hyperspace

platbrownguy

To each his own... I know at least a handful of folks who would pay $650 to have the 1-1 seating layout for a 5 to 6 hour flight. I wouldn't pay that much personally but would pay the $175 if I had 15,000 miles handy. I got pretty spoiled on the F and was underwhelmed by J recently on SFO-JFK... if you're in a window, you have to climb over your neighbor or awkwardly ask them to step out; the opposite in the aisle. The service in F has almost always been great too. And if you have the chance to use the Flagship First Dining on both ends, that makes the $175+15,000 miles a reasonable value proposition in my book!

Another way to upgrade would be to use a "Business Extra" (BXP1) certificate if you know someone with one to spare.

jcatman

More like an incredible deal.......and incredible deals rarely last forever. Do it while you can.

hyperspace

platbrownguy

If your ticket part of a longer complicated itinerary, or just a single segment? You might call to see how much the upgrade would cost -- if it's more than a few days out, there's a good chance that it would only cost $200-500 to pay the fare difference.

flyingeph12

To each their own, I would say. Flagship Dining is nice, but is the difference from the regular Flagship lounge worth $650, or even $300? Personally, I don't think so. Also, I actually find the herringbone seats on the A321T just as hard as the J seats to get in and out of because of the way they're angled, and I generally prefer the J seat for comfort. I would maybe pay $150 extra for First, but definitely not $175 + 15,000 miles or $650.

jordyn

Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen a $650 fare difference between F and J on this route, so it definitely doesn't make sense to buy miles to upgrade when you can upfare for less. (I agree with the general sentiment that there's not much differentiation between F and J on these planes; save your money and get a nice dinner in town. You can get MUCH better food outside the airpot for even just $175 than anything you'll eat at Flagship Dining.)

jcatman

I use a Business Extra (BXP) upgrade to get into the F cabin. Readily available upgrade that I can apply within minutes of purchasing the business-class ticket. No cash outlay. I agree, to each their own.

hyperspace

they quoted me $1000+ for purchasing the upgrade on the phone...suddently $650 seems a better deal hehe Flight is March 24, maybe that's why

platbrownguy

The three red-eye flights in business are showing $2134, $1989, and $1489 respectively. In first, $2234 for all three.

Presumably it means you bought your ticket for something around $1200, which is a pretty normal business fare. Odds are that with 21+ days advance purchase, first would have been available for around $1400.

I will say that there is "A" availability on all three flights.

hyperspace

My current ticket is a one way in business at $560. They quote me about $1000 to change it to F. I was hoping maybe they would offer it at $400-$50. Again, I'm a total newbie with AA so completely uneducated. BA often offers discounted upgrades close to departure or at the airport, that's why I was inquiring of a possible similar situation with AA transcon.


they are currently running an offer on aa.com with bonus miles when purchasing them so i would have to buy only 11k miles. Maybe it's a decent deal?

** correction, flight is saturday march 23. Is there a way to confirm there's A availability without expertflyer? Maybe via dummy booking or ita matrix? **

SeattleDavid

I've just paid the $175 and 15000 miles, but I have four hours in LAX between flights followed by two hours in JFK between flights. Also, I never get paid business class, but this was an upfare from Premium Economy which cost me just $250 to get to I. So, for $425 and 15000 miles I get Business to LAX and across the pond from JFK and First (with Dining) from LAX to JFK, instead of Premium Economy and Economy - which seems like a pretty good deal to me. And not one that is ever likely to come along again.

Antarius

560 for J nice.

hyperspace

KKinLA

Learned something about AA I didn't know yesterday. Lucky for me it happened to someone else.

I was flying to JFK from GIG and had roughly 60 minutes to connect to AA1 when we landed. As I was getting off there was a lady yelling out cities with short connection times. I stopped and mentioned I was going to Los Angeles. She looked up my name, checked something off and handed me a red ticket sleeve and told me to run. Well, I had to wait for my checked bag first, which took a while, and then headed to recheck it.

The lady there grabbed the bag as soon as she saw the red tag and then told me to run to the gate because the flight was already boarding. When I arrived they were already boarding group 4 but no problem my seat was still available (this thread is about upgrade success on this route. I booked it late last year before I had any AA status and all four legs lax-jfk-gig-jfk-lax were upgraded using miles+copay).

About a minute later another guy boarded and was yelling at the flight attendant. He had arrived on the same flight as me but hadn't grabbed one of those red cards and AA automatically reassigned him to a later flight. His seat in business was still empty. He explained that he was an EXP and wanted it back. But, another flight attendant was in the process of giving his seat to someone in coach that received a last minute upgrade. After a few more minutes a gate agent came on and explained to him that she was able guarantee him a seat on the flight but not the business seat. He ended up flying in coach.

I guess the lesson learned is if you have a tight connection to one of these transcon flights make sure to check in with the agent meeting the flight.