Upgrades....confused :(

My wife and I currently have around 180,000 airmiles between us. I also have 1 free companion flight and 2 upgrades from economy to premium available (via the credit card spend).

Ideally I'd like to be able to get the best 'bang for my buck' for a flight next June to Las Vegas. It would be nice to be able to fly Upper Class (at least on the way out) but this isn't essential as Premium is just fine.

I'm not sure what options are available to me regarding the companion and economy upgrades. Do I have to but full price seats to be able to use them? Can I buy 2 economy seats using the miles I have and then use the upgrade to Premium for those? Or can I use miles to buy 1 Premium and use the companion ticket?

I'm a little confused about all the available options and don't know what to do for the best and to get the best use of the miles and rewards!

Any and all assistance would be gratefully received!

Many thanks

with 180000 miles you have nearly enough to get Upper Class reward seats both ways. You would need another 20000
As soon as the seats are released 11 months ahead, start checking on line to see if there are any seats for miles and as soon as there are phone in and bag them.
If you are not earning miles then buy economy seats and use 100000 to upgrade to Upper. Which is what I do as I think it's best use of the miles.
I buy the minute my return flight is released. Last year I upgraded straight away to Premium and a few weeks later got Upper out and a couple more weeks got Upper back.
This year I managed to Upper both ways on the day my return was released.
It is worth looking to see which days of the week are best for reward seats. This year and next I've added a day to my holiday because Sunday seems to have more availability on the MCO route.

As I understand it the Premium upgrade is for bought economy seats and cannot be used for rewards, nor can you go higher than Premium. I think the companion may be the same.

Best of luck.

Dick D

The companion voucher can only be used in conjunction with a paid for, flexible ticket in the same cabin. Unfortunately once you've added the taxes & fees for the "free" ticket, it often works out more expensive than buying two discounted cash fares. As such the companion vouchers are really only of use if you need to buy the dearer flexible fares which, in UC especially, you may find prohibitively expensive.

The Economy to PE upgrade vouchers are of more use. You use them to upgrade an Economy reward seat which, during a reward sale like the one that's on now, can save you a lot of miles. Each voucher is valid for one return ticket but you can't then upgrade again with miles to UC.

In your case, if you're ok with PE try to see if you can use the upgrade vouchers (there must be reward availability in PE which, on the Vegas route, can be hard to find). If you can book by midnight tomorrow, when the current reward seat sale ends, so much the better.

If you really want to be in UC then neither of those vouchers are of any use and you should follow dicky's advice above and use your miles to buy either 100% reward seats or upgrades from upgradable economy fares.

My opinion.....

Use th 2 upgrade vouchers & fly both ways PE.
They only last 1 year from date of issue before expiring.

This will cost you 85,000 miles in Economy for 2x people & there must be PE rewards available to use the upgrade vouchers.

You will still have 95,000 miles left - enough for Upper Class 1 way for 2 to New York (or back as the taxes are much cheaper!) for example.

I think this is the best bang for buck, as it utilises the 2x Upgrade vouchers (use them or lose them!) & you dont spend so many miles. With enough miles left to start planning next years trip!

Companion ticket is next to worthless if you have fixed dates, as they are only redeemable on flexible tickets (which are quite expensive)