TravelerMSY

Sorry for off-topic, but what's the current airpass pricing for something like CLT-FRA in coach? Both the standard pricing in Y and the slightly cheaper 7 day advance that books into H?

ACA321

They only gave me standard Instant Upgrade pricing...which I was told is $1758.80 per segment, plus taxes and fees. Tried to get a firm answer on how much taxes and fees are but was told they fluctuate. Based on a current booking in J, these would amount to around $1000 for a return trip, or a bit less for a Y ticket.

Not sure about the plan ahead H booking rate, but I was told that one does not book into J space nor does it accrue J mileage. You would have to use regular upgrade instruments if booking that way, so a step up from Y award bookings, but not as attractive as a regular Instant Upgrade fare.

JDiver

According to information shared (and posted in the wiki post), "Economy AirPass flyers offers "instant upgrade" fares that book into A for First or D for Business."

DJZ

Does anyone know if this still holds? e.g., JFK-BOS-DCA would price out as O/W JFK-DCA since JFK-BOS < JFK-DCA?
many thanks!

elliottishere

I'm currently looking into buying an AAirpass and I am working with AA sales. Ask the sales agent to run your last year's flights as if they were AAirpass and he/she will give you a breakdown of whether it would have been advantageous or not based on your actual flying history. For me personally, I would have saved nearly $3k last year with AAirpass (change fees + fare differences).

What appealed to me is that on TATL flights, you can instant upgrade to business then use a SWU to first. You still maintain the flexibility of the program when doing so. Essentially, from NYC you'll pay $2900 r/t to LHR for first class if you can pull a SWU. Not bad if you ask me.

It is worth noting that you cannot instant upgrade on flights to South America or Asia. So a business class flight NYC to HKG is around $11,000 r/t with AAirpass which is crazy expensive imo.

For what it's worth, the guy did tell me that AA is actively lobbying BA to accept AAirpass pax using the existing pricing chart. He said he didn't know if it would happen but they are definitely trying.

IWontRegretThis

Since when can you not upgrade Asia flights? Before mine ran out in March, I had done 2x RT HKG-DFW and 1 DFW-NRT instant upgraded from Y to J, with SWU into F.

JDiver

There's no mention of an Asia or South America restriction on -UP fare availability with AirPass.

workandski

There is no restriction on -up fares to Asia or South America. They just have never offered those fares. if you can find a regular -up fare, you can buy it using the Airpass funds, but you won't get the same flexibility.

zpaul

???

I'm almost always on an -UP fare out of SCL. It's usually in ExpertFlyer as Y/LAUP at between $3k and $4k.

ucfjoe

The more I read this thread the more confused I get about if this is a good deal for me (through work). I'm PLAT on AA (2015 challenge) and will at least requalify at the minimum for PLT. All but one of my flights were booked First (discounted). All of my work flights are domestic. Nearly all of my travel is booked a week or less out so usually last minute. Historically I've mostly flown on WN (I'm A+) because more than anything the ability to change/cancel last minute is a huge advantage for me but it seems like more and more often their last minute tickets are even sometimes cheaper than AA P or F or A(?) class. I've been averaging $30k a year in airfare I could bring a majority to AA but not all of it (ie. I'm not connecting through CLT to go MCO-ATL).

Any thoughts? I can prepay $10k or whatever for airfare but would like to be able to document how it's a good deal for the company should I ever be audited.

workandski

Airpass fares are based entirely on mileage. You pay a fixed amount per mile based on the class you fly. The calculation is a little complicated. My basic cost per mile is 40 cents a mile, but there is a different multiplier based on the class of service and the destination. I believe American airlines makes the multipliers public on the Airpass site, but I don't know if the basic cost per mile is the same for everyone. On some routes, some of the time, you can pay the economy rate and get an instant upgrade to business class. The only way to see these instant upgrades is to have an airpass account. They are entirely separate from anything that appears in expert flyer. When I look for an airfare, I see a checkbox for Airpass. If I check that box, I can see whether there is an instant upgrade on that route, but it does not show me any prices since they are entirely based on the formula described above. If I don't check that box, I see the same airfares as everyone else. The only way to figure out whether it would be worthwhile or not, is to have the Airpass people run some examples for you and, even then, they won't tell you which routes are likely to have the instant upgrades because they change from time to time. When Transcon business fares were high, this was a great deal for me because I could get an instant upgrade to business class and use a systemwide upgrade to upgrade to first. I am not so sure that it is a good deal for me anymore. But the big advantage of these fares is that there are no change fees and you can book them at the last minute. They were perfect for me when I was going from LAX to New York for depositions and never knew ahead of time when the deposition was going to end. I doubt they will ever make sense for someone who can plan ahead.

workandski

I just remembered something that might be helpful for other people. When I was thinking about signing up for the Airpass for the first time, I called Airpass and asked some questions. They gave me a temporary Airpass number that I could use just to play around with the numbers. I couldn't actually book anything until I sent them the check for $10,000. And, BTW, they don't accept credit cards.

ACA321

Thanks for the insight workandski, very helpful. I am about to buy one primarily for transatlantic use. The agent assured me there is plenty of instant upgrade space available, as it pulls from the D and I buckets (economy to business)...are you saying that if expertflyer shows availability in these buckets on a route such as CLT-FRA, Airpass doesn't necessarily allow you to instant upgrade? The rep told me by email that as long as D or I is available, it works and books into business...was not made aware of different D or I availability for Airpass than standard booking but if this is the case, it seems like a bit of a bait and switch...

ACA321

Here's the latest info from the Airpass sales rep I spoke to today regarding instant upgrades on TATL routes: As long as D space is available on a flight, instant upgrades (also known as YUPS-which is what they book as according to the rep) are bookable through Airpass, BUT, must be booked as a return trip or they will not show up when searching at all. They are not available as one-way bookings.

ChrL

I've never really understood round trip fares on aairpass... The literature is generally written assuming one way fares. Eg: if you want to change your flight it says to cancel and rebook which makes sense on a oneway but doesn't make sense on the return part of a round trip.

In my experience you can get a r/t aairpass ticket changed but it requires a lot of effort by someone in the lounge or on the phone. Sometimes they end up issuing a new ticket as a $0 exchange but this leads to billing problems (the system doesn't always seem to charge you for the flight). If you notice then you then have to go through the effort of contacting AA and asking them to bill you for the flight.