<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by free101girl:
Wow, if any fare can be upgraded on AA, that is a significant difference between the two airlines. I'm going to switch to AA from now on, whenever possible. Between that and MRTC for those times when I don't upgrade, AA is sounding better and better.</font>
Welcome to AA,
free101girl!
That was a big part of why I switched from DL to AA a few years back. The cheapest AA fare plus purchased upgrades, if I didn't have enough free ones, was always less (for my trips; YMMV) than the cheapest upgradeable DL fares - and I didn't have to take a chance of throwing money away if an upgrade didn't come through.
I've upgraded Web specials several times. The only non-upgradeable AA fares are things you can't get through aa.com like consolidator fares, vacation packages (already mentioned), travel agent "familiarization" fares and so on.
The wording on the Web site is left over from a brief abortive attempt to restrict upgrades a couple of years ago. It never stuck, but nobody has fixed the fine print yet.
BTW, there are some fine FT'ers in San Diego - hope you get a chance to meet some before long!