See https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...an-flying.html

Quick question,

I am trying to move my JAL flight next summer because my flight got changed from NRT to HND and I need the liaison to open up award space. How does the liaison work? The AA agent said they would get back to me in months, is that true? She was very rude so I do not know if she was just saying that or if it was true.

Thanks

Questions about awards on JAL best asked in the dedicated JAL thread.
This NRT HND change has been a common question

AAdvantage Award using JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (master thd)

On a recent flight I was given the opportunity to upgrade from a paid economy ticket to first class during OLCI by paying cash on my outbound leg, but not inbound, even though it appeared both had full fare first class seats available at check in. I was not able to find any info of this on AA’s site, so wondering what actually triggers this upgrade possibility?
Or if anyone can direct me to an existing thread on the topic.

There’s no known trigger. If seats are available at check-in, AA will try to sell them. Sometimes at a discount, sometimes at the published price, and sometimes at a crazy mark-up.

If you want to upgrade an entire itinerary, you can always attempt that in the Manage Booking section at AA or in the app.

I think I have some idea of how this works, but would appreciate clarification/confirmation from any AA experts....

Have a one-way economy award ORD-LHR-ZRH ticketed in Sept as a MileSaver redemption, 22.5K miles. When I look
at aa.com now, I see a "Web Special" award option for 57.5K for ORD-LHR in Business.

However, when I contact AA to see if there is a way to convert the booking to Business Class for the mileage difference,
they say there is no availability at the 57.5k level. I looked at aa.com using the multiple city option and indeed it shows
only options for 115K in Business.

So, does this mean that the Web Specials are a completely different fare bucket and can't be used as an option to
upgrade a pre-existing reservation?

And, for my ticket, that I need to keep checking to see if the standard redemption amount goes down to 57.5k in order
to upgrade my reservation (I'm laboring under the assumption that AA won't charge a reticketing fee if the existing
itinerary can be booked at the new amount)? The flight is at the end of Feb and seat map online currently shows the
Business class cabin as completely empty. Any thoughts on if/when AA might release availability for Saver awards?

Thanks!

Anytime you can find availability using multi-city that is not available using the normal search you can bet that the married segment algorithm is being applied. There are several threads about married segments that go into much more detail. You are correct that there will be no fees/penalties (all things equal) for upgrading your award ticket to a higher class of service if available, provided the original award is not a web special. On award tickets, that can even include a change of connection point...in other words if ORD-LHR-ZRH doesn't have 57.5 availability, but ORD-CLT-ZRH does, you can change as long as the origin and destination remain the same.

How soon does sdfc open up at AA is it a true 24hours or is it a bit earlier? My flight departs at 2pm Monday I want to see if I can change to an earlier one Sunday. Do I have to wait till 2pm Sunday or can I do it at like 8am Sunday?

For those that are curious, sdfc open up at midnight, just checked.

I have a JFK-LAX-SYD ticket in paid J and was hoping to upgrade the JFK-LAX legs to F. Both my flights are showing an empty seat map in F on ExpertFlyer, but there's no upgrade space in A for my flights. Most (but not all) of the other flights on my days have A space available. Is A space likely to come available as the flight draws closer, or are certain JFK-LAX flights extremely unlikely to have A space pop up?

With a relatively open seatmap A space is definitely likely to open up on JFK-LAX as the flight gets closer.

I found the Wiki thread to where AA flies on AA metal to Europe. I have searched and cannot find the other wiki threads to the other pleaces.

Anyone got a link to those threads, please?

So sdfc only works on the exact same routing with American (unlike United), I am trying to get an earlier departure on another route that connects through a different city, if u show up at the airport early can I try to get on standby for the earlier flight even though it connects through a different city (without change fees etc)?

Yes, you can show up early at the airport and ask to get on standby for earlier flights connecting from other airports without any change fees. Until today, I was successful during all my similar attempts.

Thanks am going to try! Appreciate the response

Also be aware that you would be placed to stand-by and get one of the remaining available seats. For example, you might be downgraded from an aisle Main Cabin Extra seat to a regular middle seat.