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Apr 26, 2009 | 6:50 am

#4

gemac

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Dec 2003

Location: STL

Programs: AA 2MM, AS MVP Gold, Hilton Diamond

Posts: 12,966

Quote:

Originally Posted by taigonwon

Did little bit homework myself.

Information from wiki on flyerguide.com:

"American Airlines - One Way Upgrades

Note: Upgrades are only available on American Airlines marketed and operated flights and are limited to a single one-way award with a maximum of three segments. "Fullfare" is an upgrade to the next class of service on any unrestricted full-fare ticket. Unless otherwise noted, a full-fare ticket is one that is booked in Y, B or J and is unrestricted, requires no fee for change or cancellation, has no advance purchase requirements, and is fully refundable.

"Upgrade from most coach or business class fares" is an upgrade to the next class of service, from any eligible purchased ticket; upgrades from discounted coach fares to Europe, South America and Asia, including India, also require a USD$300 copayment each way, and Hawaii has a USD$150 copayment each way."

So now my question is that do I have to be an elite member to do the upgrade? Or do I just need to have enough redeemable mileages?

Thanks for helping
Nick

Basically, there are three upgrade mechanisms on AA: mileage + copay upgrades, systemwide upgrades (SWUs, commonly called eVIPs by veteran AA flyers), and 500-mile upgrades. All upgrades are limited to flights marketed and operated by AA. This means that your ticket must have an AA flight number and the airplane must say "American Airlines" on the outside.

Miles + copay upgrade terms are listed in the last chart on this page of AA.com. These are available to all AAdvantage members.
Systemwide upgrade terms are listed on page 14 of the Executive Platinum manual. These are available to anyone who has access to a systemwide upgrade. Systemwide upgrades are awarded annually to Executive Platinum members, and to every member every time your lifetime mileage counter turns over another million miles (except 1MM for members living in North America).
500-mile upgrades are for flights in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean only. Gold and Platinum members earn 4 500-mile upgrades for each 10,000 miles they fly. Executive Platinum members can use this upgrade procedure without needing to have the upgrade credits. Non-elites can use this upgrade procedure on a few expensive fares. Details of the procedure are found in the Gold manual.