Points upgrade Y+ to J, SYD-SFO return

[estate]

Hi all,

My folks are heading to San Francisco in July and would like to fly J - they'll very likely get the F seats when they do, which'll be nice!
The best option seems to be to purchase to Y+ return fares - about $3k each in a "Premium Economy Saver" fare. Buying J outright is about $14k each - ridiculous.

The upgrade calculator on the site says that to upgrade from Y to J, one-way SYD-SFO is 45,000 points. So presumably that's 180,000 to upgrade both of them, return.

But the calculator doesn't say how many points to upgrade from Y+ to J, only from Y to J. Is there a way to find this out? And can they be certain that it's possible? They'd prefer to fly J, and if this isn't do-able, they'll look at other ways, but this seems the best value option.

Edit - apologies for posting in wrong section, still learning the forum! Thanks for the move.

[MelUser]

Prem Y to J is also 45000 points per passenger per segment for east coast aust to west coast USA

[tuapekastar]

Hi all,

My folks are heading to San Francisco in July and would like to fly J - they'll very likely get the F seats when they do, which'll be nice!
The best option seems to be to purchase to Y+ return fares - about $3k each in a "Premium Economy Saver" fare. Buying J outright is about $14k each - ridiculous.

The upgrade calculator on the site says that to upgrade from Y to J, one-way SYD-SFO is 45,000 points. So presumably that's 180,000 to upgrade both of them, return.

But the calculator doesn't say how many points to upgrade from Y+ to J, only from Y to J. Is there a way to find this out? And can they be certain that it's possible? They'd prefer to fly J, and if this isn't do-able, they'll look at other ways, but this seems the best value option.

Edit - apologies for posting in wrong section, still learning the forum! Thanks for the move.

As Meluser posted its 45K points to upgrade, one-way, from Y+ to J.

I'm unsure why you think your parents would 'likely' get F seats (be nice if they did though).

The upgrade via points is a request only and is no way guaranteed to come through. So if your parents want to be absolutely sure of flying J they're going to have to either redeem J flights (if available) outright with points or pay $$$.

They might get upgrades from Y+ but its no certainty.

[estate]

Thanks to you both for the info. Strange that it's the same number of points to upgrade from Y to J as from Y+ to J.

tuapekastar - yes, I understand the upgrade isn't guaranteed and the only way they could be sure is to either cash-buy J seats or redeem an Any Seat Award flight (which is 1.4million points per person!). But it's not that unlikely and a risk I believe they're prepared to take. They usually fly Y or Y+ when flying for pleasure so I don't think it's that big a deal if it doesn't come through.
They're both CL members (lucky sods :P) so if they do end up in J, I guess they would be towards the front of the queue for the F seats, hence the 'likely' in my OP.

[AnonymousCoward]

Thanks to you both for the info. Strange that it's the same number of points to upgrade from Y to J as from Y+ to J.

The only booking economy booking class that allows for 45k points upgrade is the one that books into actual Y, which usually much more expensive than booking premium economy. Every other class is classed as "discount economy" and requires 72k points.