Irvine

Hi EXP Gurus,
I obtained EXP status earlier this year and haven't been keeping up with the rules/policies, most of my recent travel has been domestic.
I'm flying LAX - LHR next week, trying to figure out the best way to get Business class.
I can either buy the ticket or use miles, but of course trying to keep my costs/miles to a minimum, but really need to be in business (arrive LHR Tuesday PM, leave Thursday AM).
I don't have any system wide upgrades, all expired .
Your comments/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
TIA!

rill2503456

How did systemwides that you earned earlier this year expire? They are valid for one year.

SeattleDavid

My normal advice would be to buy a W fare in American Premium economy and request the upgrade with miles (15000 each way with no copay), as copays on discount PE or Y fares are $350 each way. However, PE fares seem completely crazy at the moment and `I get the impression you are trying to keep costs down. Premium economy looks like costing over $3000 return.

The only award flights next week would seem to be in Economy - though that probably means plenty of empty seats if you'e lucky.

JJeffrey

Looking at LAX-LHR on Monday 9/12 (to arrive Tuesday), the early flight is J0 and the later flight is J3, so your chances of an upgrade are going to be slim to none if you must take the nonstop.

If you're willing to connect, I do see upgrade space open on RDU-LHR, so you could buy economy and upgrade for 25k + $350 one-way.

The later flights to LHR from DFW, LHR, CLT, MIA are all J7 but you'd have to waitlist as C space isn't currently available.

You could also buy an economy ticket on any of the above routings and see if AA offers a buy-up offer to business.

Irvine

Thanks, All!
SNA is actually more convenient, once you add in travel time to and from LAX, customs in LAX, etc, it may be a better option.... I Like to keep the transatlantic segment to a long flight so I can get some sleep, so DFW or PHX maybe better connection points.
Any ideas about using SNA - LHR instead would be appreciated!

carlosdca

SNA tends to be more elite heavy than LAX.
but that would apply only for availability on the SNA-PHX/DFW route.
At the end of the day you are looking for availability to LHR from the hubs (not SNA), SNA makes not much difference.
It is a tough one unless you are booking in advance and have plenty of flexibility to grab a date where there is confirmed upgrade inventory.
You are doing neither.

Your only way to guarantee a J seat given that your flight is next week is to buy J outright.

FAA1996

If you need to be in business class, buy business class. Even then it's not guaranteed with AA: lately irrops usually results in having to take a downgrade or wait days for J or F availability.

Bradhattan

If you can get to ORD on evening of 9/12, AA 90 departing 8:35 am on 9/13 is showing C7 on EF. Not ideal, but available! Good luck!

davecraze

Ahh, the elusive non-NYC to LHR daytime flight. I likely will also be on that flight (taking it for the first time ever, just to mix it up on my TATL flights up a bit).

If you are a real masochist, you can also try to redeye it from LAX (depart 1:10am) to ORD (arrive 7:06am) to connect to AA90, but I don't recommend that.

Raralith

As others have suggested, pay for J if you need J, or move to a different airport if you want to take that additional risk. As someone that flies the "shorter" transcon in domestic F, I gave up on redeyes as I needed to work when I landed so I understand the need to be refreshed so maybe consider flying the day before if it's worth it to save yourself some money (offset by hotel, meals, etc...).

NickP 1K

I fly SNA-ORD or DFW to LHR quite often, I pay for Biz one way and try to upgrade the other.

For Sept and October the fares are insane again. Just as bad as LAX-LHR which I will prefer even if I'm closer to SNA, even bad traffic I beat a connection flying nonstop to LAX. Only exception is LHR-PHX-SNA with the 1hr 30 min connection

RIght now I'm doing SNA-ORD-LHR and was able to upgrade the ORD-LHR segment - end of the month, the SNA-ORD segment is waitlisted and I'll call it that it's a 40% shot of clearing. The return is nuts out of LHR with $8500 + up fee to go to business - PE is $2500+ so I'm actually going offline with someone else to JFK - there a day then going JFK-SNA in biz which is more reasonable. Pre-pandemic I would pay $5000 or so RT from SNA-LHR via DFW or ORD and similar for nonstop to LAX-LHR. Right now it's about $12K with some select poor connections at $8K

To compare, I can price out UA LAX-LHR RT or SNA-DEN-LHR and RT for about HALF of AA/BA right now.