So, using these does not require a fuel surcharge differential? IIRC, BAEC members who use miles or certificates to upgrade into a higher cabin have to pay the difference in the fuel surcharge between those corresponding cabins.(I.e. If someone upgrades from W to J, there is a charge for the difference between the fuel surcharge in J versus the fuel surcharge in W, which was originally paid for at ticket purchase).

AA do offer all the ‘saver’ award level to partners. But additionally they also have other awards that are often more expensive (in mileage terms) that you can buy with AA miles but not partner miles.

Given that the T&Cs is very clear that the BA upgrades are on transatlantic flights only, I would take it as almost certain that the agent was wrong

The description on the page refers to transatlantic and the T&Cs state it too - plus there is nothing to indicate an economy to business upgrade option

Agree. Would be nice to know. I bet that BA will charge the additional amounts.

I don't think that's a BA thing, I think is a safety based mandate pretty much globally.

This is not true and has apparently been discussed previously in this forum. There are a number of carriers that require that, but afaik none of the US carriers do as policy. Outside of the US, it seems to depend entirely on the airline?

I beleiev that the CAA mandates it for UK carriers

ime it is common outside of the US

Just to be clear in response to several posts above-
(1) I upgraded both TATL and intra-Europe segments with one SWU. Agent did ask if I was upgrading the entire trip, so I assume it would have been possible to only upgrade one segment.
(2) No additional tax or fees were collected

Personally, I would not spend a SWU just to upgrade a 2-3 hour European flight.

Bill

I think the big selling point is being able to upgrade the following:

US domestic in Y, connecting onto TATL in W, then onto BA intra-Europe in Y

to all 3 segments in J.

I have always been able to have bags under front seat in exit row on AA/DL/CX domestic and international flights.

The SWU can only be applied to BA TATL and intra-Europe routes? a TATL + something LHR-ACC would not be possible, right?

The benefit for me would be booking AA metal to LHR then BA CE to wherever in the EU I'm flying to. Those cabins are pretty much empty so I would think the SWU would clear. I'll take row 1 in BA CE any day.

I just called American to see about doing this with and the agent had no idea what I was talking about....hang up and call again.

or theoretically US Domestic in Y connecting to TATL in Y on AA and then BA-intra-Europe in Y to all 3 in J. But this remains to be seen as the written rules do not really cover the intra-europe piece if read literally.

I did call the EXP line and inquired about this reservation at the end and asked about whether I can move my LHR-AMS to CE with the already cleared SWU on that set of flights. They said that it is possible if it is available and that they cannot waitlist.

Did they check and see if it's available? EF is useless with this info and not obtainable.