Originally Posted by QRC3288

there is no such thing as partner upgrade availability....only Asia Miles can be used to upgrade.

And if anecdotes here are any lesson, it seems like AM/MPC treat upgrades vs straight redemptions from different buckets. Very annoying but that seems to be the case based on a lot of anecdotes here. So it could theoretically be possible a redemption award was visible on BA's website (in which case it will also be available as straight redemption via calling AM/MPC), but NOT as an upgrade redemption. I'm not endorsing this nonsense, but repeating what I think are the facts unfortunately.

The best way to see if they're playing games is to ignore the BA website (which shows phantom availability anyway), and call MPC / AM and ask if they have full redemptions available. Aka not upgrade redemptions. Never have I come across - nor read on here - where partners have availability that AM doesn't. On the contrary, AM/MPC often has inventory that isn't yet released to partners. Either way, your problem can be solved by calling AM/MPC. If they tell you there's availability for a pure redemption - but not available for upgrade - then you have your answer. Two different buckets unfortunately.

They are incompetent a lot of the times, but they don't lie about availability.