Outstanding tip!

However, you forgot "M" (domestically it fits between "K" and "L"), and, on long-hauls, "R" (fits between "J" and "D").

See https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...s/american.jsp

Oops, fixed!

Thanks!

Required for certain upgrades, such as Biz Extraa.

I've booked a number of these. I second just putting an itin on hold and calling AA to upfare.

Yes, but it's not really necessary to search all of those fares. AA.com will show you the lowest coach, business, and first fares available. If OP is seeing deep discounted coach offered, all higher coach fares will also be available. So OP really only has to search for the minimum fare required for whatever he or she wants to do.

I presume that the OP might also want to know how much such an upfare might cost. And it's faster to do so on the web, especially if he/she has multiple destinations in mind.

Yes, but I mean of the fares that earn 1.0 EQP for example, V class is the lowest. If that's good enough, there's no need to search for ALL of AA's fares above that.

Right. I always reserve online with whatever economy fare aa.com gives me, then I call to upfare to V to get full mileage credit. I've done this a number of times and the telephone agent is readily agreeable (some sound like they expect what I going to say as soon as I mention "upfare").

Right, but maybe the OP wants the lowest possible fare and has some level of flexibility. Also, I've noticed instances when upfaring when the lowest 1.0 EQM fare was at a different time of the day. In addition, I've noticed that V is not always the cheapest of the 1.0 earning fares. It's like how you occasionally see Q fares cheaper than O fares.

This is to help ensure that the OP gets the lowest 1.0 earning fare possible.

Thanks for the responses and assistance. I tried searching but was not aware of the term "upfaring" ;)

For those who were curious as to why I inquired ... I still have several tickets to buy this year and I'm tying to figure out the best way to cross over 100,000 Q points again since I'm just returning from an AOWE4.

Specifically one ticket MKE-MIA the weekend of Sept 27th the "Choice" fares are running $500-$600 per ticket while the first class fares are running $1300-$1400 RT. Normally choice fares run $300-$600 RT with first class fares running $600-$800 for this route.

Unfortunately it seems AA is resigned completely eliminate the 757s from ORD and thus a plethora of 738s on this route with 150 seats in total and only 16 F seats - at least until they start adding widebodies back for the Winter. I can't bring myself to pay $1400 per F seat to MIA in October (maybe around the holidays, but not in Oct.) so if I'm going to be paying $500-$600 per ticket I don't want to be getting 0.5 Q points when I could have paid a bit more for a full 1.0 Q point.

I probably would have not had a problem getting to EXP without a mileage run or doing this extra work investigating the rest of my tickets if I had realized the new AA.com seems to default to those fare codes no matter the price earlier. The price of falling off the FT Wagon for a while ... LOL.

Thanks again!

I just got off the phone with a really awesome platinum line person (wonder if it was an EXP pickup), who basically explained if you keep the exact same flight details, you can ask the agent to upgrade your fare class "i.e. upfaring". By using, EF you can figure out the cost difference before you even execute it.

E.g. I had a flight from CMI-ORD-EWR (and back) where the fare class was G/G/G/G, and to up it to G/P/P/G (ORD-EWR is a CR7) the cost went from $420 to $1220. No change fee (even though the G fare is pretty restrictive pair).

The agent stated the key thing that needs to be said is that you don't want to change your flight details just need to upgrade the fare class and if you know the classes tell them.

+-ADT

For domestic routes, I'm finding "V" fares (or anything earning 1.0 Q miles) are typically twice as much as, say, "O" fares ( or anything earning 0.5 Q miles). Is this typical?

All AA marketed flights earn 1 elite qualifying mile per mile flown (plus elite minimums if applicable). So V and O are identical in that respect. If you're needing points, that's a different matter. I'm not accustomed to V being double O though; having examples would be most useful.

An example (at time of typing): LAX-BOS r/t 10/16-10/23.
Lowest fare at aa.com is an O one at $338.
Using ITA Matrix, the lowest 1.0 EQP fare is a V one at $854.

That's pretty tough.