WWannabe

Sorry if this is obvious, I've done searches and not found any clear answers, and the AA website seems short on promises. I'm new to AA, am more used to the AC Aeroplan model, which is Star Alliance.

My husband has managed to be Gold this year, because of some long-haul flights. We want to book flights YYZ-LAX, and he has the points for restricted Economy tickets. There's a deal right now on transferring points, and for about $400 I could give him my points, and he'd have enough for full-fare Economy. Do you need that fare class to then get an upgrade based on his Gold status? Can you even request an upgrade when booking with points?

Am I included if he books the tickets, or would just he get upgraded?

I have also read about the 500-mile upgrades, they won't tell me how many he has right now, but presumably he could buy more with points. How is that different from getting a free upgrade--does this guarantee you an upgrade rather than waiting for one at the gate?

We'd really rather not fly in Coach, so wondering whether this is all worth the risk, or whether we should just go ahead and buy Business tickets, and
bank the points until next time.

(Thank god for AA--Air Canada Aeroplan now wants 100K per person Biz, and can't give us non-stop at this point--in the past I've done much better, but times they are a changing.)

WWannabe

Ah, okay, I've answered a couple of my questions with this, from the website:

"AAdvantage Platinum® and AAdvantage Gold® members receive complimentary upgrades for themselves and one companion, provided both are traveling on a full-fare* Economy Class ticket."

I guess another option would be to buy full-fare Economy tickets with real $$$, and then attempt to upgrade with these 500-mile thingies. Would we succeed?

jhartvu

You won't need the 500-mile thingies--that's the "complimentary" part of "complimentary upgrades." On any discount fare, GLD and PLT AAdvantage members have to use the thingies (we normally call them "stickers"), but full-fare is complimentary. Note that you can request a complimentary upgrade, but it's not a guarantee that you'll get upgraded at all.

Apieinthesky

To confirm an upgrade in advance, you need to either buy J class tickets outright, or upgrade with miles+copay. If you want to learn more about how 500 mile stickers work, I suggest that you go into the FAQ (stickied at the top, and where it says "Please check here first!").

It rarely makes sense to buy full Y tickets unless you need the flexibility. Most of the time you can find discounted J for less than full Y.

You cannot upgrade award tickets.

WWannabe

Thanks guys. So Coach it is, if we want to use our AAdvantage miles.

(I was wrong about AC Aeroplan--I can get two Business tickets for 100K, but few non-stop flights. I'll probably go that way.)

SJC AA

Hi, just to call out something from your original post -- there is no reason why you should pay to transfer miles (which you call "points"). It simply does not make sense. Instead, just use your miles to book a ticket for someone else, if that's what you're trying to accomplish, and avoid the pointless fee.

WWannabe

Of course, it was a matter of consolidating points to one account to be able to buy a particular reward.

But also, if you buy a pair of reward tickets using two different accounts, how can you be sure that you can get the same flights, let alone seat assignments?

swag

No. To be clear, even though an AAnytime award comes from full paid fare inventory, it's still an award ticket, and cannot be upgraded with 500 mile stickers nor for free as a complimentary upgrade. If you want to fly in first using miles, you need to redeem for an F award, or purchase a coach ticket for money and then use miles to upgrade.

As far as "But also, if you buy a pair of reward tickets using two different accounts, how can you be sure that you can get the same flights, let alone seat assignments? ", instead of each booking a roundtrip for yourselves with your own miles, have him book 2 one-way awards for the both of you for the outbound, and then you book 2 one-way awards for the both of you for the return. That way, you're on the same reservation for each flight, and you'll inherit his elite benefits for preferred seating and bag allowance.

SJC AA

Still unlikely to be worth anywhere near $400. The most you would ever need to transfer for this purpose would be 12,499 miles.

You can, of course, book as four one-way tickets, each one coming from either account. And you can put award tickets on hold for 5 days before ticketing. So put all four one-way tickets on hold, from any combination of accounts, and once they're all on hold, ticket them.

I'm not sure what you're worried about regarding seat assignments. Just choose them on each reservation at the same time.