And quite frankly who cares whether AA have marketed their short haul J cabin as First Class or Business Class depending on whether the destination happens to be domestic or international. Nowadays I would say that by far the most common usage of F is to denote a First Class cabin where a Business Class (J class) cabin also exists.

New to the forum. :)

Been researching this site to resolve an issue with a current booking. I'm an AAdvantage member and recently paid to upgrade my flight from premium economy to business. Here are the details:

Depart LAX to LHR - Feb 5, 2025 (AA flight #134)
Depart LHR to LAX - Feb 12, 2025 (BA flight #6984)

The return flight from LHR did not upgrade and remains in premium economy. In fact, there's a message that says 'upgrades not available for other airlines etc...'

I've contacted American's customer service line and no live person is ever available. The ticket was purchased through their website (mobile). If anyone here has been in this situation and got it resolved, please kindly suggest what I can do and how your reservation got resolved. I want to get my money's worth!

Hopefully this is in the correct forum area. Thanks in advance and look forward to reading your responses. 😊

I don't assume anything, I have seen people say Business Class when it was domestic F.

When you do a paid upgrade it's not for the whole trip, just one leg of the trip, so whatever you paid for your upgrade it was for AA 134. BA does not do paid upgrades until the day of departure at the airport.

Hello, FlightNurse:

Thanks for your response. 🙂 Hopefully I will get lucky before departing Heathrow. My reservation indicates class T on the BA website.

I look forward to learning more from you all here!

It's not luck, this is how BA does upgrades. I'm sure you flight home is a day flight, and PE is comfortable for the 5 hour flight.

Okay, understood. Yes, it's a 3:00 p.m. departure from LHR. Supposedly an 11 hour flight back to Los Angeles. Considering the time frame, I think business class will be more beneficial but I can be content with a premium seat.

7/25
TPA-DCA: Cleared at T-24. Wife did not initially clear, even though her PNR was connected to mine (with the option to split). She was #1 on the list, and she eventually did clear at the gate.
DCA-ROC: Both cleared at T-100.... but we missed the flight and had to overnight. Did NOT get cleared on the same flight the next day.
ROC-DCA: Cleared at T-24. Wife was #1 but didn't clear.
DCA-TPA: Both Cleared at T-100.
~370K rolling LPs

New Rule: Lap children in First need to stay on laps, vs running up and down aisle, screaming, and just generally interfering with what should be a peaceful experience after a rough week.

I am wondering about whether to select systemwides or points for my LP rewards. I haven't used systemwides since 2021. Are there routes from the west coast or dfw to europe/asia/oceania which still have confirmable C space at booking? or should I just pick the miles

Yeah, but also most people will just use the code for their actual cabin when using shorthand. For example, if I booked economy, I wouldn't refer to myself to have booked Q. I would probably say that I booked Y. (and if I needed to mention the actual fare code at all, I would specify that it is such)

Booking is limited far out, but not impossible. It depends when you’re booking relative to departure and time of year.

For example, if you want to head to Paris for the Olympics tomorrow, there is (or was earlier today) confirmable space from DFW, PHL and JFK on tomorrow evening’s flights. One way tickets were going for $450-$650 in Y (J at $3-9k) so there’s value there. LHR is probably your best bet for long range bookings given the capacity across AA and BA. Not DFW/LA specific, but some context on SWUs.

7/23 AA 177 JFK-SFO, delayed by 2-ish hours, waitlist showed 3 open in F and 1 in J for pretty much the whole day.
I was 1st out of ~11 on J waitlist as PPro, and 4 cleared before boarding.

BOS-DFW Monday evening (321): ~20 on the list with one clearing at the gate. Cabin was wide open at the CK window and whittled down a lot at the PPRO window.

DFW-BOS Wednesday evening (738): ~25 on the list with two clearing. Even the dreaded red eye looked to have 10 on the list (I was curious on how many people take a red eye from DFW; full flight).

BOS-PHL Thursday afternoon (321): 40+ on the list with two clearing. There were delays so think a lot of people moved around. Was waitlisted with a miles upgrade so I called up as soon as C space appeared on Wednesday.

PHL-CDG Thursday evening (788): changed to this flight 45 hours out when C space opened up for a miles upgrade. Had previously confirmed BOS-LHR at booking (about 10 days out).

8/2 Friday BOS-JFK E175 opby Republic. Fools Gold status with 10k rolling LPs or so.

#3 for 2 seats. 5 minutes before boarding, I was upgraded along with #1 and #2. App still showed only two seats. After boarding was complete, the GA came on to upgrade someone. Not sure who since the upgrade list at the gate only had three people (with me being on the bottom). Whoever the GA tried to upgrade declined it so the GA upgraded the next person. (I have no idea where these people are coming from since they’re not on the upgrade list? How are there people lower than me for upgrade priority?)

8/19 TPA-CLT Upgraded at T-24
8/19 CLT-BOS Upgraded at T-100
8/20 BOS-CLT Upgraded at T-24; 29 on list
8/20 CLT-TPA Upgraded at T-100; 22 on list
~370K rolling 12 month LPs