I had no idea you could do this! Thanks for the info
One question thought...
I looked for a return flight from EWR to LHR with M fare, which comes to $1,171. I also checked to ensure that there is UC reward availability for those flights, which there is. On the face of it, it looks like I would therefore spend $1,171 and 40k miles to get an UC return, and still get air miles and tier points for the flight (based on the economy ticket).
What confuses me, is if I just booked the flight as a full reward ticket in UC, it would cost $1,127 in tax/fees/surcharges and 80k which is only about $45 less than the above, however would cost double the miles and I wouldn't earn any air miles or tier points from the flight.
This doesn't seem to add up to me so... Do you get wholloped with additional taxes/fees/surcharges at the point of using the 40k miles to upgrade? If so, does anyone know roughly how much?
Thanks!