A class available, but ba.com says upgrade not available
 

To be more specific

I used oneworld.com RTW booking tool to check that A class was available and an AA metal flight and I used ba.com to see if "buy and upgrade" was possible.

The two don't seem consistent ...

(This is a business to first upgrade by the way).

I'm unclear as to exactly what you are saying. Are you trying to upgrade using AA miles or BA avios?

AA miles

But the only two places I know where I can check for upgrade availability on AA are oneworld.com (make a F RTW booking which will search for A), and ba.com's "buy and upgrade" search.

Are there better ways?

Expertflyer and calling AA and asking.

You can't search AA upgrade availability on ba.com. ba.com will only sure pure redemptions. Since AA uses revenue booking classes for J to F upgrades all you need to do is to look for 'A' class on sites like Expertflyer.

Isn't aa.com supposed to be showing SWU availability these days? That's the same in this case as "A" avialability if you're already in Business (though I guess it could get mixed up with "C" availability if you're currently in Coach).

I think it:
1. Only shows it to EXPs
2. Only shows if any upgrades are open (Y>J or J>F), so you can't tell which one is available.

Unless the fix some of the limitations, I think expertflyer is going to stay the best option for a while.

1 - I think it shows for members with SWUs in their account (when I dropped down to plat but still had 3 SWUs it still showed for me)
2 - When it has a link for SWU Avaialable, you click that link and can then select and see if the available upgrades are Y->J or J->F.

ba.com has a "buy and upgrade" search, but I guess the inventory that AA releases to them must be less ...

Anyway, to update: I called AA in the UK, was told no upgrade available, but when I called AA in the US, they upgraded me immediately.

So at least it seems like looking for A-class availability on oneworld.com by making a dummy search for a RTW F itinerary works (for those of us without expertflyer).

Although I don't know why AA in the UK said no upgrade available on both segments (one of the segments even shows up as upgradeable on ba.com)