Take the PE upgrade or hold out for J?

[Edge]

Flying MEL-LAX in a couple of weeks on a VA Freedom fare (WP) and a Premium reward has just become available. I'm guessing that if I went ahead an upgraded to PE I couldn't then upgrade that to J if it became available?

Any suggestions or advice? I know a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and PE is probably a big step up from Y but I'm leaning towards rolling the dice for J...

Thanks in advance.

 

[CPMaverick]

This is a great question. I assume you can always downgrade and refund a mileage award if you want, and then apply for J. But I haven't ever done it in practice.

 

[Spacetravel]

The saying usually goes a bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush..

Unless it is extremely busy I think you should wait. Check the loads to be sure because you could have an unusually busy flight. SYD > LAX is always the super busy one and 99% of the time I have gotten an upgrade. The times I didn't I routed via MEL or BNE to get one.

I had a prem bid to PE upgrade go through once and I wanted to revert it so I could upgrade to business and I couldn't. I understand its a different system to velocity points but I would be cautious about your chances of cancelling the upgrade once you do it.

Good luck!

 

[Edge]

I guess further background to my initial question - I flew MEL-LAX-MEL with VA back in September on Freedom fares and the flights ended up being full so I wasn't able to upgrade to either PE or J, which is why I had additional trepidation this time around.

Update: I waited for J and it became available 4 days out (flying Sunday). So I rolled the dice and won (this time).

However interesting data point: I had previously ticked the upgrade waitlist box in "Manage My Booking" but when the reward seat became available the upgrade didn't automatically process. Thankfully I had the expertflyer alert set up so when I woke this morning I was able to go into my booking and process the upgrade immediately. But it's concerning to experience the 'waitlist' option not automatically working. Oh well - glad I spent the $10 for expertflyer this month.