Award Seats vs. Upgrade with Points

[empiretraveller]

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering if you can help with clarification on award seats and upgrading with points. Are these the same thing?

I have seen a lot of complaints about the lack of award seat availability when travelling international with VA, I have a last minute (end of September) trip that requires me to get from BNE - SFO. As its through my business I am happy to pay for the flight but want to use some of my AMEX points to do an upgrade to business class. The flight being a long one means I really want a business class seat. I've got 700k membership rewards points with Amex and I am bound to the airlines I can transfer points to. Qantas and OW is out of the question for me right now.

The issue I have with VA is that I can't tell before I buy a ticket whether or not there is business class availability so I'm afraid to buy a ticket if there's a chance I can't get business and of course if availability is so poor I'd have no chance of doing an upgrade.

Would I be better off calling VA to do the booking and have more chance of confirming business class availability before handing over the money? I am Gold status with VA (currently at 880 SC so a return flight to SFO should get me to platinum).

Any help you guys can give would be appreciated or if I should look to another airline to get me there.

 

[mooingchicken]

The upgrades come out of the same pool as the award flights, so that is the best way to check. I just had a quick look any there is nothing available from the 25th-30th of sept. However they may release some closer to the date. Otherwise try calling the call center and stating u want to buy a ticket then upgrade or just book completely with points and they may possibly release a seat..

 

[empiretraveller]

The upgrades come out of the same pool as the award flights, so that is the best way to check. I just had a quick look any there is nothing available from the 25th-30th of sept. However they may release some closer to the date. Otherwise try calling the call center and stating u want to buy a ticket then upgrade or just book completely with points and they may possibly release a seat..

Thank you, wasn't sure if they were the same pool or not so that clears things up for me. I'll give them a call and see if I can get anything. Otherwise I may have to check other airlines. No one here would know if transferring points from AMEX to Emirates would work as a way to get the points out of AMEX and into Qantas? I know they have an alliance but no idea if this will extend to transferring points around the place.

 

[mooingchicken]

You cant transfer points from emirates to qantas. Only VA and singapore allow points transfers

 

[stusxr5]

Depending on your flexibility, you may be able to travel via Asia or NZ. Remember that AMEX MR transfer to AirNZ, Asia Miles, Etihad, Malaysia, Singapore and Thai. With some creative work, you may well find something last minute that has the flexibility to upgrade - unfortunately would take some research.

edit- availability with SQ (albeit a long layover in SIN).

 

[empiretraveller]

Depending on your flexibility, you may be able to travel via Asia or NZ. Remember that AMEX MR transfer to AirNZ, Asia Miles, Etihad, Malaysia, Singapore and Thai. With some creative work, you may well find something last minute that has the flexibility to upgrade - unfortunately would take some research.

edit- availability with SQ (albeit a long layover in SIN).

Thanks so much for that, I'll do a bit more research and maybe make some phone calls and update you all on how I went.