Anonymous wrote:How does this work? You buy the economy ticket and then use mikes to buy an upgrade? How far in advance can you upgrade?

It's very rarely actually worth it going this route. You need two things:

1. Upgradeable space available. On long haul international routes this in itself is rare.
2. To be above others on the waitlist. It will not surprise you that the waitlist is ordered by status and then by fare paid. In other words, on a long haul international flight, your $1300 economy ticket isn't getting upgraded.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/ultimate-guide-upgrades-on-united-airlines/

Flying on a lie flat business seat is pretty amazing, especially on overnight flights if you are the type who can't usually sleep much in an economy seat. I would get maybe an hour of bad sleep flying on red eyes in economy. Once I got into the points and miles game, I took my first international business class flight and slept 5 hours of the 7 in flight. It was incredible, made the first day so much better and allowed us to adjust to the time zone almost immediately.

But as stated in the OP, it's a steep learning curve. Getting the points actually isn't that hard if you are organized, especially right now with good referrals, you can just ping pong referrals between a couple and easily earn 100k points total for every $5-6k in spending.

It's using the points that gets hard and requires a lot more work. Finding available award space, figuring out which transfer airlines/partners to use, maximizing transfer bonuses, etc.

Definitely took years to have a deep enough understanding to be able to figure out the best options- each booking is different.

Good beginners guide.

https://frequentmiler.com/start-here/

https://frequentmiler.com/the-games-we-play/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does this work? You buy the economy ticket and then use mikes to buy an upgrade? How far in advance can you upgrade?

That's the rub. You usually dont' hear until a day or two before. Rarely, they will announce it a few weeks in advance if busienss class is really empty.

I current have 4 United flights to/from Europe in June and July. One direction in July just had the upgrade clear. The others are all "waitlisted". All are miles upgrades.

The earlier you request an upgrade the better chance you get. Also, if you don't get the upgrade, you get your miles back.

Business class can be cheaper than you think if you buy far in advance, have a connection, and are willing to fly from another airport.

My friend just booked to India round-trip in business class on Qatar airways for $3,500/person. She booked a year in advance.

I booked a trip to Brazil for 2 months from now. From DC it was $5k+, so I booked from Miami instead, for $2k, then I bought a $300 r/t flight from DC to Miami. Miami has a lot more competition to Brazil so it was much better prices.

I've never paid more than $5k on business class, and I fly to Asia and Europe a few times a year.

Anonymous wrote:How does this work? You buy the economy ticket and then use mikes to buy an upgrade? How far in advance can you upgrade?

That's the rub. You usually dont' hear until a day or two before. Rarely, they will announce it a few weeks in advance if busienss class is really empty.

I current have 4 United flights to/from Europe in June and July. One direction in July just had the upgrade clear. The others are all "waitlisted". All are miles upgrades.

If you have miles it is so worth it! Do it!
If you have the funds it's worth it, but only you can answer that one.

How does this work? You buy the economy ticket and then use mikes to buy an upgrade? How far in advance can you upgrade?

Upgrade using your miles! I could never stomach paying 15k for a flight, but I will pay $300 to buy X amount of miles that I can then convert to a business upgrade.

I did this multiple times in the past year when traveling back and forth from Europe. To me, it has always been worth it. Definitely check if your flight/route allows miles upgrades

I use United miles…upgrade all the time.
It’s amazing.
But it’s easy bc we are both United Global Services.
Haven’t flown to Europe without lie flat seats in 10 years…
But I would t pay more than $4-5k for that ticket and definitely not to Europe (Asia or Africa might make sense at that price)…

Try a business class ticket consolidator? Also look At Emirates if you are ok not flying direct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s worth it to me. It’s not worth it to most of DCUM.

Really? I’d imagine even most on here wouldn’t drop $20k for just flights on a couples trip.

How much time do you spend on this and how often do you get to travel first?

I should mention neither my husband and I travel for business and generally do not fly much.

We just paid almost 15k for business/Polaris for 2 and paid 18k earlier this year for 2 people.

DH does a lot of single day trips in first class and tickets are typically 800-1500.

A friend of mine opened a credit card and used the bonus to upgrade her economy ticket to business. She loved it, but said she should have saved it for a red eye.

For whatever it's worth, I never travel outside the country on vacation because I've been spoiled with lie-flat seats on business trips and can't stomach long-haul coach anymore. It's AMAZING.

(But I am also an airplane person, so your mileage may vary)

I’m interested to hear what others think. Every time we fly to Hawaii I swear I’m going to do it and then I balk.

Anonymous wrote:It’s worth it to me. It’s not worth it to most of DCUM.

Really? I’d imagine even most on here wouldn’t drop $20k for just flights on a couples trip.

How much time do you spend on this and how often do you get to travel first?

I should mention neither my husband and I travel for business and generally do not fly much.

It’s worth it to me. It’s not worth it to most of DCUM.

My husband and I dream of flying first/business as long as we can lay flat on long haul flights to destinations 12+ hours away. The sticker price I believe is approximately $5-10k per person per trip if we were to pay out of pocket. For us, that’s difficult to stomach. Does anyone else spend the time to figure this out and find it worthwhile? Has anyone flown first? Were you blown away by the experience? I did a little digging and realize that the learning curve is steep but willing to try if it makes sense.