david55555

Hi all,

I booked a ticket on AA (NYC to Italy) and for the return I gave my CC for the $350 + 25k AAdvantage miles, hoping that I can get the upgrade (it's for my wife, she must be comfortable due to pregnancy associated with a few health issues).

Is there any way to raise the chances of getting an upgrade? I've never done this, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

thank you all
David

inlanikai

One thing you can do is subscribe to ExpertFlyer.com and set a Flight Alert for the Upgrade. The upgrade fare bucket from coach to business on an int'l flight is C. Use the Awards & Upgrades tool to select your flight with a search for C and then set the Flight Alert. EF will then continue to search for the inventory to open up and if it does will notify you by email so you can call AA to ask for it.

Good luck and congratulations!

booji

If you want to guarantee a business upgrade, call AA and ask how much the fare difference is and pay for it. They will likely waive the change fee since you are keeping the same flight on the same day, etc. Explain the issues to them. It will cost you a lot more than the 350 + 25k AA miles, but thats the only way to guarantee a seat in J without playing the upgrade lottery. Does your wife have status with AA? If not, remember that if there is a waiting list, she will only be accomodated after the EXPs, PLTs, and GLDs.

JNB280

Deleted.

Science Goy

Others have reported a delay between the opening and filling of inventory, such that if you call in as soon as an upgrade becomes available you can jump the queue.

JMN57

If I understand, you are trying to upgrade a RETURN (MXP or FCO -> JFK) in J for your wife. No mention of upgrading exJFK which is where it may be more useful). But, OK.

1) The post on ExpertFlyer is 100% correct - it's a very useful tool for this type of stuff

2) You don't mention how firm you are on travel dates. If you have a window, use EF to search for upgrade capacity (C class as noted) over a range of dates, if you find some, one option is to switch to that date and you should be able to get the ticket issued now

3) If you don't find availability for the day/dates you can travel, put an alert on the dates/flights you want for C capacity and it will periodically scan for that. I'd recommend that you put a scan on also for Y availability so you know the cadence of the scans. You might want to do them manually with some higher frequency. What you are trying to do is discover C capacity BEFORE AA's programs that assign capacity to waitlists for a particular fare kick in. If you do, quickly call AA and get them to issue the ticket while there is capacity available. Priority goes to those with status when the assignment runs - you can break that priority if you ask a human and there is available capacity.

Good luck

JNB280

Yeah, I should have accounted for that. I suck. OP, disregard my post.

clacko

if leg room isn't a problem, book 2 coach seats for her.....

gemac

If your wife must be in business class, the only way to be relatively certain that she is up front is to buy her a business class ticket. Don't mess with her health for a few bucks. If it would just be nicer and more comfortable for her if she is in business class, but she would be OK traveling in coach, that is the situation of every passenger in coach.

jordyn

That's an "upfare" not an "upgrade". In other words, not particularly helpful to the OP, who I presume already understands that AA sells business class tickets in addition to offering upgrade awards.

Other threads on this topic seem to indicate that they will not, in fact, waive the fee even though it's on the same flight and you're offering to pay them a lot more money.

OP--as others have noted, getting an expertflyer subscription may help a little. You may also want to monitor flights on alternate itineraries and be willing to pay the change fees to switch to a routing that you can confirm upgrades on.

TheBOSman

Which makes sense, as I'm sure some people would "upgrade" to a fully refundable fare, wait whatever length of time felt appropriate, then cancel, allowing them to cancel their original fare without penalty. AA/other airlines have thought most of this through.

jordyn

Actually, they have a simple mechanism to fix this--the non-refundable tag just remains attached to the ticket even after the change. (And really, someone who is price-conscious is probably going to end up on a discount biz ticket that may come with an even bigger change fee than the coach fare.)

TheBOSman

Right, but I'm guessing that is why they don't waive the change fee even if you are giving them more money. Need to keep it under the original rules as you noted.

jordyn

I'm pretty sure they do both. If you buy a restricted economy ticket and want to switch to full-fare business, they will charge you a change fee and also make the resulting ticket restricted as well.

ijgordon

Not the whole ticket, just the original non-refundable amount remains non-refundable.
Here's the language in the fare rules:
But that is not the issue here.

UA allows up-fares and they waive the change fee (at least CO used to).