Redeeming miles and points for premium cabin tickets can be a great deal as you can often fly in First or Business Class, using miles/points you easily obtained, and experience true luxury. While miles and points from a frequent flyer program can be used for award tickets and many other items (often which are not worth it), there is also the possibility of upgrading a cash ticket with your miles, however this process may not always be as easy as you’d think.
Upgrading a Cash Ticket Might Not Be Worth It
The reality is that most of the time upgrading a cash ticket using miles is probably not worth it for a number of reasons, including:
- usually the cheapest tickets are not upgradeable, so you may need to purchase a flexible ticket to be eligible and these tickets often cost a lot more
- the amount of miles required for an upgrade could only be a little bit less than the amount of miles required to book an award ticket outright
- there has to be availability – some airlines process upgrades into different fare classes than if you were to book an award ticket outright
- some airlines make you pay a co-pay when you upgrade with miles
When you combine all of the factors above, upgrading is probably not worth it in most cases – not only do you need to purchase a more expensive ticket, but the amount of miles required may be close to the amount of miles required to outright book an award ticket in the cabin you want to upgrade to.
Upgrading a Cash Ticket with Miles
If you are wanting to upgrade a cash ticket, you will need to familiarize yourself with the rules of the airline you are flying, and the upgrade terms and conditions of the frequent flyer program.
- firstly, you will need to determine what booking classes are eligible for upgrades
- every airline works differently and on most airlines the cheapest tickets are not upgradeable
- secondly, determine if there is upgrade availability on the flight you want to upgrade
- some airlines treat award vs upgrade availability differently
- thirdly, determine the amount of miles required
- most of the time this is what shocks people since the amount of miles required may be high
- in most cases, you have to redeem miles separately for every segment you want to upgrade (not from origin to destination)
- lastly, figure out if there is a co-pay
- if it is high, it most likely isn’t worth it
Once you have figured out all of the above and you have decided you are getting a good deal, you will want to purchase the cash ticket through a way in which you have 24 hours to cancel it for free and then immediately after ticketing, you will want to upgrade the ticket. If for some reason upgrade space disappears or you run into another issue, you can always cancel your cash ticket for free within that window.
If you do not have enough miles to upgrade, remember that you could always transfer them in, if your frequent flyer program is a partner of a major bank points program.
If there is no upgrade space available, some frequent flyer programs let you waitlist the upgrade.
Some airlines have completely different ways on how you can upgrade and what the cost is (like Delta) and they do not rely on the traditional upgrade model.
Can You Upgrade a Ticket Through a Different Airline?
Is it possible to upgrade a ticket on airline A using miles from airline B? Yes and no.
Redeeming miles from a frequent flyer program to upgrade a cash ticket on another airline may be possible, however subject to a lot of restrictions:
- Star Alliance is the only major alliance to have an alliance-wide upgrade program
- if you want to upgrade a partner airline flight, usually it has to be booked in the highest, most expensive fare
In over 90% of cases, upgrading a ticket on airline A using miles from airline B is not worth it because you need to have had purchased the most expensive ticket – these are fully flexible and refundable tickets that often cost more than the cheapest Business Class ticket.
And not only that, again, the miles required for an upgrade will most likely be high and therefore making this process not worth it.
The amount of airlines allowing you to use their miles for upgrades on other airlines is limited and not many people use this feature – there may be a few hidden gems with upgrading tickets this way, but most of the time your best bet is to just book an award ticket outright.
All in All
It is possible to upgrade cash tickets with miles but in a lot of cases it is not worth it as booking an award ticket outright may only cost a little more – not to mention, in most cases you have to buy a more expensive ticket in order for it to be eligible for an upgrade. There are some airlines out there, like Delta, that have “revolutionized” upgrades and offer them differently – not subject to the traditional upgrade model. If you want to buy a ticket and upgrade it, make sure to inform yourself about how much it will cost and be sure to have some flexibility to cancel your initial ticket should the upgrade not work out.