Brett Byers

Thank you for the suggestion platbrownguy.

Please don't take my ignorance on what may seem obvious to you personally. I've received varying opinions from everyone who is trying to be helpful on this forum and some if it I find confusing (and conflicting).

For example- while I haven't traveled to Europe in over 10 years, I am actually going there next month (a different trip from what I have bee discussing in this thread). For that trip I booked American (not BA) and asked about the upgrade option. I was told on the phone it would be 25k miles and $350 if I remember correctly which his exactly what you confirmed. But I was also told I would find out if I get the upgrade within 24hrs of the flight. You and others have said this isn't the case but that is what happened to me. I made the upgrade request weeks go and haven't heard anything, which has me really wondering how I can book a ticket and get the upgrade on one call when I am still waiting to hear back on my flight next month. So while what you and others say makes sense, my personal experience with this way of getting the upgrade hasn't worked for me. I wish there was someone at AA I could just sit down with and talk through all this. I see the people at the Chicago Admirals club just about every week and they are great, but they are busy helping people with flights and wouldn't have the time or this.

Unfortunately in this case I think I screwed myself and may have to settle with BA's product, as based on my negative upgrade experience I explained above I thought buying a business or first seat with miles was the best option and earlier tonight purchased $990 in miles to help cover it. Now we know how the airlines are making so much cash...off people like me who don't know what they are doing

platbrownguy

as others here have said, the agent who told you the 24 hours thing was incorrect. I have flown 800 segments on AA in the last five years (and not proud of it in real life, I assure you). but I and others here know how to burn our miles (though we may differ on the relative merits of each airline's products).

for future reference, if there is "C" availability, you can confirm a miles+copay upgrade at the time of booking. the idea is that 99.9% of the time, there is no C availability. so you have to waitlist your upgrade. and, often, if there are still seats available in business class, they will become available (i.e. there will be C availability) around 24 hours before departure (26-28 hours, in my experience). Sometimes there will be seats released a few days and a few weeks before as well, but a little more than 24 hours is a common time to clear the waitlist. So it makes sense that your experience was an example of that. But tools like expertflyer.com allow you to search for current C availability, and when it's there, you can simply call AA, say "hi I'd like to book LHR-ORD on July 4, returning July 11, and I'd like to use miles+copay to upgrade the outbound to business please" and they'll take care of the rest.

flyingeph12

A few observations:

1. As it seems you've discovered, sometimes BA actually makes sense because awards are much more readily available and one's schedule may not permit much flexibility. Also, the fuel surcharges when originating in Europe/UK tend to be lower than when originating in the States. If you originate on the continent (e.g., AMS or BRU) instead of in London, you also avoid the luxury tax. If you hadn't already purchased miles, however, I would say in this case buying an economy ticket and upgrading would be the better option, especially since there appears to be C space available at booking (quite rare!).

2. If you're booking J, I'd recommend the 744 over the 388 if you can get a window seat on the upper deck. If you're booking F, I'd choose the 388 for the more spacious cabin.

3. Not to throw a wrench in things, but there also appears to be (as of now) one business class award seat on Finnair's HEL-ORD flight on July 4. There doesn't appear to be any award space from London to Helsinki, but that might well open up later down the road. Even if you had to purchase a LON-HEL ticket with cash, you might still come out ahead once you factor in the savings from the BA surcharges and London departure tax (but you do spend more time traveling). Moreover, to give yourself enough time to connect to the ORD flight you would probably need to be on the 07:30 AY flight (although the minimum connection time in Helsinki is a mere 35 minutes).

SeattleDavid

This is really good advice - but book your return flight for much later (as far out as possible to still get the $800 fare) - you never know but you might find a way to use it in the future and if there is a schedule change then you might be able to change it for free.

To re-iterate: buy the $800 round trip on July 4 on AA47, returning well out into the future. Book it online or over the phone, and then call and ask for a miles + co-pay upgrade (they are available right now) for 25000 miles and $350 + $100-ish on the extra departure tax. $1250-$1300 and 25K miles and a return ticket to use in the future, versus $1850 and 15K miles to buy a one-way ticket.

flyingeph12

The APD is more like ~$225 (GBP 172). Also, the BA fuel surcharges from London appear to be only $258. So:

BA award (J/F) --> 57,500/85,000 miles + ~$575 (once you add in all the various other taxes and fees)
Purchase ticket + upgrade --> $850 + $350 + $225 = $1425 + 25,000 miles

The question then becomes how much does OP value the miles saved. Are they worth the almost additional $900 in cash spent purchasing a ticket and upgrading. It also appears OP just spent $990 purchasing additional miles.

JDiver

In my experience, A380 First Class is much better than AA 777-300ER First, in my opinion, and almost any AA Business bears BA Business. That being said, more than a few like the Stretched Upper Deck Business if you get one of the better seats (still, inferior to the AA seat product on most AA wide bodies (I’m excluding the 767).

SeattleDavid

Not sure where you got that information from, but I don't think it is correct – the current APD discount for economy travel is Ł78 and that is all one has to pay to upgrade to J on AA.

However, if you upgrade a BA WT+ fare there is no extra APD due, but you do have to pay BA's fuel surcharges for J rather than W and that can be more like $225.

I do feel sorry for the OP, because even if you read the main threads on upgrading, they cannot tell you the best and cheapest strategy because it is very very complicated (and that's without mentioning codeshares!!). And, of course, it also depends whether you want to earn miles and EQDs too, since that makes the calculations even more complex.

flyingeph12

zarkov505

OK, silly/stupid question: How do you check for C class availability? Is this an ExpertFlyer thing, or something else?

chitink

I know how upgrades work on AA and after reading all of that I am even confused

OP couple points to clarify:

• You can upgrade ONLY a paid ticket - This will cost $350 and 25k miles
• if you choose to upgrade you will be upgraded instant IF there is "C" class, if there is no "C" class you will be upgraded at any point in time from 5 minutes to 5 minutes before boarding
• If you want to book a Biz class flight, then book it. It depends on how much your miles mean to you vs. shelling out the cash
• Booking through American flying on British is easier to find, but yes, BA has higher fees but the fees are still less than a Ticket plus Upgrade
• If you buy a ticket - Roundtrip is often cheaper, so price it out accordingly. You can also put the return date further out to make it even cheaper (since you are not going to use it anyway, just pick the cheapest date)

enviroian

Yes an expert flyer subscription will allow you to search C inventory.

ijgordon

I believe Executive Platinums, who have SWUs, can see on AA.com if a flight is available for upgrade. But for us commoners, ExpertFlyer it is.
You can also call AA and an agent can search, but I imagine they have to go day-by-day, if not flight-by-flight.

worldiswide

I just did a search on aa.com for a flight where EF showed upgrade available and didn't see anything indicating an upgrade was available for milesaver or anytime award. Flight was lax to nrt on 1/24/20. If that feature is available would be great to know..and use.

ijgordon

I'm a tad confused, there are no upgrades for milesaver or anytime awards. But honestly, I'm not entirely sure where/how the SWU availability shows on AA.com for EXPs. It's been over 10 years since I've been one, and they definitely didn't have it back then.

Antarius

On the select flight grid page, it displays 'Systemwide Upgrade' for flights with inventory