CO FF

I tried a few searches, but couldn't cut through the junk results to something useful. so, if this is a repeat of a long-running line, my apologies in advance.

I have award travel booked for this summer (LAX-YVR-LHR-FCO/VCE-ZRH-ORD-LAX) in a combination of first & business. If I convert that to revenue travel, I stand a good chance at hitting EXP this year (and my wife could re-up to PLT via challenge). But buying BA F YVR-LHR and LX J ZRH-ORD is a bit steep for me...

Will AA let me take these reservations and go buy cheap coach seats and turn the awards into upgrades?

olimaspecto

They will make you cancel your original ticket and then refund the miles to your account. You will have to pay a fee for this (I think $100 but am not totally sure, as I have never done it).

Then, you cna go book your coach seats (make sure they are in an upgradable fare calss). If once you book them there is room to upgrade then (unlikely since its only a few months out now) you can upgrade.

A few things to remember.

1) You can only upgrade on flights on AA metal (meaning BA YVR to LHR) won't count.

2) it is 25,000 miles + $250 per ticket one-way (for up to three segments) to upgrade for European flights

Others will have more comments, but this is a start.

rothsteg

I had a First class award round trip to Vail for late-January due to $700 coach price at booking. Subsequently I received an email from Vail that AA had cut January ticket price and, sure enough, at aa.com., there was a $207 RT fare. I called the EXP desk and told them I'd like to return my award ticket, book the coach ticket and use my about to expire VIP06's for a round trip upgrade. Ten minutes later, I had my ticket, my 45,000 miles back, my first class ticket and was about to earn almost 8,000 miles. As a friend said, "of course they were happy to get cash in the trade."

JonNYC

I think the thinking is that any flight that has J-award inventory is quite likely to have -C- inventory. But, as pointed out, most of those flights are not on AA, so no upgrade possible. Also, you'll still have to pay to redeposit all awards and then start new ones-- it's not a "conversion" in any real sense.

If you were looking for them to waive the fees to get you onto paid tix (instead of award)-- they won't.

gemac

I would do this in the following order:
1. Call to enquire about upgrade availability on your dates. If you find something you like, then
2. Buy the tickets and upgrade them, then
3. Have AA redeposit your miles, and cancel your ticket.

The reason for doing in this order is that step 3 is automatic, AA has already agreed to do this (for $100 per ticket). Step 1 is iffy, and if it is OK, you don't want somebody taking your upgrades while you are canceling the award tickets.

JonNYC

Again, take a look at his current flights-- they are not AA flights (except the domestic ones). Game over.

ijgordon

I'm not sure that's really an obstacle here. gemac's advice should still hold assuming the OP finds an "all"-AA routing he wants with a decent price and upgrade availability. Purchase and upgrade that, different, itinerary, and THEN cancel the original one.

Of course, AA doesn't fly to VCE at all, so there will be at least one segment on OW (or another airline) metal in coach. And it's also been reported that the FCO flights are hard to upgrade in advance, so travel via LHR might be a better bet. And further, transatlantic travel in F, which OP currently has on BA, won't be an option.
A few hours in european coach to make EXP though? Worth it.

Fly AA J all the way

The problem, of course, is that the flight probably had C seats when the OP made his award reservation. But, just cancelling the award does not return the original fare availability. If there are currently no seats for sale, say, that seat will go to J and only J inventory. I know that you know this, Jon, as do others here, but for those who don't, something to be well aware of.

CloudCoder

AA was -supposed- to charge $100 to redeposit the miles from the cancelled award ticket. Does anyone know of an AA policy where they waive the redeposit fee if you buy a revenue ticket for the same flights?

I think it's much more likely that the AAgent merely forgot to charge the redeposit fee while handling a transaction involving several steps: cancel the award, reserve the new flight, take payment, issue the ticket, apply the eVIP, reissue the ticket, etc.

Their error, your benefit. ^

JonNYC

gemac's advice; do you see where he says "Step 1 is iffy, and if it is OK, you don't want somebody taking your upgrades while you are canceling the award tickets." Makes no sense since he has to book on totally different flights.

No, they most certainly don't have such a policy. You pay to redeposit.

gemac

Go back and read my post. I never said they were the same flights. I said to call and ask about upgradable flights on the OP's dates. The reason why it is iffy is that OP would have to have miles on other airlines, and summer upgrade availability is pretty tight this late. I would still do it in the order I specified. It is still possible for someone to be grabbing your upgrades while you are cancelling awards on different flights. I would get my paid tickets in place, with any upgrades, then cancel the awards. If you would cancel the awards first, then look for purchased tickets and upgrades, go for it.

JonNYC

A+ for creativity. Thanks for the laugh.

CO FF

Thanks, all, for the info. Looks like a non-starter.

I only went to YVR for the BA leg to get to Europe one day ahead of my original LAX-LHR -- of course, I didn't do that until they swapped me from Suites to Coffins -- so I'm not wedded to going ex-YVR.

I could get my original dates in J, using AA metal LAX-JFK-FCO or LAX-ORD-FCO, but not as MileSAAver (which I now have). So that's a loser.

I could get my original date ex-ZRH or ex-FCO in J on AA metal, so the only loss there would be the need to get from VCE to either FCO or ZRH on my own (and missing out on LX's J class, which all have raved about).

But I have to detour to PIT for the weekend when we get back to the USA, and so I set it up with a break in ORD (and a revenue ticket ORD-PIT r/t) that I would lose if I flew ZRH-DFW or FCO-JFK.

So, I either need to give up on EXP (it probably makes more sense to try to get back to 1P w/UAL) or find an excuse to make regular r/ts to the east coast.