Upgrading on AA-operated flights sold & marketed by BA
 

This is perhaps a novice question, but does anyone know if you can upgrade w/AAdvantage miles (and copay, of course) on an American-operated fight if the ticket was sold by British Airways?

A sample itinerary would be LIS-PHL-DCA on leg 1 and IAD-LHR-AMS on leg 2. The ticket was sold via BA, but leg 1 is entirely operated by AA. So, my question is whether it's possible to use AA miles to upgrade on the AA-operated leg? Or, is that not possible since the entire ticket was issued by BA.

1st question is whether the outbound is both operated and marketed by AA

If it was sold by BA, there is a good chance that it is booked as a BA codeshare. In which case definitely not

Yeah, it's AA-operated but BA-marketed (BA flight numbers). I figured the answer was probably "no," though I was clearly hoping for a different answer. Thanks for helping me out.

AA - BA-IB upgrade thread:- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...aster-thd.html

That thread does not help for this question

In order to upgrade, the flight needs to be rebooked onto the operating carrier's flight number - once rebooked onto the AA flight number, it would no longer be a partner award - if the passenger had a fare valid for such an upgrade, then the AA upgrade table would allow for a cheap upgrade with no co-pay

There is another thread about this somewhere, but with regards to using eVIPs rather than miles. People (including myself) have posted some success stories, though perhaps it's not supposed to be possible. A colleage upgraded his LHR-JFK flight (AA metal, BA flight number, 125 ticket) with one of my eVIPs last month. It was not possible before getting to the airport on the day of departure, so we were lucky that the cabin was fairly empty and inventory was available when we checked in at the airport.

This was of course using an eVIP, but given that it worked, perhaps you could try with miles and see what happens.

Again, not sure if this is supposed to be possible or not, but in the other thread, others have reported being able to do the same thing with eVIPs on the day of departure when arriving at the airport.

Yes, it is possible to upgrade a BA*AA flight, however, only Y and B booking classes can be upgraded. What is unknown is whether it is possible when the ticket is issued by BA (125 stock). Some say they were successful in using all sort of AA instruments on BA plated tickets, while others say that AA was only willing to process upgrades on 001 stock.

by policy they are not allowed. There likely are edge case exceptions such as the rare double cabin op up or getting upgraded on award tickets (prior to the recent change allowing it for EXP, CK) that occur but with the changes to QIK etc. Those arent likely to occur much either.

If flights are AA operated, but BA coded, is there any way to get AA to move them to 001 stock? I am also wondering if booking a 125 ticket over a 001 ticket hurts one's chances for CK when it is factored into the grand scheme of things. Client just booked a $12k ticket for me, but on 125 stock. Of course, that's so frustrating because I lose big time on EQD, EQM, etc, but am most worried about the way it is viewed in AA's eyes towards CK. I should end the year with $70k EQD, but have 2-3 tickets booked on partner stock despite being mostly AA operated. Does that make a difference since they are joint venture partners across the Atlantic?

The only way to do it is to cancel and issue a new ticket on 001 stock.