Originally Posted by
stephem
it’s the second most expensive fare class under full J. In almost every market for international flights the AA fare hierarchy ia I, D, R, J. Most people only fly in I, for me our corporate rates give a healthy discount on R and J so i often fly those. Just do an EF search constrained to business class and AA and you see the hierarchy. Or if you dont have an eF subscription then search ITA with the restrictor F bc=r and you wil see them.
There are no complimentary upgrades on “international” flights (except to Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America). But complimentary upgrades do in fact clear into R or X, depending on whether first class is sold as “first” or “business.” This is different from C, although sometimes the two inventories have the same availability (as appears to be the case in your case).