VegasGambler

It's not viable for you.

MCE is fine for you.

As I said, I think that they are very valuable for people in your situation. But not for everyone. I don't work (so no business trips, and no forced economy class purchases). My travel is wherever and whenever I want, which often means wherever and whenever I can find good deals. I'm going to Da Nang in a few months specifically because I found business class award flights there. If there were no business class awards I would not have been going. I certainly would not have been buying economy tickets.

I don't live on the east coast so my trans-ocean flights are generally at least 10 hours. I don't have any short flights to Europe or Asia.

FWIW I've had 4 SWUs in my life. I used 2 for a round trip to Tokyo, where I found space at booking. So I got some value there. I had 2 more cleared at booking time on a round trip to Seoul but I lost them when I cancelled the trip. The SWUs were expired by then so they would not be reissued -- I kept the ticket intact for a while to keep the upgrades alive but I wasn't able to find anything with available C space to apply it to (can't waitlist in that situation; you must book something with C space immediately available). So they were wasted.

Miles never expire (for me, anyway), can be used across the entire partner network, and result in tickets that are fully refundable. For me, that flexibility is extremely valuable. The lack of flexibility cost me 2 of my 4 SWU.

How valuable do you think SWUs are to someone who either doesn't travel for work, or someone who only travels domestically for work, or someone whose employer pays for J (in other words, for someone who will be using them for leisure travel that they pay for out of pocket)?

Everyone's situation is different. I have no doubt that if you regularly have to travel long-haul for work and your employer only pays for Y, then they are extremely valuable. But that's not everybody.

Antarius

Extremely valuable. The reason is if you travel a lot in any of those circumstances, miles are unlikely to be in short supply and can always be used when they make sense. SWUs just add another useful arrow into your quiver.

If you're not traveling for work or have exact dates/times, SWU use is easier.

I've never missed one across 10+ years and likely 60 SWUs.

WannaTheater

Ah, very helpful. Thanks. NRT-CGK is operated by JL, so now I understand that not being an option.

Doing a separate search of DFW-NRT is showing zero in "C." The agent stated I would be put on standby for upgrade on that flight. Does this mean I am standing by for if "C" became available? And if it does, I may or may not clear based on priority/LP ordered position on list?

Does this also mean that if "C" is available at time of booking for a single leg, that I would be confirmed at time of booking? Or is this not guaranteed.

VegasGambler

You have this method of predicting when they will clear and booking accordingly. I'm glad that it works so well for you but I have nowhere near as much faith in my predictive abilities.

I will probably delay my choices until the last minute in case a good SWU opportunity pops up, but at the end of March I'm selecting miles if it comes to that.

Antarius

Yes. If C space opens up, you're on the list to clear in the upgrade priority of Status and Rolling LP.

Yes, you can clear immediately. The recommended approach is to waitlist the longhaul leg only. If that clears, then call and waitlist/clear the shorthaul leg. Otherwise you may burn a SWU on TPA-DFW only if DFW-NRT doesn't clear.

Recommend checking out the master thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...er-thread.html for the Wiki and datapoints.

Antarius

Fair enough. It all comes down to risk tolerance. SWUs can have a higher reward ceiling with some risk while miles are zero risk. I may split my choices this time as well.

It's nice that they have the choices. One of the rare enhancements by AA that doesn't warrant the " " around it.

travelingdrsuz

I am going during the busy pre-Christmas travel week (on a peak day, direct flight), which is what was most surprising. I was not surprised about the wide-open January return.

I am going during the busy pre-Christmas travel week (on a peak day, direct flight), which is what was most surprising. I was not surprised about the wide-open January return.[/QUOTE]

I was lazy about booking because I am lazy about calling AA; that said, I played with looking at flights for the past 1-2 months from several airports. Pricing has been consistent, and that includes on multiple browsers, not clearing cookies or anything. I don't think that has held. These prices are rather consistent with what I was seeing last summer when I flew to the UK and back via CDG for a couple months. So no big differences.

That would be the absolute benefit of EF. In my case, I figured I didn't have a lot to lose, and a flexible enough schedule, so I chanced it.

Stripe

I got my son cleared Y->J at booking for a DUB-DFW flight about a week before Christmas.