a massive outlay of cash or miles — or maybe both for First Class. But if you have some Skywards miles lying around, you can upgrade to Emirates first class without breaking a sweat.
As an example, we'll take a look at upgrading to business class on Emirates' fifth-freedom route between Newark (EWR) and Athens (ATH). And as the story goes, some upgrades make more sense than others. You can access business class in one of two ways.
The first is booking an economy flex plus award. You'll pay 38,750 Skywards miles for the ticket, plus $53.30 out of pocket. Per Emirates' calculator, you'll redeem a flat 39,000 miles to upgrade — no copay required. The second way is more straightforward. Simply book a business class award outright costs 87,000 Skywards miles, plus $105.30 in taxes and fees.
So, which option makes more sense? Let's check the math.
On average, AwardWallet users redeem Emirates Skywards for 1.55¢ apiece. With that value and the out-of-pocket expenses in mind, each option “costs” the following:
- Upgrade to business: $1,289.53
- Book a business class award outright: $1,488.60
As the numbers show, it's worth upgrading Emirates flex plus economy awards to business class. You'll redeem fewer miles and pay less out of pocket. It's a good deal, plain and simple.
Final Thoughts
Getting up to the front of the plane to enjoy business or first class is the name of the game for many 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 can be the perfect solution. It also can help you get around limited seat inventory for premium redemptions with some airlines.
Under the right circumstances, upgrading a paid flight to a higher class with miles can make a lot of sense. Sometimes, upgrading can offer better value than booking a premium cabin award outright. But remember, mileage redemptions won't always present the best deal. Treating every opportunity to upgrade on a case-by-case basis is worth the time and effort. Don't redeem more miles and pay more out of pocket than you should.
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Emirates on flights that are not heavy loads routinely puts out upgrade offers. Generally it’s $200-400 for economy to business and $800-1000 for business to first. We had the offer for first, but they could only upgrade one of us. We were booked in business both ways. Our flights were supposed have light loads. Both directions, business was packed. So we asked surrounding pax if they were originally on our flight? They all answered that Emirates offered them the upgrade, economy to business for $200. Kinda shocking?
Emirates will also let passengers upgrade at check-in, even at the gate, for miles. As long as the seat is available.
Great tips John!
Hello there,
Do you have anyone who specializes in making reservations utilizing your miles. Obviously I would pay that person for their time. Thank you, Hillary Caston.
We do! We have a dedicated AwardWallet team that can help you: https://awardwallet.com/en/awardBooking/add
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!