Thunderroad

Form the BA Guide sticky in the BA forum:

"You can only upgrade from Economy to WT+ if you ticket is a Y B H fare. You CANNOT upgrade from a cheapy economy fare to WT+, although you can upgrade from a cheap WT+ fare to Club World. The one caveat is the ‘special’ fare sale seats – if you booked your WT+ (T class) or Club World (I class) fare under a special offer (normally indicated by a big red ‘D’ for Discount throughout Fare Explorer), these are not normally eligible to MFU (the T&Cs usually explicitly exclude the fare being combined with mileage, although a recent 2006 ‘Travel Shop’ discount/sale promotion did not, so it’s always worth checking closely)."

I'm hoping against hope that as the details shake out AA mileage upgrades on BA from WT+ to CW will go the same route, so that the two programs are consistent in this regard. And as a re-read the FAQ on this point, it's a bit ambiguous in terms of seeming to just refer to FF WT to WT+ upgrades. But I'm not holding my breath on this one.

dstan

Links and the text of the AA email have now been added to the OP. Also, the following item has been split out to a separate thread as it affects ALL AA Upgrade Awards:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ps-exempt.html

/Moderator

MGW2000

I just calculated the number of BA tier points I would have earned this year had I credited my flights to the Executive Club, and I would have earned BA Gold...

So the question is, for a US based flyer, is BA Gold > AA Platinum? I don't think so because of upgrades, but it does serve as an interesting option for next year...

Matt

galaticos

BA Gold will get you access to all airports AC though for domestic travel...unlike AA plat...

galaticos

Does anyone have any information about BA moving its gates to AA terminals in ORD/JFK/LAX/MIA? they already have it in DFW...so just wondering..

diaspora04

I suspect that many US based frequent fliers to/through LHR are elite members of both AA and BA.

shadesofgrey1x

I heard a few years ago that this would happen when the North Terminal was completed. Which for the most part it is. I have not heard any recent timetable on this though.

Surgee

And Flagship Lounges where applicable, even when flying domestic AA.

Score8

That may be true, except all of the corporate customers I know have to book through their corp travel site rather than on AA.com, which is the required booking location in order to upgrade.

I was hoping in all of this, as a biz fare buyer, to be able to upgrade to F on BA at some reasonable rate. However, 35K for JFK or BOS to LHR is not worth it. If I find myself on the west coast, then perhaps that might make sense for the miles. This is, of course, contingent on them sorting out the 'technology' issue of various booking locations.

MilesMark

I acknowledge that I don't appreciate the nuances of international upgrades since we use our miles for business class international tickets but, anecdotally at least, there may be an actual improvement in award availability (although maybe only for today). This morning I snagged two business class seats on the dates we wanted in April on BA from BOS to MUC via LHR on the way out and on IB via MAD on the way back. BOS, not JFK! I was stunned. When I asked about a different day, she told me to call back soon as flights were being added to inventory today because of the AA/BA/IB combination. As you know, we could never have flown TATL on BA and any flights from BOS to LHR in business were extremely rare. To avoid the fuel surcharge, I had requested IB for both legs, but only available on the return. Sounds like going through MAD (which I prefer anyway) instead of LHR is going to be a good strategy to save money. We freqently flew IB from BOS to get to Europe, and now it's nice to have BA as a backup.

If you want to snag any TATL award travel, today may be a good day to call.

MAH4546

Not going to happen at LAX where there is simply no room, but T4 and TBIT will be connected behind security with a new pedestrian bridge opening in 2013.

At MIA, BA moves to Concourse D in late spring, along with the re-opening of the British Airways Terraces lounge.

bernardd

It's a fair point. BA promised 18 months ago, and so far failed to deliver, the ability to upgrade Travel Agent tickets, though I believe some of the BA's TA's that specialize in Corporate accounts may have a way to do this.

galaticos

this cant come quite fast enough .... was also hoping they move BA from T5 to T3 at ORD...esp now that DL vacated its spots on L concourse of T3..they can move some domestic flights to L concourse and keep K12 - K19 exclusively for INTL departures...given close proximity to AC and FL...

they will need to expand the FL though - it is severely space constrained right now..

galaticos

The upgrade page does say that they are working to add the feature of enabling tickets booked through corporate desks to be available for upgrades! hope this comes soon...but i would still let go of the AA F (AA J+ SWU) and do BA CW on TATL thereby saving SWU for vacations

kebosabi

Doubt it for ORD, AA Terminal 3 doesn't have CBP processing facilities; even AA international flights have to first disembark passengers at the international T5 and physically move the plane to T3. Huge inefficiency right there.