Question about using miles to upgrade
 

I travel frequently, and on international flights I've always flown economy, as the price of a business class ticket is often triple that of economy.

However, after looking at the chart for upgrades:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/r...rade-chart.jsp

I noticed that it would only cost me $350 plus 25,000 miles to upgrade from a North America flight to Tokyo. If a mile is 2 cents, then that is about $850 total.

This is much cheaper than buying a business class ticket outright, which is usually about $3,000 more.

Seems like a great deal. Is there a catch or caveat?

The only catch is finding availability. Many people use expertflyer to be notified if/ when an upgrade becomes available.

Indeed, AA has been very careful about releasing C inventory. A quick search on expert flyer shows only 2 seats available out of dfw for the first week of February. But since you aren't really investing in anything by using miles, go for it.

The one tip is to ask to upgrade early, since if there isn't inventory you'll be waitlisted. Many FTers note C inventory opening up (aka, SWUs and mile upgrades "clearing") as late as at the gate for Asia, especially on newer aircraft like the 787.

Great, thank you for your responses. Much appreciated. :)

Just remember that price is each way so it is "$1,900" in addition to the cost of your Economy ticket. If you got a really low fare and there is C availability, it is a great deal.

The other possibility is AA sells "Load Factor Based Upgrades" by email, at counter or kiosk if there's available inventory (after all upgrade requests with SWU, miles and copay are satisfied) at reasonable prices. These are very scarce or unavailable on some routes.

So, looking at the PALL list where would Miles + Co-pay wound up? As a UPG or as a VIP if ExP?

T

Catch is its extremely difficult to find availability and confirming an upgrade, even with status, on certain flights can be near impossible.

It'll be an UPG. VIP is only for SWU's. However there's really no difference between the two in terms of priority (as in your status is the one that really matters -- even for SWU's, if an EXP gifts one to a member with no status, it'll be equivalent to giving them a free miles+copay upgrade).

For example if you're EXP, there's no difference using a SWU versus miles + copay (UPG vs VIP) in terms of priority -- the time of request is the one that really matters.

Assuming if you have no status then the miles+copay UPG will be behind those of the lowest tier elite (AAdvantage Gold) members using either miles+copay (UPG) or SWU's (VIP) that are gifted from an EXP member.

However, if this is a domestic flight (and certain flights to Mexico/Central America), you'll be ahead of all those who use 500-mile upgrades (stickers) as those are processed after all the miles+copay/SWU's. Sticker upgrades aren't offered on international flights.

Great Thread for Reading

TY Supermintyfresh

Indeed. These are extremely rare on some routes but easily available on others, e.g., Argentina and Brazil.

Is this correct? I thought that miles+copay might be higher, at least from what I've read in the SWU threads. Some stations will prefer this over SWU for the added revenue.

I had an experience on AA91 11/29. I bought 2 tickets back in Feb of this year and applied the SWU to both tickets, wife and mine, and we are both EXP and MM. I also split the ticket, so each of us will have its own PNR and better chance at the UPG. On Aug, wife is confirmed on the upgrade, and there where at least >10 seats open, I know its not a correct indicator. The morning of the 29th there where 4 seats open, unfortunately I did not have access to check where I was on the UPG list, but needless to say, I did not get the upgrade. The GA told me that there where others ahead of me, and those received the last seats. This got me thinking, as I thought that I would have been #1 on the UPG list, since my wife was already upgraded back in AUG. Something must have happened in order for me drop down but I do not have access to such information.

Ranking basis for SWU based upgrades
 

This has always been my understanding... however I had a long discussion on ranking of SWU upgrade requests with the senior agent at AA Premium Check-in at LHR T3 a few days back. He insisted that if two EXPs were trying to upgrade using SWUs there priority was based on total accumulated lifetime miles on AA, not on date of request. He looked up my record and noted I had 2.5 million and concluded that my SWU would clear for the one remaining F seat on the 777W LHR LAX leaving that day. It did.

Has AA changed its practice on ranking SWU upgrades?

I have a pretty good success rate over the last few years doing miles + copay as a GLD. I've done it multiple times to/from LHR, and twice to Sao Paulo. They don't always clear, but I'd estimate about a 60% success rate. Not too bad.

With the changes to qualification in 2016, I am looking to spend more time in paid F (domestic) or J/Y+ (international) and do less upgrades, so we'll see how that works out.

Well that would be most excellent ;)