uiucengineer Welcome to FT
Originally Posted by
uiucengineer
I'll be travelling ORD-PRG in August, and I'm trying to figure out if an upgrade will be at all feasible, or if I should just go ahead and book premium economy with cash (I don't have a lot of miles and it's questionable if I'd get the 50k required for the upgrade in time anyway).
The fine print under the upgrade award chart says this: "Upgrading from Economy Class to Business Class or First Class results in additional premium cabin taxes and carrier-imposed fees, including but not limited to flights originating in Great Britain and France."
Are Great Britain and France special, or will I have to pay the difference in carrier-imposed fees regardless of where I connect? Can I calculate what that will cost by taking the difference of the copays for an award ticket (example in the screenshot $1577 - $587 = $990)? If so, unless there are any tricks I haven't considered, I'll stop worrying about the upgrade and probably just book premium economy.
Okay so apparently I can't post a screenshot with a new account, but hopefully I've described it well enough.
UK & France have high departure taxes. UK (for most, but not airports) has a class of travel based departure tax (APD). For UK this is not payable for transits or arrivals.
An AA award on BA has carrier-imposed fees.
If you 100% want a better seat pay for it up front. Upgrades are not guaranteed. Very likley will be more pax wanting than upgrade seats. Having high AA status can help you on the upgrade list.