Paid upgrade for non elite member?
 

I don't have any status in AA. Just starting. My question is: Can I buy a Main cabin fare ticket and later upgrade to a First class? Should I call or can i upgrade via the website? The reason is my company pays only for Main cabin. So i will buy a main cabin ticket, get a receipt that I will submit to my company and later upgrade (Pay from my personal fund)

If this is possible, i would not pay for a seat when I initially buy the main cabin ticket.

Thanks

AFAIK You can generally buy the fare upgrade (full fare difference - but without change fee) to go from Y -> J/F

As mentioned, you can always call and pay to upgrade your ticketed main cabin fare. Your company would have paid the base fare and you can pay the difference plus any fees with your own payment method.

When you reach gold status, you can upgrade domestic flights for "free" with e-certificates (old schoolers here call them stickers because that's what AA used to send in the mail). That's a simplistic explanation...there are tons of threads on status based upgrades once you reach that point.

if you happen to have any points in your AA account you can also use those to upgrade a coach fare(based on availability). The number of points and copay(if any) depends on your coach fare.

Got it. Thanks

Does it matter if the corporate travel contract gives a discount (must you implicitly first buy up to the regular fare for your fare class and then pay the difference between the regular fare and a FC fare or upgrade?) or uses a corporate travel agent (fee for AA to take over the ticket?) that might have purchased a bulk or consolidator fare (poddible to upgrade these?)

I buy the ticket directly in AA site, No corporate travel agent is involved

Also, FYI, there will be no change fee to upfare your ticket from Y to J/F. It was a nasty shock to me a few months back that some US carriers charge the fee for such a thing.

Do you mean there's no change fee to upfare any "coach" fare, or are you saying only a true "Y"/unrestricted coach fare will not incur a fee to pay for a higher class of service?

Almost any coach fare. I've never attempted to upfare Basic Economy, but I believe that's the exception. Any other fare should work.

I would expect the change fee to be charged if you simply upfare a ticket, for example from discounted coach to FULL Y, but not if you upfare to a higher cabin, such as coach to business class or business to first.

Buying up to F, change fees?
 

I am thinking of buying up all my remaining domestic flights to First for the remainder of 2017 so I can meet my EQDs needed to keep Platinum.

Will they waive the change fees to do this since I am buying up to First Class?

AA will waive the fee, I think that the magic word is "up-faring".

Indeed it is. :)

MSP_Monopoly - take a look at this thread as well, if you'd like to see what others have done: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...aster-thd.html

Right means. Wrong end.

If you're willing to buy up to First, why do you care about status?


Yes. But you may need to educate the agent. And it might not be easy. Since the use of N* "star files" in native SABRE has gone away, it has become difficult to point Res agents to the right place to find the documentation that this is ok and how to do it.

The magic words on this thread are not always immediately magic.