thunderdeacon

Yesterday I booked OAX-DFW-GRU-SDU for only $256 all-in in main cabin. The last leg is operated by GOL. I'm getting an upgrade offer on the app for the DFW-GRU segment. $375 for PE and $728 for J. For the return, I got GIG-MIA-PHL-LAS in main cabin for $385. I put in a miles plus copay upgrade request for the return. It did not clear immediately, but the supervisor that was assisting me on the phone said that the loads looked good and it should clear before too long. I've never tried an international one, so I have no idea. Therefore, I'm just thinking about the flight from DFW to GRU. I'm wondering if $728 is a good deal and I should bite now, or if I should wait for it the offer to go down. Can't believe I got that fight so cheap. I was originally planning on going to another place in Mexico for that part of the vacation, but I happened to see that ridiculously cheap price to Rio on Google flights. I may just tough it out MCE knowing that I got such a great deal. I'm PPro.

jerosenberg

Does anyone know if they changed the process or something broke for tickets booked with corporate discounts? I would routinely get a paid upgrade offer in the app or online when booking business travel, but this year in April I noticed the offers went away. When I call in, half the time they are able to book the upgrade by calling the tariffs department (once they even accidentally transferred me and I spoke with them myself), and then half the time they will insist they cannot do the upgrade and I need to speak with the Groups and Meetings department, who then tells me you cannot pay for an upgrade on a corporate discount ticket… HUCA and another agent is able to do it. Regardless, having to call in now is a huge pain, especially with many agents saying it is not allowed.

la2clt

Have you tried calling your corporate travel agency to pay the fare difference to Business on a personal card? They may be able to apply your corporate discount on the higher fare. Or there could be an UPfare in the market. Not sure how that would compare to the in-app offers.

jerosenberg

Yeah - unfortunately, it’s almost always more than calling AA direct for some reason, which appears higher than the in app offers… or at least what the in app offers were a few months ago, before they disappeared. For someone that travels every other week, this is a huge hassle, so I was pretty curious what happened. I’ve even had coworkers start switching to Delta since they’re pretty easy to upgrade by just selecting the seat in the map and paying.

Mats

I have a short flight in July: San Diego to Phoenix. The upgrade on the app was $450 (a bit more than twice the cost of the original ticket, and thus more than just buying an F seat.)
The actual first class fare was something like $745 one way (good grief!) That flight is less than an hour.
$75? $100? Sure. $450? I think the main cabin will be fine.

If I understand the American TOD upgrade system correctly, they tend to offer these within a few days of departure, is that right?

RichieMc

I have a single one way PHX-EWR that gets me between 2 points of an open jaw just before Christmas. MC was $290 and 1st was around $950. With BA Gold and front row of MCE, I didn't think the extra $600 odd was worth it for 1st. But immediately after booking, I was given an amazing offer of upgrading for a mere $1'398!!! Bringing my total to $1688! Christmas came early I guess...

RAD_PDX

I was offered an upgrade to premium economy for $303 today on LHR-DFW. It’s my first time flying international AA in Y. I declined and used the money for a bottle of Talisker 25 at duty free. Glad I did, 20L is a great seat on the 777-300!

LlamaJesus

$242 offer to go from Y to F on an A321 from PHL to LAX. On one hand, it seems like a no brainer for a long flight (and ~2 weeks ago it was like $450). On the other, it's a late night flight (leaves at ~745pm and arrives at ~1030pm) so I may just be tired the whole time anyway, and I think I'll probably eat dinner beforehand anyway so the food is of minimal value. What to do, hm...

FlyinMike

Booked a last min award for all 3 of us (me, wife, daughter) PHX-DFW-PIA for tues. Was shocked to be able to use miles, but since PHX-DFW is sold out up front, could not use miles for F.

The DFW-PIA leg is wide open up front Have not seen an offer in the app. Is this due to no availability on the 1st leg, of the fact that I booked with miles?

Hoping to see a reasonably priced upgrade offer for that leg.

lightbulbs

I don’t know specifically about the one segment question but my experience is that I see upgrade offers until I request a SWU and then the offers disappear. You could try to unrequest the SWU and then upgrade your outbound and then call to request the SWU afterwards? They seem to mostly be clearing the SWU within a day or two of departure so I don’t think it’s too risky that you’d miss an upgrade during the window in which you cancel and try to do a paid upgrade.

skunker

So I have some flights coming up that start in BCN in PE and then two domestic legs in Y. App and website have been offering me upgrade offers since purchase; the price dropped a lot today so I said why not and tried to purchase via the app. Selected seats, entered my credit card, and then....error and app couldn't process the upgrades. CC shows pending charge and even got email from AMEX saying card was used but not present. Call EXP line: "nothing we can do. You can pay to upfare." Call web services and they look into it and then: "nothing we can do. You may get a new offer after the charge drops off your credit card in a day or two."

0/5 - do not recommend.

javabytes

No, they are not offered for award travel.

sxpsxpsxp

Had the same hope -- am flying tomorrow domestically and it's showing C7/J7/D7/I7 in EF and the seat map shows 8 unassigned seats in F. I just checked in and grabbed MCE seats for the family, so I'm skeptical there are any elites on this flight, or any left that haven't already been upgraded. This seems like a missed monetization opportunity for AA. I'd be willing to pay a reasonable amount.

Zacnlinc

Anyone have experience with making changes after upgrading? I may have to extend my stay after the trip begins. Ugh!

EXP100

I think because there's already been one "change" you will need to call. At least that's been my experience.