Blumie

I frequently travel US-LHR-AUH/DXB on mixed AA/BA tickets and am often befuddled by the upgrade rules given all the possible variables. Does there exist, or could someone create, a spreadsheet that puts all of the rules in one place? The variables that need to be addressed include:

Ticket stock — AA (001) or BA (125)
Operating carrier (who’s metal)
Marketing carrier (who’s flight number)
Upgrade instrument (AAdvantage miles, Avios (UuA), AA SWU, purchased from BA at checkin (AUP), etc.)
Upgrade desired (Y to PE, Y to J, PE to J, J to F)

In my case I’m typically traveling in purchased J and seeking to upgrade to F using AA SWUs or Avios, but rather than answering my specific questions — Can I use an AA SWU on AA metal if it’s a BA marketed flight on a BA-issued ticket?; Can I use AA miles or Avios to upgrade a BA flight on an AA-issued ticket?; etc. — I’d love to see one place that answers all of these questions under the different possible scenarios.

Mwenenzi

Some threads in the AA & BA forums (are more)

AA forum

• AA Partner Airline Upgrade Award - BA, IB, including codeshares (master thd)
• upgrade AA marketed & operated flight on BA ticket stock?
• Upgrades Options by AA operated flight but BA marketed and stock

BA forum

• Airport Upgrades (AUP) promotion 2019 thread
• Airport Upgrades (AUP) promotion 2020 thread
• Pro-active Online Upgrade (POUG) tracking and discussion | 2020 thread
• Can I upgrade my AA flight with Avios?
• Upgrading BA tickets on AA metal
• Upgrade American flight using avios
• Avios upgrade on a codeshare flight?

carlosdca

I don't think it is that difficult to quickly figure out what is possible, having in mind that in order to get the best use of any upgrade instrument:
you have to use airline XY instruments to upgrade on XY airline operated AND marketed flights.
otherwise, it will be impossible or at a terrible value.

Blumie

Thanks for the research and exactly my point. Wouldn’t it be great to have a single resource?

Blumie

Thanks, but this doesn’t answer the question. Wouldn’t it be better to know what’s doable and at what cost? Also, I don’t think your generalization is accurate.

Blumie

Also, looking at those threads — and I see you participated in many of them — there often is not a definitive answer, often because of confusion caused by the use of inconsistent terminology by the thread starters. Some industrious FTer must be up for this challenge.

Also, let me ask a specific question. In one of the threads you cite, it is stated that “AA won’t touch another airline’s ticket,” implying that AA will not upgrade you on an AA operated flight if you have a BA-issued (125) ticket. Yet I think I’ve done just this: I think I’ve applied SWUs on AA operated flights when traveling on a RTW ticket issued by BA or CX. Am I misremembering?

Dave Noble

With an OW ATW ticket, AA is able to reissue the ticket even if originally purchased on another airline's ticket stock, so can be an exception; for normal tickets, AA will not reissue them and so should not be able to upgrade

As far as whether it should all be in the one place, I don't think that discussion on use of Avios belongs in the AA forumb

Blumie

With all due respect (in the American sense of being respectful of someone who often is quite helpful, not in the British sense of go f*** yourself 🙂 ), it can’t be the right answer that we can’t have this answered all in one place because of the way this forum is organized. It’s not like I’m asking about upgrading a BA flight ticketed on BA ticket stock using Avios.

AAExecPlatFlier

Correct you can upgrade an AA marketed flight ticketed on BA. the key is that it has to be AA marketed and AA operated. My history has been that I have had to call BA reservations and have them “sell” the AA operated flight as BA .com will normally give you the BA marketed flight.

AAExecPlatFlier

The rule of thumb that I have used is to book via BA and have them ticket as they will only apply Avisos to BA ticketed PNRs

onve that is all ticketed then move over to AA and do any upgrades.

keep in mind that if you want AA to have control of a segment is must be AA marketed. So if you have a segment you want to upgrade on AA and BA is doing the ticketing, BA must sell the AA prime flight — not a BA codeshare

it is a little daunting but get BA taken care of first and just make sure BA sells the AA prime (marketed flight).

Blumie

Unfortunately I don’t remember the precise circumstances, but I once — I’m pretty sure this was 10 or so years ago — had an AA phone agent tell me that a procedure had been put in place to re-code a flight from one airline to the other in order to process an upgrade. I am guessing — and unfortunately this is only a guess — I was upgrading an AA flight sold as BA, and she was able to re-code it to the AA flight number. No recollection who’s ticket stock that might’ve been issued on. I do remember I was speaking with AA though.

carlosdca

For your average round trip ticket, a SWU or AA miles upgrade requires re-issuing the ticket.
If the ticket is issued by BA, AA can't re-issue the ticket.
I'm sure there unicorn cases where somehow it happened, but that's what they are, unicorn cases.

As far as using AA miles to upgrade a BA flight (or vice versa), while who issues the ticket and who operates/markets the flight has certain relevance, the main issue is cost.
These upgrades require the ticket to be on specific fare classes which are usually so expensive that it is usually cheaper to just buy straight into business or simply up-fare the ticket.

Mwenenzi

:
This FTer with status in both AAdvantage & BAEC would seen to be perfect person to put all the information in a spreadsheet

Blumie

Give me the inputs and I'd be happy to create it!