Dave Noble

It does state that the booking may be made through an authorised travel agency or AA. Booking directly with BA wouldn't meet that criterion. AA needs to be able to reisssue the ticket, which I don't believe it can for a booking with BA that is purely BA and sold by BA, It doesn;t have the same wording as partner award upgeades have admittedly

Admittedly there isn't much information in the question, so I am assuming that the query relates to such a booking

handspring088

Thank you, Dave Noble! Your advice is always spot on.

jordyn

What you're saying makes sense, but according to the terms and conditions I could go to Expedia, buy a pure BA itinerary and it should be eligible for a SWU upgrade. That booking doesn't have any more of a nexus to AA than a booking through BA does, so either the T&Cs you quoted are wrong or AA has some way to do it that doesn't require them to have a nexus with the ticket initially. As a parallel, DL can take control of KL or AF bookings and apply GUCs to them. In general it feels like AA and BA are less integrated than those partners, but there's certainly some precedent for these sorts of cross-airline capabilities.

DMPHL

The language isn't exhaustive. On AA's website, it also says:

Systemwide upgrades can be used for one-way travel for up to 3 flight segments on British Airways marketed and operated flights or British Airways operated flights marketed by American. At least one American marketed flight must be in the itinerary to be eligible.

rucksack

The challenge is getting BA to sell a ticket with at least one segment marketed by AA (i.e., with at least one AA flight number). BA *can* sell this ticket, but their website (understandably) doesn't make this easy. An experienced agent could make this happen.

jordyn

Thanks. That's much more helpful language to post than the original set of conditions since it makes it clear what the problem is.

brp

I did a search here, but am not finding the answer to this specific question, although I know it's in here somewhere

If I book an itinerary that has a BA-operated, but AA-marketed flight, am I still looking for U inventory to move from PE to Business? Or does the fact that it's AA-marketed mean that I'm looking for C. I see some flights on EF showing a lot of C, but not even showing U at all (not "U0", but no U listing) for the AA (BA) flights. I have a feeling that it's still U and I should look at BA flights directly, but wanted to check.

Cheers.

JJeffrey

No, for any flights on BA metal (whether AA or BA marketed) you need award space (U) to upgrade with a SWU.

Seeing C space on BA metal flights is irrelevant when it comes to using a SWU.

brp

Thanks. That's what I suspected. and EF no longer shows U, and the BA site is problematic, so harder to find this.

Cheers.

econ

I've been using the AA site to search for BA award space. It's a pain having to log into the BA site just to do a search.

GlobalNelson

I'm trying to use a SWU for the remaining segment of my 3-segment itinerary back (FAO-LGW/LHR-JFK-DCA). It's a BA marketed and operated (BA Euroflyer) flight from FAO-LGW. It's an intraEurope connecting to transatlantic, so seems to fit all the SWU rules. The other 2 segments that already cleared (LHR-JFK on BA and JFK-DCA on AA). BA released space today, and I see it as award space, so I called.

The agents cannot enter the systemwide because it says it's "not offered" on this segment. I've HUCA and got an agent to tell me that there are a few airports in Europe "with notes for them, and included next to FAO are parenthesis from LGW/LCY" and that's why it's ineligible. Anyone ever run into this or know what is included on this hidden list?

Tried one last time, and an agent explained that all BA EuroFlyer/CityFlyer are excluded. Bummer

turkvu

I booked an American flight to Europe about a month ago. The flight there is on BA metal. I�ve been trying to use one of my system wide upgrades for that segment from premium economy to business. They can�t waitlist so they recommended i call the exec desk every day, which I did. No availability. Just got to the airport and there are still a good number of business seats available, which they are trying to sell me for $1k. The BA desk seems to have no idea what an AA SWU is and American is still showing no availability.

I�m wondering if this is the norm or if i just had bad luck on this leg. Seriously doubting flying BA metal again.

Antarius

You need to look on aa.com for BA J award inventory. If you find this, you can clear from PE to J. Keep in mind, you must have one AA marketed segment.

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JY1024

Merged with existing thread discussing the mechanics of using an AA systemwide upgrade on BA flights. Thanks. /Moderator

IflyonAA

Just booked flights for Christmas family trip to LHR four cleared out and back!