Emirates Business to First Skywards miles upgrades

[Jamesp21]

Due to fly LHR to DXB on March 14th. No upgrades available yet from Business to First but it does show it’ll cost us 78k Miles combined (2 People) if they come available. I will need to purchase more points to take advantage and I have a 45% bonus offer available to me until midnight tonight. How often and when do they usually open up Business to First Upgrades? Thanks.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

You may see availability a fortnight out, but ex-LHR it’ll be immediately snapped up by auto-upgraders. Emirates will allow upgrades down to the final available seat, so may be worth tracking empty seats in advance of checkin. You can pay with points to upgrade at checkin, at the gate and on board. Amex MR transfer instantly fyi

[Jamesp21]

Thanks Blair. What is usually the order in which they would allocate the upgrade to auto-upgraders? Highest Loyalty status down over?

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Jamesp21 wrote:

Thanks Blair. What is usually the order in which they would allocate the upgrade to auto-upgraders? Highest Loyalty status down over?

I’m not quite sure. I suspect so as my auto-upgrade for 39,000 miles has been in place for a fortnight and in that time 3 F seats have been allocated. I sincerely doubt they were cash fares with MAN as the origin point.

[Yuff]

If I book an economy flex that shows upgrade to business available, by the time I complete the booking is the upgrade still likely to be available?

[Tarmohamed]

Yuff wrote:

If I book an economy flex that shows upgrade to business available, by the time I complete the booking is the upgrade still likely to be available?

Yes you’ll be fine. Never had an issue.

[Yuff]

Yes you’ll be fine. Never had an issue.[/quote]

Thanks Tarmohamed 👍🏻

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Yuff wrote:

If I book an economy flex that shows upgrade to business available, by the time I complete the booking is the upgrade still likely to be available?

If you are still worried, book over the phone. Tell the agent what you want to do and they can hold the J award seat for you. I’ve even had them tinker away completing the booking while I transfer over from Amex MR to Skywards.

[Yuff]

If you are still worried, book over the phone. Tell the agent what you want to do and they can hold the J award seat for you. I’ve even had them tinker away completing the booking while I transfer over from Amex MR to Skywards.[/quote]

I decided to buy some extra miles, and do classic rewards, in the discount offer which ended yesterday.
You need a degree in skywards to know all the nuances of the family account, I put all,our miles in the family account of which I am the head and upgraded my wife to skywards plus to get the 20% discount voucher, which I cannot use and I am the only one who can book the rewards 🤦🏻‍♂️