Old AAdvantage Miles - Awards, Upgrades, etc. (consolidated)

[JDiver]

Originally Posted by martin33

...Also, there is a quite recent thread about old miles and stopovers now being disallowed. do have a go at finding it.

Indeed; it is listed in the Users' Guide sticky, and has some useful information in it. (The "Old" Miles Awards - What Booking Inventory? has been merged into the thread.)

[adzel]

The AA web site is very clear that you can only upgrade with miles on flights marketed and operated by AA. Therefore, no mile-based upgrades on code shares or on partner airlines.

However, that language does NOT appear on the old information about use of old miles, so here's my question: Does anyone know if upgrades using old miles work on code-share flights? There certainly were old miles awards for upgrades on BA, QF and SQ(!). There even was an old miles award to upgrade from first class to Concorde on BA!

Actually - that raises a second question. Do the old miles awards still work for upgrades on BA and QF? (Obviously, they won't on SQ, since they aren't a partner anymore.) The code share question is more interesting, because the old upgrade awards were only from full fare economy on BA and QF, but they
were from ANY economy fare on AA to Europe or Japan.

[rstidolph]

I recently put in a roundtrip upgrade for my wife and myself for JFK to Rome returning Barcelona to JFK. I put in using old miles.

It looks like the upgrade for the trip to Rome will come through but not the return.

Here is my dilema. The round trip upgrade is 40,000 old miles each with no cash surcharge. No refund of miles if we donot get the return upgrade.

If I do get the outgoing upgrade and not the return, is it possible to switch to a regular 25,000 mile upgrade and pay the $300.00.

My question then, is which is the best way to use miles?

Thanks for the help.

Robert

[ESpen36]

Old miles are extremely valuable! I wouldn't waste 40,000 of them unless you are confident that the return will clear.

You might use eVIPs instead, if you are EXP or a multi-million miler or know somebody who has eVIPs and is willing to gift you.

[Madison Guy]

I MIGHT BE ALL WRONG HERE - BUT - I seem to recall (but can't find) posts indicating "old miles" book straight into F and J buckets, that is, no capacity controls (or taxes, for that atter) - although I also rememebr posts indicating AA did not want to admit this'feature.' Perhaps this was for an all out award tkt rather than an upgrade as well. But I agree with ESPEN36 in this case - use your "old miles" with GREAT care. (I blew a lot of mine supidly some time ago without knowing what I COULD have done with them!

[underwater]

Is there any official documentation for the old miles? I've got a bit over 20k sitting around (in addition to a boatload of regular miles) and am wondering if that is too few to be useful.

-uw

[rstidolph]

Still have not been confirmed on my outgoing. If I switch it to new miles (I'm lifetime gold) will I lose my place on the waitlist?

That is why I was thinking of doing after we get cleared for the departure. The flight is Friday, 5 days away, last I lookjed there were 9 empty seats.

[SanDiego1K]

Originally Posted by Madison Guy

I MIGHT BE ALL WRONG HERE - BUT - I seem to recall (but can't find) posts indicating "old miles" book straight into F and J buckets, that is, no capacity controls (or taxes, for that atter) - although I also rememebr posts indicating AA did not want to admit this'feature.'

I, too, thought this was the case. I remember an AA Rez agent who was very knowledgeable with the old award chart posting this some year back.

[SanDiego1K]

Originally Posted by underwater

Is there any official documentation for the old miles? I've got a bit over 20k sitting around (in addition to a boatload of regular miles) and am wondering if that is too few to be useful.

-uw

Look here, ignoring all the partner awards:

http://members.shaw.ca/fewmiles/AA/index2.html

Also:

Originally Posted by AAPlatinum

my favorite is 20G - 20,000 miles for a roundtrip upgrade (no co-pay) from coach to business from US to NRT on AA metal.

[JDiver]

and, from FewMiles' site, from SanDiego1K's referral from this page. (Thanks, FewMiles, for keeping these invaluable things around! And to hillrider , for the scans!)

[SanDiego1K]

It took some serious digging, but I found this thread relevant to the use of old miles:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...989-miles.html

Look at this post, that explains how the code has changed for business class since then:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/1441481-post25.html

The challenge is finding an agent who has been working since before 1989, and is willing to find the actual terms of the old chart.

[sbrower]

Originally Posted by Madison Guy

I MIGHT BE ALL WRONG HERE - BUT - I seem to recall (but can't find) posts indicating "old miles" book straight into F and J buckets, that is, no capacity controls (or taxes, for that atter) - although I also rememebr posts indicating AA did not want to admit this'feature.' Perhaps this was for an all out award tkt rather than an upgrade as well. But I agree with ESPEN36 in this case - use your "old miles" with GREAT care. (I blew a lot of mine supidly some time ago without knowing what I COULD have done with them!

Capacity controls now apply and have for about 10(?) years. This was the subject of a class action many years ago. However, the upgrade to First (the last time I tried to use it) DOES mean First class, even in 3 class.