Hello All,

I hope this is the correct forum. I have to fly from PHX to London the first week in April for about a week for business. I don't mind flying but I don't like flying long distances. When I lived in TX, I use to fly AA a lot so I still have some points that I'd like to use to upgrade to the next highest class. Looks like it will cost me about 50,000 miles and some money. The problem is I don't have the full 50K so I was going to transfer some from Marriott to AA about 15K worth. I'm no longer elite status so I'm wondering what my chances are of being able to upgrade? I'd hate to buy the ticket through AA and transfer miles and end up without an upgrade. Also, what is the next class up on international, business or do they have an economy plus?

About 5 years ago, I went to london on BA and I bought an economy plus type seat and I got upgrade to business both ways. I could look at doing this again but I don't know if this was common thing to happen or just very lucky.

My last choice is through skyauction.com as they have Virgin Air economy plus seats for a good price but I don't know how reliable the tickets will be.

I also thought about looking at firstclassflyer.com but I don't know how good this service is.

Any advice would be appreciated.