Do confirmed upgrades exist on AA?
 

Sorry if this is an obvious question.
Is it ever possible to get a guaranteed upgrade (at the time of ticket purchase) with miles on AA? I know that I have done it several times on UA. Last time I tried this with AA I was told to buy an upgradable fare and put in a request to be upgraded. Without status, I assumed that it would not come though.

Since the change to the front cabin being Business rather than First I think the availability of confirmable domestic upgrades has declined, as Fare Class A was required and it was a revenue class so was often available. Now Fare Class C is required and it is only an upgrade class and is much, much more rarely available.

Your lack of status (and EQDs later this year) will lessen your chances, but you shouldn't overestimate how few people are generally waitlisting for C, and C is often (but not always) made available before X is (the class for complementary and sticker upgrades).

If the A/C inventory is available at time of booking, the upgrade can be cleared with miles & copay immediately.

Finding that availability is the challenge.

Yes, it was an international Business and domestic ticket, confirmed to first at booking.

On AA, most fares are upgradable so at least you don't have to make too much of a gamble by buying an expensive fare in order to wait list.

Having said that, it is quite challenging to find upgrade inventory on long-haul flights these days. An ExpertFlyer subscription can help, but I wouldn't be overly optimistic about trying to do this since on many of the more interesting routes, it seems like no inventory becomes available until the day of departure and, as you note, AA elites will have priority at that point.

I agree with this, prior to about 12 months ago I always was able to upgrade using the 15,000 miles and $75. In the last 12 months, I have been able to find availability less than 25% of the time I am looking. I am usually booking mid-con length flights (ORD-West Coast) booked several months in advance.

The situation has changed in the last 12 months in my experience. Lucky to see a quarter confirmed UG's on the same routes as the year previous

Agree with majority, definitely possible, but very hard-- was hard already and then got even worse with this implementation:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...12-2016-a.html