Booking a uc reward upgrade WITH NO VA miles !

i know it sounds crazy, but my mum turns 70 this year and would like to book her a uc flight to Delhi on the 26th of march to the
12th of April. from reading on the forum the best way is to book the appropriate class in economy and then use miles to upgrade. i have logged on and checked there are reward seats available but the best thing is my mum doesn't have an flying club account. what is the best way around this? should i open her a new account and buy miles? should i use the miles booster.... which i don't understand totally? should i sign her up for a club card ? i know this is an amusing situation but i don't know what the best option would be? i am only fixed on the day out but am flexible to a degree on the way back.

thank you so much

[Neil]

Hmmm, interesting one this. A few comments from me:

You can buy & gift 30k miles, which would get you the desired 60k miles to upgrade an L to a G, but it would cost £930 in total to do that. Although a Z might be high currently, in the sale, there is a good chance it might work out cheaper to buy a Z rather than an L and then upgrade with miles.

I might be wrong, but I also thought that you had to have some of other miles earning activity in your account before you can buy/gift miles and use them towards flights. Maybe the T&C's have changed.

The miles booster is irrelevant to you as you have to be flying to take advantage of that.

What about the credit card, I notice there are some bonus miles on sign up/first spend. The clubcard (assume you mean Tesco), will only earn you small amount of miles, so not really worth it.

I agree with Neil. Probably be cheaper to buy a straight Z fare than buying and gifting miles as well as buying the right Y fare plus the extra fuel surcharge and APD (-and like Neil I thought you had to have some earned activity before you could buy and also receive as a gift any miles.)

I have a flying club account I forgot to say, does this means I could book the flight for her with my miles?
thank you for your kind insights and suggestions.

[Neil]

Yes, you can use miles from your account to book a flight for another person.

Thank you so much Neil, will ring VA today to see if they let me.