Using FF miles on American to up-grade?

[LuAnn]

Looked back through the thread and may have missed this answer?..but..would like to fly BC class and have never done this before..always either used miles to "purchase" a ticket or purchased a ticket in "economy" class..I keep reading that you should use your "miles" to up-grade...but not sure how to do that?...it sounds like you call AA and book it all with them rather than using the web-site? Any other options or is that the way to go? Thanks! LuAnn

[paul929207]

Yes, you will have to call AA to arrange an upgrade.

 

I think that not all economy tickets can be upgraded. It depends on the ticket class.

 

Paul

[greatam]

AA mileage upgrade rules after March 1, 2007. https://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage/programDetails/awards/awardCopay.jhtml

 

As a general rule, to have the BEST chance of getting the upgrade, availability should be there BEFORE you call AA. Otherwise you are waitlisted. Without elite status, if you are going to a "premium" destination (Hawaii or Europe during peak vacation season) and need a SPECIFIC DATE, your chances of getting a miles upgrade are not great. There is now a $300.00pp each way fee + the miles to upgrade. Still a bargain any way you look at it.

 

The easiest way to find availability is a subscription to Expertflyer.com. The $9.99 per month subscription allows you to set up "alerts" so when availability is there, you will be notified via email, PDA, cell, etc. You must act pretty darn quick when you get notice. Otherwise, if you want to just poke around and look, it's $4.99 per month. Pretty darn reasonable to almost guarantee your upgrade. I use EF all the time. First, look for flights I want to upgrade. Keep playing until I find one that has availability. Call AA to book it while I have the EF window open. It worked for me in 2006 on 15 international flights. Only one time I struck out. Well worth the money in my book.

 

The first thing to do is find a "cheapie" coach flight to your destination. Don't book it until you know there is upgrade availability. Put it on "hold" on AA.com. Then go to EF and follow these directions.

Example:

 

You are looking for C availability-miles upgrade from discounted coach. I have no idea where you are trying to fly to or when. But this is the display you will see on Expertflyer. I just arbitrarily picked LAX/LHR next month to give you an idea.

 

AA 354-LAX to ORD

 

F6 A6 Y7 B7 H7 W7 K7 G7 M7 L7 V7 Q7 S7 N7 O7

 

As you can see, there is NO C availbility. But that is because there is NO C (business class) on most domestic AA flights-only first and coach. So for that portion of the trip, you are looking for "A" availability. "A6" (six seats available for miles upgrades-coach to first) So far, so good.

 

Two flights out of Chicago on Feb. 28 to London. Flight 86 has NO C availability and it flies daily.

 

However, the following flight has 2 "C" seats available.

AA 98-ORD to LHR-flies every day EXCEPT Monday

 

C2

 

If those were your chosen dates and destination, you IMMEDIATELY call AA and book your flight. Pay for your ticket, pay $300.00pp each way, give them the miles (usually 50,000 on a RT), and the $15.00 per ticket booking fee. You have now gotten a $3000-5000 business class ticket for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200.00 plus your miles. Good luck!! If you need further help, feel free to ask.

[JJPNYC]

Another thing about doing an upgrade is that availability can change on a daily (or hourly) basis as the airline manages inventory. So to ensure that you can confirm the upgrade when it's available it's key to check on a consistent basis.

 

I had this situation last year when trying to use miles on Continental to upgrade on it's Beijing-Newark flight. For the first several days there were no seats available for upgrade. Then magically one day a seat was available and I jumped on it and had my upgrade confirmed on the spot.

 

Also a nice benefit of flying in business/first on international routes is access to the airport lounges before/after a flight as well.

[LuAnn]

Thank you all so much...I didn't want you to think I was not responding to all your wonderful ideas...it is just a little over-whelming! Give me a few days to try and think about it and I will get back to you...no wonder they say you can be on a flight and ask any person how much they paid and every answer will be different!!!!!!!! LuAnn

[SeattleJ]

LuAnn,

I used my American FF miles and upgraded to first class on all legs (going & return) of our Feb 2nd trip from Seattle to Ft Lauderdale. I had booked the economy flights in the summer of 2006 and upgraded the first week of January. I simply called the AA reservation number and they took care of it.

 

One additional note, my wife and I both have elite status (Gold) on AA, but that's not required. It did give me a different 800 number to call.

 

Good luck!:D

[greatam]

LuAnn,

I used my American FF miles and upgraded to first class on all legs (going & return) of our Feb 2nd trip from Seattle to Ft Lauderdale. I had booked the economy flights in the summer of 2006 and upgraded the first week of January. I simply called the AA reservation number and they took care of it.

 

One additional note, my wife and I both have elite status (Gold) on AA, but that's not required. It did give me a different 800 number to call.

 

Good luck!:D

 

Your gold status certainly helped. Upgrade requests are "prioritzed" depending on elite status. A "no status" person is at the bottom of the food chain, especially with the large number of people that have AA miles (from Citibank credit cards), but no flying basis with AA. With EXP's getting free domestic upgrades on all flights, status truly matters.

 

Please take the OP's request into consideration before suggesting it is "easy" to get an upgrade. I think the OP is inquiring about a coach to business INTERNATIONAL mileage upgrade. About three times as difficult to get as a domestic mileage upgrade (other than Hawaii). Status REALLY matters when trying to get International or Hawaii mileage upgrade.

 

If you don't have elite status on an airline, as posted previously, your chances of getting a mileage upgrade from coach to business during peak vacation season and to primo vacation spots (Europe, Hawaii) are slim. You have to use EVERY tool available and be very flexible to get them. Just calling AA is usually a failure, resulting in waitlisting. Waitlists again clear by status, then time placed on the waitlist.

[critterchick]

We were able to get an upgrade to business class from LAX-LHR on a discounted coach ticket (can't remember the actual code) by having our TA call as soon as the flights were available for booking 330 days before. He told us that only 3 seats were available, so we jumped on those. We paid the coach fare plus $250pp each way (going to $400 as greatam said). We could have done it on our own, but it was nice to have somebody else do the work for us. Because we had booked the cruise with the agency, they waived their usual fee for booking air.

 

We also got an email the other day advising us of a passenger tax that's going to add another 40 pounds onto the return flight from Heathrow.:(

 

I don't know if it works for international travel, but we once called AA to confirm that upgrades were available on a domestic flight. While I was on the phone with the agent, I booked online, then she immediately went into the reservation to apply the upgrades. That saved us the $10 (back then) live person booking fee. Hey, that's some savings for the bar! :rolleyes: