Need to go to HNL from IL for work in a couple months. They only pay for econ or econ plus. I did a bit of digging and realize that flight class really matters for the upgrade. I was looking at united, just cuz flights seem reasonable to there. Anyway, my understanding is it will be an extra 70k miles .. and this is if the ticket is a specefic booking class.. others have told me that they always purchase a fully refundable/flexible ticket rate, so my understanding is that I should be able to upgrade the ticket without adding money.
My question is how can I check for. Availablility? Is it just the standard availablility for J - or something else? There's no availability anymore, and since plan B clearly not an option.. any other ideas? TIA!!!