AA miles to upgrade BA flights marketing/operating carrier question
 

per https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...r-airlines.jsp
and this sentence:

• Full-Fare Business with published fares booked in J, D or R on American and C, J, D or R on British Airways or Iberia

some questions ---

1. if i have an AA marketed and BA operated flight, my understanding is the fare class AA shows is not necessarily the fare class BA shows. is that correct?
2. if i have AA marketed and BA operated, i assume my upgrade with miles options is only via AA, is that correct? i wouldn't be able to upgrade with avios?
3. does this mean if i have a BA marketed and BA operated flight, and it was in BA C/J/D/R, that i could call up AA to upgrade the BA flight with AA miles?

If it's AA marketed then the fare class that AA shows is what matters. Not sure if or why that would be different than what BA shows, unless it's just a generic nomenclature issue, like if you're in business and the airline shows "C" on your boarding pass irrespective of what fare basis you're actually booked under.

If your flight is AA marketed, BA operated then I think upgrading with AA miles is your only option, since AA issued the ticket, but I would defer to others or the BA forum to answer definitively.

In order to upgrade a BA flight with AA miles AA must have some visibility to the ticket. If you look down in the T&C's it says it is possible to upgrade a BA marketed BA operated flight with AA miles, however there must be at least one flight on the PNR with an AA flight number.

i used AA's chat (first time) and the agent said the R class i saw under my PNR for BA was the same for AA, although the agent in general said some weird things. trying to get a fare class initially they just said "business" - they also said business was the highest class of service, and it was above first... and that if i wanted to upgrade a BA flight i'd have to call BA. this was all quite confusing given that i linked them this same page.

in any case, is it possible to get the fare class for AA w/o calling them? i don't see it when i go to manage my booking, and it was not shown on my (amex portal purchase) receipt.

it would seem per question 3 that i need the opposite situation with a BA PNR with an AA operated flight on it somewhere, which would then allow AA to see it with an AA PNR, which would then allow me to use AA miles to upgrade all flights. interesting. thanks for the info!

Hopefully you didn't use the chat function on the app, bunch of idiots running that. Calling or Twitter (X) is only way to get a decently credible answer.

It does sound like you got an agent that doesn't understand what to do
First, obvious question, does is there availability on the BA flight for a 1st class award booking? if not, then no point continuing further ; check for award availability on the BA flight

If there is availability, then the agent should be able to process an upgrade. You will get rebooked onto the BA flight number as opposed to the AA codeshare flight number

If you get an agent that is unable to assist, just hang up and try again - perhaps try a different country call centre

in the end the question became more of a curiosity as i found BA does not have first in either of these birds.

i did experience as you advised in december, where on my AA marketed BA operated booking i was able to upgrade ORD-LHR with AA miles, and it became BA first class revenue, and AS credited as such.

i was recently on LAX-LHR which had no first class fares for sale or upgrade, but the bird did indeed have them. i believe they were all filled with some people who got some operational upgrades.

No one got an upgrade - if the cabin was used, it was designated as business class with business class service - just that the passengers that area got nicer seating

So it sounds like the agent that said that there was no 1st class was quite correct

Strategy for upgrade on an AA/BA flight?
 

I couldn't find a thread for this, as it covers a few areas. Looking at a flight next year from TPA-LGW. There is a nonstop AA flight, operated by BA, that is available for AA points.
Awards available: Main (30K+$237USD), Premium Economy (40K+$482USD), and Business (57.5K+732USD)
Cash prices are $470USD, $1143USD, and $2353USD.

I am wondering what the options are to pay cash for the ticket, and upgrade vs using a partner award.

Question for clarification:
1) I believe EXP complimentary upgrades are not an option?
2) If I book through BA (zero BA status, but OW Emerald), do I have any upgrade options? I am guessing no, but I've never booked through BA. (The only reason I would do this is to earn more AA points, or alternately Avios points which may be my next "currency").
3) I located a "SWU strategy" thread, which I need to read to determine if this is an appropriate avenue. If there is some way I could guarantee confirmation on booking, this would be great... unless I need to purchase the PE ticket to get to Business, which may be the case??
4) If booked through AA, I believe there is a points+cash upgrade option, which I call in to customer service for? Is this generally a good idea? Are these just one class upgrades?
5) I believe I can also wait for the app to offer an upgrade for cash price, which could be hit or miss. Are these just one-class upgrades?

What it boils down to is getting into business class the most economical way I can find. This may end up just redeeming a partner award, and paying the $732 fee, but still looking for experienced recommendations on if there is a better way.

1) you are correct
2)On BA marketed/operated flight, BA will allow you to upgrade a cash booking with avios. the availability is determined if there is award space in the cabin you want to book into. BE AWARE that BA classifies PE as a class for this purpose, therefore, you would need a PE cash booking to upgrade to J with Avios. in your scenario, given it seems J has award availability (deduced by the fact that it is bookable by a partner), you could pay for the PE ticket and immediately upgrade to J with Avios (dont remember ho many for PE to J, maybe 20k?)
3)AA lets you use a SWU on BA metal booked through AA. effectively, the same principle as my answer in #2 applies. PE to J, assuming award availability in J exist.
4)this is only available on AA metal. AA lets you use SWU or Points+cash to upgrade from Y to J. AA does not count PE as a class for purposes of instrument upgrade. This is not unlimited availability, and is normally not availabe until very close to departure (but sometimes in advance as well). you can be put on a waitlist for these if it is not available at the time of booking. if you do go on a waitlist, then number 5 below does not apply, as you wont get the offers while on an instrument waitlist.
5)this is also for AA metal only. I do not believe an AA booked/marketed flight on BA metal will offer in-app upgrades. if for some reason I'm wrong here and they do, and if it is like how it works for AA metal, you will be offered to buy up to either PE or J (or either) and it will be noticeable in the offer what class you will end up in.

Based on the prices that you listed, at first glance, i would say the PE cash fare plus avios to upgrade to J would be optimal.

ER-One
Thank you for the information. For clarification on #3- For upgrade from PE to J, that would be “C” class seats showing on ExpertFlyer? So if C is available on the BA flight number, I would be able to place a hold on PE fare through AA website, then call to ticket and they could immediately apply a SWU and confirm the J seat?

unfortunately not. Award and Upgrade C inventory on EF only pertains to SWU availability on AA metal. EF does not support award availability searches on BA and so you have to find award availability the old fashioned ways. If you do find J award availability, as you seemed to have found for your flight in question, AA should be able to apply an SWU from PE to J. However, I think I would personally rather book through BA and use avios to upgrade in this instance than a more valuable SWU.

Thank you. It looks like BA has a pay and upgrade search tool. I will do some experimenting.

In looking at the BA pay and upgrade tool, there are awards available on the date I am looking at. But it looks like there is also a substantial cash component required to upgrade with Avios. The $1143USD (original PE) provides a price of "Avios to Upgrade=30000, Inclusive Total=$1752.30USD."
This makes the original 57.5K AAdvantage points + $732 look much more appealing.

I realize that you may have reasons for wanting a nonstop flight and for flying to LGW rather than LHR, but for a date next year (February 2025) that I checked arbitrarily, one-stop AA award flights in business TPA-LHR are available flying entirely on AA for 54k miles + $5.60. The connection could be at CLT, MIA or DFW. The lower price is due to avoiding the hefty BA surcharge on transatlantic award travel.