Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
I'm not 100% sure on that; are there not restrictions that upgrades are limited to published fares; if AMEX has some IT/BT type booking arrangement, I thought that that might make them invalid to upgrade
The best course of action is to cut down on speculation and just call AA imo; if they say no then ask for the reason why it cannot be done and maybe then post that here for possible advice
Dave
Well, I'm rarely 100% sure of anything, that's a tall order. I've tried to excise "never" and "always" from my vocabulary
However, I have another credit card through my credit union (Visa) that operates on a very similar "points" based system (various point values allow you to purchase airline tickets at threshold dollar levels). Similar to Amex, you must call in to execute this transaction, and essentially you are speaking with a contracted travel agency that is handling this on behalf of the credit card program. I've been using these tickets for many years and have probably upgraded at least 10 of them over the last 2 years on AA with no problem whatsoever. Once you book the ticket, the agent gives you a PNR and I simply suck it into AA.com and can pretty much do whatever I choose from that point (I've done segment upgrades, miles w/copay upgrades, etc.)
The key of course, is when speaking with the agent I verify the fare code for both tickets I'm getting and ensure that they are fare buckets which AA will allow me to do whatever it is I'm desiring in that situation. Now of course, if you end up with a fare code that doesn't allow upgrade, well then you wouldn't be able to, but then of course if you bought that same fare code on AA.com, you wouldn't be able upgrade it either.
Anyhow, certainly, the OP could indeed call AA to verify. As for me, no need to as this type of transaction with AA has worked enough times for me that I now "trust" it. In the end, it simply all comes down to the fare code being booked. That will drive what you can do with the ticket. However, certainly, I've found that when conducting this type of transaction, many forget to verify the fare code being ticketed then end up with a consolidator fare code that they can't upgrade. Then they are surprised later. This almost happened to me once, but I caught it, and simply used a few more "points" to move up a fare code level to what I needed.
Certainly, though your advice to call and clarify is good advice if greater certainty is desired.
Regards