Used to work that way. Now just the opposite. BXP supported upgrades fall behind stickers/UDU.

Took an hour on the phone last night to get a BXP3 applied to an International AA ticket. Agent was pleasant enough but had to get her help desk to assist her. It's all done now, but seems that if the system doesn't do the upgrade automatically then they have to refer the booking.

Yikes. I, on the other hand, just had the fastest BXP application ever -- very pleased with the new online redemption/booking tool. Less than 60 seconds to redeem the points, look up my booking, copy-paste the authorization code, and confirm the upgrade. Thrilled to get JFK-LAX in Flagship F (upgraded from J) for $659 on a weekday. Best value in the sky.

My routing was more complex, and whilst it was a 001 ticket, the first segment was BA so I suppose that could have made it more complex. I wish more itineraries were available to upgrade online.

I have a ticket with my son. I am EXP and he is not. To request BXP1 upgrade, will I need to separate the
booking ? I am currently waitlisted for auto upgrade and he is waitlisted on stickers. I would rather not
buy stickers and use available BXP1...Please advise.

Probably, yes, but I would call to make sure. I know that the use of two BXP1s require splitting the booking. Not sure you can apply just one BXP1 on a two passenger PNR. Plus, assuming your son is a minor, (1) splitting the PNR will require you to check him in with an agent at the airport and (2) they may not allow him to fly in a separate cabin, assuming you don't get the upgrade as well.

If it is less than two stickers, I would just buy them. BXP1s are more valuable than that, IMO.

Biz Extra vs EXP Upgrades
 

Community - I am an AA EXP. I also have a lot of these biz extra upgrade certs. my question is what ranks higher when AA does upgrades - my exec plat status or a biz extra upgrade? I don't want to use/waste the biz extra upgrade coupons if my exp status always trumps the biz extra. appreciate your guidance. thanks.

What do you mean your exec plat status? SWU upgrades or your complimentary 500-mi. domestic upgrades?

Personally I only use the Biz Extra upgrade certificates to "lock in" the upgrade if C space is available. No sense in waitlisting the BXP1 as I believe its now lower in priority than the SWU and 500 mi upgrades from similar status levels.

So I recently booked a "G" econ fare and then waitlisted a BXP1 upgrade (flight is for 5/1/20).
At the time I asked the Meeting Services rep if they would email if the waitlist clears and she said no, but that I could check-online and see if I was upgraded.
I checked twice, and yesterday, I noticed I was now in Business class, even though EF shows (I had an alert setup) zero C fare buckets available.
Anyway, it let me pick my First (oh sorry, business now on domestic) seat, so I'm assuming that the upgrade *HAS* Cleared and that I won't be bumped?

There is always a possibility of losing any seat. That said, you have been upgraded. It is possible to be upgraded before EF sees C availability, and after you've been upgraded it doesn't matter if C currently shows 0 are left

I saw an old post from 2015 saying you could get around Business Extra point expiration by redeeming for something (it wasn't clear, maybe an upgrade cert.) then returning that award after the new year... The returned points will take on the new year expiration? Anyone have any more recent data points?

(I tried to search this thread, but didn't see anything - sorry if I missed it).

That is still the case. I accidentally found that out after I had to cancel a trip. Keep in mind that you will have to pay to redeposit the points. If you are booking a business class anytime award and then canceling then it is definitely worth the $150 to keep the points.

Here's a new one for me. I upgraded a ORD-MCO flight with a BXP1 at time of purchase and everything looked good. I chose a seat in First class and the reservation said ticketed. Today I checked the reservation and it shows as Business Class with the same seat. The weird part is I'm getting the TOD upgrade option....$156 to move to First class. While I wish they ran the 321T's on the Mickey Mouse runs, that is not the case.

I called Web Support and they said the ticket needs to be reissued. They connected me to Meeting Services who said Web Support was wrong and the ticket was fine. While I want to trust Meeting Services, I seem to have issues every time I upgrade with a BXP1.

Has anyone had this same issue and is there any clear cut way to tell if the ticket IS correctly reissued? Last time I had an issue using BXP1's I had to HUCA 3 times before someone could actually see an issue with my ticket and reissue correctly (so i could checkin online).

You should be fine as long as your itinerary still shows business and your seat hasn't changed

AA recently started calling domestic first class business, and it appears there have been some hiccups in the changeover. This looks like an IT glitch where the TOD system is out of sync and still thinks "First" is the highest class of service on a normal domestic flight, rather than "Business."

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ep-2019-a.html