bbriscoe34

I have a company paid ticket(H fare) from MEX-DFW-DEN for Saturday evening. Its been a long week so I would certainly enjoy an upgrade if it is feasible and halfway affordable. I called reservations and was told the miles upgrade would be 15K + $75 AND an additional $75 for having no status and calling in under 21 days... wow... And that only gets me the DFW to DEN leg. F is currently empty for buying a ticket for MEX-DFW but no miles upgrade space is available. I've got plenty of miles but the extra $75 junk fee kinda irks me.

Plus its a Sat night flight -not a lot of demand and plenty of empty seats.

Then I asked about upgrading with cash - $226 for both legs plus a $50 booking fee bc I used my corporate travel agent to buy the original fare instead of going thru AA.com. WTH? Its corporate policy to use CWT and now I'm having to shell out another $50 out of pocket if I want an upgrade? Does AA even want corporate passengers???

What are my other options? Are there ways to avoid the junk fees? I still have one 500 mile upgrade in my account from years ago, but I'm not sure I can use that towards either flight esp w/o status? Will I get an option to upgrade for cash when I check-in at T-24 hours? Will that be any less than the $226 + $50? Or can the airport check-in hook me up without the extra fees?

enpremiere

Centurion

You have to have status to have those fees waived. The only chance of a waiver would be a buy up to firs class service and that depends on who and where you ask.

PHL

It all comes down to what the upgrade is worth to you, and what your expectations are.

MEX-DFW and DFW-DEN will have minimal offerings in the way of a meal. The aircraft will be a 737 or Airbus, so you're not getting a ton of extra room.

bbriscoe34

I'm willing to do that - but even then they want an extra $50 because my ticket was purchased thru Carson Wagonlit...

Will I get a FCM option for $ when I checkin like I always do on Delta?

PHL

If you're talking about this coming Saturday (2 days from now), the later flights from MEX-DFW-DEN are still pretty open up in J. There's a chance you could be offered a cash upgrade at the kiosk, but you need to get there early. no guarantee they will offer it, and no idea if it will be more or less than what you can pay today. 15,000 miles + $150 in fees for a ~900 mile trip with cramped F seating and not even a full meal service is a waste, IMO.

You might get better value out of confirming a main cabin extra seat now (for a fee), grabbing an aisle exit row or bulkhead, and still enjoying a level of comfort somewhere between standard coach and first class. You even get free adult beverages, if that's your poison.

Just make sure the exit row is the 2nd one if there are 2 rows by the window designated as such. The first one won't be able to recline.

USFlyerUS

Yep. Even as EP I need to pay the $50 fee. However, CWT can process the "upfare" for you without the $50 processing fee and without the $200 change fee.

wetrat0

If you do the miles upgrade you'll be on the wait list for MEX-DFW. Depends how intent you are on sitting in F. I would hold out for a LFBU. But honestly on flights this length I would probably just buy MCE and be content.

bbriscoe34

If I buy MCE, does the LFBU offer get any cheaper when I check-in? Or do I lose the $39+29 for MCE if I later upgrade to B/F?

Also, does MCE or B upgrade get me priority bag check? I don't want to stand in a 90 minute line to check my bag, like the line I had for AM/DL in LAX.

gateH15

beachfan

no1cub17

I don't think you need to pay a fee to use an upgrade instrument even on travel agency tickets. Of course I say this with exactly one data point of successfully using miles+copay to upgrade a ticket bought on Expedia. I think AA only charges that fee if they need to "take over" the ticket and change it as would be the case in an upfare. I could be totally wrong though so don't quote me on this.

beachfan

SeattleDavid

I am an EXP and I have never paid a $50 fee to upfare or upgrade (or both - Y to J to F) and my travel is all booked by our corporate TA. Once I have upward they cannot handle it and I have to deal with AA directly (much my preference, but messy when further changes are needed and I pay the change fees).

USFlyerUS

Odd, I had always been charged the $50 fee on an "upfare" except once about two years ago (before I had re-earned EP). Each time I questioned it, the agent said she was obligated to charge it. I've never bothered to fight it further now that I figured out our CTA can handle it.

Corporate travel agents can do the upfare, but finding one who has some clue what you're talking about can be difficult. I often need to HUCA on these.