Chalmers3716

Hmm...disappointing, but good to know.

Thanks!

MathMusic

It might not be as good of a deal as you think:

Checked Bags: Yes, 2 free bags for the CLT-BOS flight, but they will not check through to the other ticket. Would have to reclaim and re-check, paying bag fee again even if your onward flight is same day
Priority Boarding: Only for the CLT-BOS flight.
Lounge Access: No (needs to be the international leg in business) Day Passes available for $59 with no need to upgrade ticket.
Mileage Earn: You earn the same amount of miles as LPs, so no extra award mileage by upgrading if you aren't getting LPs.

Note: If you call AA to "upfare" instead of accepting an upgrade offer in-app or online, its the same as if you bought a first class ticket outright, and therefore would get the mileage and LPs. When you call to upfare you are exchanging your ticket to purchase a higher class one, basically buying a new ticket.

xrapidox

I have AA gold status(62.5k LP) and will be flying from GRU - MIA - SEA - DFW - GRU (Sao Paulo) in January.
Ticket class Q, V, one leg of P(Prem eco for GRU - MIA)

1) Free upgrade on international flight
I'm fairly new in AA program and it's difficult to figure out the upgrade system for international flights,
Does AA provide any status-based "free" upgrade for Business class?
I have a couple of experiences getting bumped up to C on KE and Asiana for long-haul flights (economy overbooking I assume)
Those free upgrade request only works within US right? I don't know if it's actually worth to have AA status being based in GRU

2) Best use of Award miles
With 173k award miles, what would be the best way of spending?
Upgrade this flight? Spend on award flight?
If i upgrade DFW -> GRU from Economy to Business, I need to pay 25000+350USD + 15000+possible tax and fee for biz class ??

Please help a AA newbie here.. Many thanks!

JJeffrey

1) No, there are no free upgrades to business class on long haul flights.

2) Hands down your best use of miles will be to just get on the waitlist for an upgrade to business, it will be 25k miles + $350 each way, same price from discount economy or premium economy.

Finding business class award space on long haul flights is very difficult. I would check to see what space is available (if any) before even considering that. It will most likely cost an extortionate amount of miles, and plus you'd have to cancel your existing paid ticket.

Outside of the miles/copay upgrade, the only other realistic option to get into business is to just check your reservation at aa.com and in the AA app, AA frequently offers buy-up type upgrades.

xrapidox

Thank you for the reply.
Is there any way to check the upgrade availability before purchasing the economy ticket?
I can see the award travel is available for my expected travel dates, does that mean it's also upgradable?

My friend got upgraded to biz from economy GRU -> SAN on LATAM flight for being an elite customer,
I guess i'll consider to convert to Latam program.. Delta's acquisition ruined all the planning :P

WannaTheater

Is this true for all status levels, or just not available for AA GOLD?

wrp96

All status levels

scubadu

All status levels. Obviously, if one is EXP (or PPro) you may be able to use a SWU (if you have one), but most of us don't consider that a "complimentary" upgrade in the classic sense.

Regards

Acidity

All status levels. There are no complimentary upgrades on long haul international flights for any AA elites (or elites on any other US carrier, to my knowledge). That said, there still is the slim chance for an operational upgrade (op up) if economy or premium economy is oversold, and higher elite tiers can get SWUs to use to upgrade long haul flights. Status is also used in the waitlist for instrument supported upgrades (SWU or miles + copay), so higher status can increase the chance you clear.

WannaTheater

Thanks all- I did not know this.

scubadu

To my knowledge, there is no airline, anywhere, that gives completely complimentary upgrades to business on long haul flights (other than say an Op-up on an oversold flight or something, but that is completely random). All require some sort of payment instrument (SWU, miles+co-pay, etc.)

Regards

xrapidox

yeah I believe it was OP-up for my case. had 4 cases of complimentray upgrade.
I'll go for the upgrade request, hope there arent many high status elits from Brazil
MIA - SEA seems not so popular either (I assume)

mayday23

Booked a 1 way flight on AA miles from ORD-HND in business class with 3 people through JAL via AA and it was ticketed 6 hours later. Our return flight from HND-ORD is booked through AA miles and booked at the same time as the 1st flight (Monday evening). The JAL return flight is still marked as Status: On request. I asked AA chat and they basically told me to be patient. These flights are in July.

What are the changes this doesn't get ticketed? I got them at 60K/miles each, so i'm afraid of AA coming back and saying it can't be ticketed and all the other return flights are now 170K/miles. I can grab a return flight 4 days later and don't want to lose that option in case this ticket doesn't get confirmed.

JJeffrey

You will be fine. Sometimes JL flights can take a bit to be ticketed.

bilofsky

How late can I change the frequent flyer account on an itinerary? A two leg flight on AA has my JetBlue Mosaic number, and I was able to select premium seating on the first leg. But with Mint prices going through the roof, I'd rather have the miles on AA. Can I still make that change during the layover?