Upgrade to First Class?? CC rewards?

[clarabelle]

If you get an airline CC can you use the rewards for that to upgrade to first class?

My family just got back from Europe. We want to go again in a year or two -but the idea of another 7 1/2 hour flight in coach makes me cringe.
We are not frequent flyers -so any credit card rewards we got would go to this trip.

Thanks!!

 

[SuzanneSLO]

If you get an airline CC can you use the rewards for that to upgrade to first class?

My family just got back from Europe. We want to go again in a year or two -but the idea of another 7 1/2 hour flight in coach makes me cringe.
We are not frequent flyers -so any credit card rewards we got would go to this trip.

Thanks!!

You can certainly use FF miles, including those earned by charging on a credit card, to upgrade from a caoch ticket to first or business class. In addition to miles, many airlines also require the payment of a co-pay and you may not be able to purchase the cheapest ticket available. Finally, upgrade seats are capacity controlled and I understand that, to Europe, esp. in summer, they may be in very limited supply.

We often use FF miles to upgrade on AA on domestic flights (including to HI). On AA domestic flights almost all coach fares are upgradeable (except O), it is 30,000 miles RT and a $100 co-pay ($300 to HI). Can't help on the specifics of travel to Europe or on your preferred airline. For those specifics, you might start on your airline's website. -- Suzanne

 

[crashbb]

It really depends on the airline.

In addition to the PP's point about limited upgrade seats, some airlines regulate this based on status. So, a top-tier status person can upgrade X days out, the next year only Y days out, and non-status people Z days out. Or, they create waiting lists that are ordered by status.

Sometimes this is also linked to the type of ticket you've bought. For example, with the airline I mainly fly, with one fare class I can upgrade at the time I book my ticket, but if I go with a cheaper fare class, I can only upgrade 1 week before my flight. With a limited number of seats to which I can upgrade, this can really make a difference.

 

[Lewisc]

The reality is it's unlikely you'll be allowed to upgrade the kind of discounted coach seats you'll probably be booking. The number of miles you'll need for even one first class seat is likely to exceed the number of miles you'll have available.Check your airline's website and find out how many miles it takes to book a first class ticket. Look at both the number of miles for a "saver" ticket and for an "easy" (probably double miles) ticket. There is a very good chance other passengers will beat you and grab any saver first class tickets. Frequent fliers know first class saver tickets, for international travel is the best use of miles.

Most passengers would pay a few miles or a few dollars to upgrade from a deeply discounted coach set to first class. Any "great" upgrade deals will be offered to elite fliers.

 

[clarabelle]

Thanks everyone
Maybe I would be better off with my Disney rewards.
I will go to my airline website and have a look around.
I was thinking about Delta.

Thanks again

 

[PRaffen]

If you get an airline CC can you use the rewards for that to upgrade to first class?

My family just got back from Europe. We want to go again in a year or two -but the idea of another 7 1/2 hour flight in coach makes me cringe.
We are not frequent flyers -so any credit card rewards we got would go to this trip.

Thanks!!

We are USAir FF and to upgrade our flight to Rome to envoy, the purchase price of the coach ticket must of been a minimum of $1,400. Since I was able to purchase tickets to Rome for much less, we couldn't use our miles. We could have purchased a "to go" upgrade for $500 one way.

It took me weeks just to find availability to upgrade our tickets to first on an upcoming trip from PHL to Vegas. It gets harder and harder to find upgrade availability on US Air

 

[MAH4546]

American Airlines offers the easiest upgrades on trans-Atlantic coach.

Even deep-discount coach fares can be upgraded for the cost of 25,000 miles and $350 co-pay. They have to be American Airlines miles, however, not credit card points. American Airlies also offers LFBU - load factor-based upgrades. These are $500 each-way, even if you bought a dirt cheap $300 ticket, but its a gamble because there is no guarantee it is offered until you check-in.

The only credit card points that are useful for upgrading to first class are American Express points. That's it, nothing else will be of any use. American Express points are 1:1 with Delta points. American Express points are also 1:1 with ANA (All Nippon Airlines of Japan). You can convert American Express points to ANA miles and get a busienss class ticket between the East Coast and Europe on select airlines that are partners of ANA. It costs 63,000 points.

Here is how to get the most value for the money using American Express points to upgrade. No other credit card company offers reasonably priced upgrade rewards.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemi...f-american-express-membership-rewards-points/

Delta's SkyMiles program is absolutely horrendous for reward redemption, though.

American Airlines and United have the best reward programs, its actually possible to find seats.

If you get an American Express Platinum Card, you can purchase select business or first class seats and a companion travel for free, so its basically paying 50% for a business or first class ticket. The catch is that discount business class fares are not valid, but sometimes its not impossible to find a full-fare business class ticket for $4,000-$5,000.

 

[clarabelle]

Thanks again
this is very helpful

 

[SuzanneSLO]

American Airlines offers the easiest upgrades on trans-Atlantic coach.

Even deep-discount coach fares can be upgraded for the cost of 25,000 miles and $350 co-pay. They have to be American Airlines miles, however, not credit card points. American Airlies also offers LFBU - load factor-based upgrades. These are $500 each-way, even if you bought a dirt cheap $300 ticket, but its a gamble because there is no guarantee it is offered until you check-in.

The only credit card points that are useful for upgrading to first class are American Express points. That's it, nothing else will be of any use. American Express points are 1:1 with Delta points. American Express points are also 1:1 with ANA (All Nippon Airlines of Japan). You can convert American Express points to ANA miles and get a busienss class ticket between the East Coast and Europe on select airlines that are partners of ANA. It costs 63,000 points.

Here is how to get the most value for the money using American Express points to upgrade. No other credit card company offers reasonably priced upgrade rewards.

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemi...f-american-express-membership-rewards-points/

Delta's SkyMiles program is absolutely horrendous for reward redemption, though.

American Airlines and United have the best reward programs, its actually possible to find seats.

If you get an American Express Platinum Card, you can purchase select business or first class seats and a companion travel for free, so its basically paying 50% for a business or first class ticket. The catch is that discount business class fares are not valid, but sometimes its not impossible to find a full-fare business class ticket for $4,000-$5,000.

Just a clarification to the prior post above. If you earn AA FF miles by charging on the CitiBank CC, those miles are just like any other miles on AA whe it comes to booking awards, including upgrade awards.

In addition, if you earn points thru the Starwood Preferred Guest Amex CC, which earns SPG hotel guest program points for each dollar charged, in addition to being used for free hotel stays, those points can be converted to FF miles in many programs, just like the Amex Membership Rewards. In addition, for many programs (United, Continental and SW are exceptions) when you convert 20,000 SPG points, you earn 25,000 FF miles in your program of choice.

Generally, any credit card program that earns you credits based on the $$ value of your flight (such as 25,000 points will get you a free flight up to $250 in value) will NOT have an option to use points to upgrade a ticket purhased with cash.

Best of luck -- Suzanne