Feb 9, 2014, 4:19 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
AAdvantage Miles Upgrade Awards and options on other carriers
Only allowed on specific British Airways (BA) and Iberia (IB)fares
AADVANTAGE PARTICIPATING AIRLINES UPGRADE AWARDS (See: Mileage upgrades on British Airways and Iberia)
AAdvantage members may use AAdvantage miles to upgrade on American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia flights*. Miles may be used to upgrade yourself or anyone you designate. And now, you can upgrade tickets booked by American Airlines (via Reservations or AA.com) as well as bookings made through a travel agency or other source.
Each one-way upgrade is valid up to three segments from an individual published full fare ticket per the chart below. Definitions of the eligible fare types are as follows:
Upgrade requests can be made when you make your initial reservation or after you have purchased your ticket, but must be made prior to checking in for your flight.
To request an upgrade award contact Reservations or visit an American Airlines Travel Center.Service charges may apply. If you have already purchased a ticket and you wish to use a mileage upgrade award, please have your reservation details available for our reservation agent.
*Includes travel on codeshare flights marketed by American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia and operated by any of the three carriers.
Link to aa.com page with award chart, language, etc. (IMPORTANT TO READ IN ITS ENTIRETY)
As Microwave points out, AA must have some involvement with the ticket:
See post 338 for useful information.
updated 4 Sep 2016 by JDiver
Signed in members with 90 days / 90 posts can edit this Wikipost; may be printed by using the
(lower right wiki corner)
Only allowed on specific British Airways (BA) and Iberia (IB)fares
AADVANTAGE PARTICIPATING AIRLINES UPGRADE AWARDS (See: Mileage upgrades on British Airways and Iberia)
AAdvantage members may use AAdvantage miles to upgrade on American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia flights*. Miles may be used to upgrade yourself or anyone you designate. And now, you can upgrade tickets booked by American Airlines (via Reservations or AA.com) as well as bookings made through a travel agency or other source.
Each one-way upgrade is valid up to three segments from an individual published full fare ticket per the chart below. Definitions of the eligible fare types are as follows:
- Full-Fare Economy with published fares booked in Y (excluding Military or Government fares) on American
- Full-Fare Economy with published fares booked in Y or B on British Airways or Iberia
- Premium Economy with published World Traveller Plus fares booked in W (unrestricted fares only) on British Airways. Doesn’t apply to Excursion fares.
- Full-Fare Club World Business with published fares booked in J, D or R on American and C, J, D or R on British Airways or Iberia
- British Airways flight must be coded BAxxx on the ticket (AA codeshare flights are not eligible for upgrades and must be converted / booked as BA prime flights)
- British Airways must operate the LONGEST SEGMENT on the itinerary to be eligible for an upgrade
Upgrade requests can be made when you make your initial reservation or after you have purchased your ticket, but must be made prior to checking in for your flight.
To request an upgrade award contact Reservations or visit an American Airlines Travel Center.Service charges may apply. If you have already purchased a ticket and you wish to use a mileage upgrade award, please have your reservation details available for our reservation agent.
*Includes travel on codeshare flights marketed by American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia and operated by any of the three carriers.
Link to aa.com page with award chart, language, etc. (IMPORTANT TO READ IN ITS ENTIRETY)
As Microwave points out, AA must have some involvement with the ticket:
American Airlines, British Airways or Iberia flights or codeshare flights marketed and operated by American Airlines, British Airways or Iberia are eligible. Reservations booked through a source other than American Airlines must include at least one flight with an American Airlines flight number in order to be eligible (includes codeshare flights operated by British Airways or Iberia but booked as an American Airlines flight number.)
updated 4 Sep 2016 by JDiver
Signed in members with 90 days / 90 posts can edit this Wikipost; may be printed by using the
(lower right wiki corner)
AA Partner Airline Upgrade Award - BA, IB, including codeshares (master thd)
Dec 11, 2021, 9:14 pm
#736
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
Update: the upgrade got pulled a day later. Apparently there’s a rule - not written anywhere - that the BA segment had to be the longest on the itinerary to be eligible for an upgrade. What the hell? Where is that written???
Dec 12, 2021, 10:23 am
#737
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
So you have say a 001 ticket now thats something like
JFK-LHR (AA coded/ BA op)
LHR-CDG (BA prime)
CDG-LHR (...)
LHR-JFK (AA prime)
But they (BA?) kicked it back from ticketing? And the only way would be to get JFK-LHR BA prime?
very curious because i've never gotten this silly upgrade thing on BA to work. not sure how non-FTers would ever use it
only one time I got close was IRROPS where i got moved to a W fare on a BA prime on a 001 ticket, but I ended up doing an airport upgrade instead so didn't get to try it
Dec 12, 2021, 10:32 am
#738
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
I'm confused, is the BA prime flight some short europe segment?
So you have say a 001 ticket now thats something like
JFK-LHR (AA coded/ BA op)
LHR-CDG (BA prime)
CDG-LHR (...)
LHR-JFK (AA prime)
But they (BA?) kicked it back from ticketing? And the only way would be to get JFK-LHR BA prime?
very curious because i've never gotten this silly upgrade thing on BA to work. not sure how non-FTers would ever use it
only one time I got close was IRROPS where i got moved to a W fare on a BA prime on a 001 ticket, but I ended up doing an airport upgrade instead so didn't get to try it
So you have say a 001 ticket now thats something like
JFK-LHR (AA coded/ BA op)
LHR-CDG (BA prime)
CDG-LHR (...)
LHR-JFK (AA prime)
But they (BA?) kicked it back from ticketing? And the only way would be to get JFK-LHR BA prime?
very curious because i've never gotten this silly upgrade thing on BA to work. not sure how non-FTers would ever use it
only one time I got close was IRROPS where i got moved to a W fare on a BA prime on a 001 ticket, but I ended up doing an airport upgrade instead so didn't get to try it
Ticket is PHL-(AA)-LHR, LHR-(BA)-DXB. LHR-DXB was originally coded AA, but someone managed t convert it to BA so that removed the immediate objection. The new blocker is the flight length now. PHL-LHR is about 100 miles longer so SOMEONE cancelled the upgrade - not sure who. Going to get to PHL and see if there’s anyone who can help there as the EXP desk basically threw up their hands and said they don’t want to deal with it.
Dec 12, 2021, 10:41 am
#739
Join Date: Nov 2010
Programs: AA EXP (owe), BA Silver (ows), AB Silver (owr), WN A+/CP, IHG Spire AMB, Avis First
Posts: 1,414
Sorry, I was lacking specifics indeed.
Ticket is PHL-(AA)-LHR, LHR-(BA)-DXB. LHR-DXB was originally coded AA, but someone managed t convert it to BA so that removed the immediate objection. The new blocker is the flight length now. PHL-LHR is about 100 miles longer so SOMEONE cancelled the upgrade - not sure who. Going to get to PHL and see if there’s anyone who can help there as the EXP desk basically threw up their hands and said they don’t want to deal with it.
Ticket is PHL-(AA)-LHR, LHR-(BA)-DXB. LHR-DXB was originally coded AA, but someone managed t convert it to BA so that removed the immediate objection. The new blocker is the flight length now. PHL-LHR is about 100 miles longer so SOMEONE cancelled the upgrade - not sure who. Going to get to PHL and see if there’s anyone who can help there as the EXP desk basically threw up their hands and said they don’t want to deal with it.
Best of luck getting it working, who knows, maybe there will be a reasonable AUP available at PHL, but my guess is that the AA upgrade would be "cheaper" if it worked.
Dec 12, 2021, 10:48 am
#740
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
The thing that’s frustrating me is that I followed every single rule with this fare - booking class, prime vs codeshare etc, and now they pull a rule out of their rear that is absolutely not written anywhere on the public facing websites or even for the agents. I would not have bought this routing had known of this rule - so this is certainly something I’m planning on taking up with the DOT, though I suspect hardly anyone cares about my plight.
Dec 21, 2021, 1:22 pm
#742
Join Date: May 2005
Programs: BA Gold, AA PLT PRO, AGR, Strawberry (Nordic Choice), Marriott Bonvoy
Posts: 4,248
Interested to hear about your experience, PseudoNim. I'm trying to do a similar thing now (upgrade W-class AA coded BA operated flight which is the only segment on a 001 ticket using AA miles) and have been waiting on chat and then on the phone for almost 1hr.
Will post an update when I can...
Will post an update when I can...
Dec 21, 2021, 1:44 pm
#743
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
Interested to hear about your experience, PseudoNim. I'm trying to do a similar thing now (upgrade W-class AA coded BA operated flight which is the only segment on a 001 ticket using AA miles) and have been waiting on chat and then on the phone for almost 1hr.
Will post an update when I can...
Will post an update when I can...
Dec 21, 2021, 1:51 pm
#744
Join Date: May 2005
Programs: BA Gold, AA PLT PRO, AGR, Strawberry (Nordic Choice), Marriott Bonvoy
Posts: 4,248
Dec 21, 2021, 1:57 pm
#745
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: In the air
Programs: Occasional RTW club
Posts: 6,924
You need to switch to the “old” BA interface - on the new design, fare class isn’t shown. Look for a link somewhere on the page, “see old design” or something.
Dec 21, 2021, 3:27 pm
#746
Join Date: May 2005
Programs: BA Gold, AA PLT PRO, AGR, Strawberry (Nordic Choice), Marriott Bonvoy
Posts: 4,248
Thanks. Anyway, it’s all moot. Just spent 2 hrs on phone to AA only to have someone finally answer and tell me no because it’s a W-class restricted codeshare fare and not a W-class fully refundable fare which would have cost $2400 more for one way. Aaaaaaaaaargh…….
Feb 2, 2022, 4:02 pm
#747
Join Date: Feb 2022
Posts: 3
New to travel hacking here so hopefully I'm posting in the right spot! Here's what I booked:
American Airlines *operated by British Airways* VCE--> LHR in Economy (K)
American Airlines LHR --> LAX in Premium Economy (P)
I booked through Chase CC portal and didn't catch that the first leg of the trip is Economy (upon further investigation there is only Economy and Business on the short Venice to London jaunt). I called Chase to upgrade, they said call BA, BA said to call American. Can I upgrade just that leg of the flight to business using either points and/or cash?
American Airlines *operated by British Airways* VCE--> LHR in Economy (K)
American Airlines LHR --> LAX in Premium Economy (P)
I booked through Chase CC portal and didn't catch that the first leg of the trip is Economy (upon further investigation there is only Economy and Business on the short Venice to London jaunt). I called Chase to upgrade, they said call BA, BA said to call American. Can I upgrade just that leg of the flight to business using either points and/or cash?
Feb 2, 2022, 6:36 pm
#748
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: RDU <|> MMX
Programs: AA EXP 2MM, SK EBS
Posts: 12,483
New to travel hacking here so hopefully I'm posting in the right spot! Here's what I booked:
American Airlines *operated by British Airways* VCE--> LHR in Economy (K)
American Airlines LHR --> LAX in Premium Economy (P)
I booked through Chase CC portal and didn't catch that the first leg of the trip is Economy (upon further investigation there is only Economy and Business on the short Venice to London jaunt). I called Chase to upgrade, they said call BA, BA said to call American. Can I upgrade just that leg of the flight to business using either points and/or cash?
American Airlines *operated by British Airways* VCE--> LHR in Economy (K)
American Airlines LHR --> LAX in Premium Economy (P)
I booked through Chase CC portal and didn't catch that the first leg of the trip is Economy (upon further investigation there is only Economy and Business on the short Venice to London jaunt). I called Chase to upgrade, they said call BA, BA said to call American. Can I upgrade just that leg of the flight to business using either points and/or cash?
Now technically speaking you could call Chase to change your booking to be VCE-LHR in business then LHR-LAX in PE, but the only way to accomplish that is to just pay the fare difference and break the fare into VCE-LHR + LHR-LAX which is going to be prohibitively expensive.
For a 2.5 hr intra Europe flight on BA I can assure you it's most definitely not worth the $$ or effort.
Feb 2, 2022, 6:49 pm
#749
Join Date: Feb 2022
Posts: 3
For all intents and purposes no. To upgrade partner flights with AA miles you need to be in the highest fare classes, which K (and P) are not, and even if you were there are no upgrades for flights solely within Europe.
Now technically speaking you could call Chase to change your booking to be VCE-LHR in business then LHR-LAX in PE, but the only way to accomplish that is to just pay the fare difference and break the fare into VCE-LHR + LHR-LAX which is going to be prohibitively expensive.
For a 2.5 hr intra Europe flight on BA I can assure you it's most definitely not worth the $$ or effort.
Now technically speaking you could call Chase to change your booking to be VCE-LHR in business then LHR-LAX in PE, but the only way to accomplish that is to just pay the fare difference and break the fare into VCE-LHR + LHR-LAX which is going to be prohibitively expensive.
For a 2.5 hr intra Europe flight on BA I can assure you it's most definitely not worth the $$ or effort.
Aug 27, 2022, 5:54 am
#750
Join Date: Aug 2022
Posts: 3
How on earth can i upgrade on AA flight being run by BA? I am getting t(using points)
Please does anyone know how to do this? I have been on chat with AA for 2 hours, and they are trying, but anxious to just get me to contact BA. From what I have read, it will be the same with BA. Have asked them to rebook me, holding their hand all the way. They still can't figure it out.