Best program to join for upgrades

[Keimcc]

Hi all. I am new to the forum but I have been lurking a while. Have a question for the experts on here. I am currently a member if Velocity and while I have accumulated many points on my credit card I was disappointed to see I could not upgrade from economy to business class on a long haul international flight due to my lowly silver status. My sole aim with collecting ff points on my credit card is to upgrade when I go to the usa or London. I do not travel very often; once in eighteen months usually. So I don't have the opportunity to get many status credits. Are all the ff program's the same? Should I join another program for my purposes? I live about 6 hrs drive from an airport so taking a short flight for fun would not really be worth it to me, nor are the credit cards that offer the free domestic flights. Any response is appreciated - thanks in advance.

 

[markis10]

I think your going to struggle to get an upgrade without status is pretty much any program, the only real way to make sure it happens is to join a program that has good award availability in the class you want, Europe is easy, USA not so easy. Then just book a reward seat in J or F, or look at buying/ using points to achieve the same outcome via US DM or Life Miles for instance.

 

[TheDan]

Are you sure you could not upgrade solely because of your status? Some discount fares are simply exempted from upgrades, regardless of your FF status.

 

[markis10]

Are you sure you could not upgrade solely because of your status? Some discount fares are simply exempted from upgrades, regardless of your FF status.

Velocity long haul upgrades are a Gold/Plat only benefit.

 

[serfty]

Velocity long haul upgrades are a Gold/Plat only benefit.

Moreover, even then, can only upgrade from flexi economy, not discount economy.