SeattleDavid

If I have a B fare on a BA marketed, AA operated flight (JFK-SFO) is this upgradeable with AA miles?

It would seem that the answer is Yes, but there must be an AA marketed flight on the ticket somewhere - or AA ticket stock - is that correct?

Thanks - and apologies if this is already answered elsewhere.

Dave Noble

It will need to 1st be rebooked onto the AA flight number , then may be able to be upgraded using miles.

Can the flight be rebooked onto AA?

Whether it can then be upgraded may depend on whether it is a fare where the ticket can be reissued by AA

SeattleDavid

I knew it wouldn't be simple! But the essence is similar to upgrading BA metal, AA flight number, I guess - they need to change it to a prime flight number first, and that depends on who 'owns' or can access the ticket. And presumably one shouldn't assume that a B fare on the BA# will translate to a B fare on the prime AA#.

I'll just start by asking our corporate travel agent if they can book it as an AA flight number to begin with and still get the great price I was seeing – as part of a BA Premium Economy trip from SFO-LHR and returning from Manchester.

Dave Noble

You cannot upgrade on the codeshare - you need to get the travel agent to book on the AA flight number. If the fare doesn't allow use of the AA flight number, then you are likely out of luck

The fare will not correspond to B on AA since AA no longer uses B class - it is very unlikely to correspond to Y. As such, if AA can reissue the ticket with an upgrade ( assuming C class is available anyway ) , then it will be 15,000 points and $75 for the upgrade

I would suggest that you are likely better off just booking a non stop flight from LHR-SFO and save the miles

Andriyko

When you want to upgrade a codeshare flight, the rules for the marketing carrier apply. While B can be upgraded as an AA prime flight, it cannot be upgraded as a BA*AA flight. If you want to upgrade a BA*AA flight with AA miles then the flight must be booked in Y class. It does not matter what the booking code will map into on AA; the re-booking onto the operating carrier happens because the upgrade booking classes only exist on the operating carrier. Even though it has not been confirmed officially, I tend to believe that the ticket must be issued by AA/on AA stock in order to process an upgrade. I don't think AA will do anything with 125 stock.

If you want to travel to a joint business destination then it is possible to book the domestic flight as AA prime flight, however, if the underlying fare is T the flight will book into H on AA.

SpammersAreScum

Please have a look at the relevant AA page and see for yourself. Upgrading BA-marketed AA-operated is possible, with caveats:

1.2.You will notice BA's B qualifies. So, as far as I can see, your original assumption was correct.

You will notice there's been much discussion on this thread about needing to change marketing carrier, but that was always related to the whole PE mess, which does not apply here. Your reference to this being "part of a BA Premium Economy trip" may have muddied the waters.

JonNYC

I wouldn't say that that's the case.

Dave Noble

If you look at the page, you can see that for upgrade from economy, the valid classes states

■Full-Fare Economy with published fares booked in Y (excluding Military or Government fares)

and that B is no longer listed as an upgrade class from economy . The table used to be less clear and also allow B, but no longer lists B

Regardless, in order to upgrade, it is necessary to rebook onto the AA flight number and B is no longer offered by AA so cannot convert to B.

Also., there is no partner award upgrade for within North America , only for North America to either of Europe, Africa ( via Europe ) or Indian Subcontinent/Middle East

SeattleDavid

Thanks Dave - and thanks everyone else for weighing in. I had read those various pages and reached similar conclusions, but it is clear throughout FT that actual experience probably counts for more than reading and re-reading some of AA's pages

Anyway, my corporate TA booked it as an AA# (in H) followed by BA#'s on the BA flights and it came in at $200 more than the BA# on the AA SFO-JFK flight, but it was still under $1500 (SFO-JFK-LHR; MAN-LHR-SFO with TATL in WT+). Yes, the SFO-JFK upgrade (if it clears) will cost me a $75 copay, but I have a credit on my Citi Prestige card that will take care of that.

Not at all sure how it will all credit to AA, but thats for a different thread!

SpammersAreScum

Ok, now I'm getting a headache.

"Regardless, in order to upgrade, it is necessary to rebook onto the AA flight number"

Where is this coming from? The AA page says:

"Use your AAdvantage miles to upgrade on American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia flights* for yourself or anyone you designate."

"*Includes travel on codeshare flights marketed by American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia and operated by any of the three carriers."

That certainly sounds to me like BA-marketed and AA-operated is allowed. Or, for that matter, IB-marketed and BA-operated, or l...

Dave Noble

You cannot upgrade on the codeshare. To start with, the airlines in question do not offer award availability on the codeshares. The only award availability that exists for upgrades is on the operating carrier flight number

If booked on a codeshare - in order for the upgrade to be possible, rebooking onto the actual operating flight number is required

JonNYC

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/26356295-post341.html

(It's more accurate to say "converted" rather than "rebooked" since it's an internal process)

SpammersAreScum

Thanks. And AA doesn't put the critical sentence "The segment must be converted from a codeshare to a prime flight" on the publicly-facing partner-upgrade page because the conversion usually just works and the passenger doesn't even need to know it happened. And they cover the can't-convert cases by listing the partner classes they can. Except that they are months late (typical!) in dropping B from that list.

Got it. I can finally stop my weeks-long head-scratching over claims that "PE won't work because you have to convert".

Hmm, so, while the PE problem will (maybe?) go away when AA fully rolls out PE, the B disconnect presumably will not.

Andriyko

It is possible to upgrade a codeshare flight. Whether or not AA has B class now has no relevance here. Even if B class on a BA*AA flight were eligible it would not have mattered what class it would have been re-booked into on the prime AA flight. The eligibility is determined based on the marketing carrier flight. If B on BA is eligible then it may map into Q on AA but the upgrade would have still been possible. The re-booking onto the operating carrier is a technical thing. As long as the booking class on the marketing carrier's booking class qualifies, that's all that matters. The eligibility is not determined on the basis of the booking class on the operating carrier. BA's B class maps into H on AA now that AA has withdrawn B class, however, when it was still possible to upgrade BA*AA codeshares with Avios, B class on BA*AA was still eligible regardless of the fact that it was H class on AA. Re-booking (or converting as JonNYC correctly pointed out) onto the operating carrier is simply a part of the process, which does not affect the upgrade itself at all. So, in order for the upgrade to be possible the booking class on the marketing carrier must qualify and there must be availability in the upgraded class on the operating carrier. The internal process of first re-booking onto the operating carrier is just that.

It is an internal thing that passengers should not even be aware of. All you need to know is whether the booking on the marketing carrier qualifies and whether there is availability in the upgraded booking class. And with JB routes the booking classes are usually the same (expect for B), and if there is Y class on A BA*AA flight there will be Y on the same flight under AA number. The rules do not say that there needs to be a certain commercial booking class on the operating carrier.

SpammersAreScum

Yes, yes, the conversion is internal. I thought my post made it clear that I had grasped that fact.

In any case, your argument is not with me. My post was nothing more than an attempt to make sense of the situation and the reasoning which led to the experts' claim that upgrading was not possible. You appear to believe it is possible, so I'll just sit here with my popcorn and watch the disagreement sort itself out.