timezonehopper

Hi. MMB tells me that this sector in on a 762 which, I believe, has F, J and Y (according to seatguru). When I do the avios redemption search I specify 'Business' and I did state Business when I called up.

Yes, that did cross my mind. Thanks.

littlefish

Crikey .. I had really hoped someone would be able to report back on HOW this actually works, by now. It should work, it seems a question of getting BAEC to play ball.

As far as I can tell there's a 12,500 avios charge (o/w) for a USA transcon upgrade from AA Economy to AA Biz {presumably its 25k to F on a 2 class transcon?}. The 12,500 avios upgrade situation to a flat-seat Biz looks reasonably tempting.

BAEC T&C say this is possible. So, how to conduct the conversation on the phone?
I'd start off by establishing the reward availability. "Is there any Biz award availability for AAxyz on DD/MM, if so how many avios and fees?"
I'd only then sort out buying the ex-UK ticket with the agent.
If a "no can do" arises, it would be useful to be quoted the para of T&C. Just seems odd posters are reporting BAEC agents don't know how to process this.

bernardd

As I understand it business class awards and upgrades come from the same bucket on BA, but I don't think that's the case with AA.

You can check the different award availability using expertflyer (and possibly other services / methods) which definitely shows different availability. If you don't have access to expertflyer either post or PM me the details and I can check for you.

timezonehopper

That would certainly explain why I can see redemption availability but am told that there's no MFU available.

I do have access to expertflyer, however what I don't know is the relevant bucket codes for AA redemption and AA upgrade - any tips would be appreciated. Many thanks.

bernardd

Choose the "Awards & upgrades" option. When you select AA as the airline it gives you a list of the available buckets. In this case I think you probably need 'C' availability for a 3-class 762, though I'm not sure about 2-class 757/738's - probably 'A', though it might be wise to post a question on the AAdvantage forum to check that.

Normal sAAver awards that you can get with avios points come from the U & Z buckets I believe.

timezonehopper

OK, my post on the AA forum was promptly answered and it appears that a economy->business class upgrade of this type requires C class availability. expertflyer tells me that there's 1 C class seat available on the flight I'm interested in so another call to the Silver Line appears to be in order. I'll report back tomorrow.

EuropeanPete

I'm also going to slightly sidetrack this thread by a question about the new AA/ BA rules. Until reading this I didn't realise you could MFU an AA flight.

I booked an AA ticket which has 2 of 4 BA operated legs on aa.com and when I look at MFU or pay for upgrade options I get the message: "Sorry, it is not possible to change this booking on ba.com. Please contact your booking/travel agent.".

Is it that the flight would be eligible, but that aa.com counts as a "travel agent" and hence isn't MFUable, or am I missing something else? Incidentally the ticket type may well be non-upgradeable anyways due to the cheapo fare, I'm just curious about the upgrade message.

timezonehopper

As promised, an update on my query. I double-checked expertflyer this morning and there was still C (economy->business upgrade) class availability on my AA flight from JFK-SFO.

Called the BAEC silver line and was told there was no availabilty. I pointed out the C class availability and was put on hold for a few minutes.

The bottom line was 'no'. The reason given was that the JFK-SFO flight is a BA/AA code share and I'm actually booked under the BA flight number, apparently this flight does not fall under the 'joint business agreement' between BA and AA and so I cannot upgrade. I asked if I were booked under the AA flight number whether I'd be able to upgrade or not and was told "most likely, yes". I must admit that I don't understand this and it doesn't seem to agree with the information listed under the "Upgrade using Avios on BA, AA and IB Flights" tab of the upgrade Terms and Conditions

timezonehopper

I wouldn't read too much into the "Sorry it's not possible ..." message. I seem to get this whenever I have a booking that has sectors that aren't on BA metal.

bernardd

I believe you can't touch the booking in MMB nor will you be offered an upgrade for cash in MMB or, IIRC, at a kiosk if:

a) your reservation contains a domestic BA connection

b) your reservation is an open jaw

c) your reservation contains a connection on another carrier, even if it's booked as a codeshare


There may be additional blockers, but this could well explain why you get the "Sorry, it's not possible" message.

littlefish

Thanks for reporting back timezonehopper. Not a happy result, and it now really does appear (evidence also from mickt) that BA can not deliver something the BAEC T&C clearly provide for, and which was given some fanfare last year.

By the way, did you MFU/UuA either of the LHR-JFK JFK-LHR legs? (Good to know even that works or not! ).

I suppose there are few situations where such an AA domestic upgrade makes sense, so not a huge loss to BAEC FF prog in the grand scheme of things ... but frankly annoying having paid good money for your ticket, in good faith. Might be worth a PM to Nicci a few days after she gets back, to fully establish the truth (and maybe she can get it sorted).

bernardd

IIRC the fanfare last year related to upgrades on partner TATL flights under the JBA. This is a US domestic sector booked as a BA codeshare so it's doubtful if it falls within the intention of the announcement.

Most likely the published T's & C's are either wrong or ambiguous which is not a new phenomena with BA, but even if they were right, we shouldn't be surprised as BA has shown little willingness to abide by it's own T's & C's and seems willing to ignore them whenever it suits.

timezonehopper

No I've not MFU'd either of those sectors but so far there's been no availability so I've not tried.

It does seem that the T&Cs are somewhat ambiguous for Avios upgrades on AA flights. If the intention is that AA domestics are not upgradable when booked on a BA code then this should be made clear. Currently the T&Cs make no mention of this.

littlefish

Well the link at post 4 expelled any doubt as to intention for me.
Link reproduced here:
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...club/_gf/en_gb

Clicking on 'North America' shows a figure for North America Domestic within the chart; also the rate multiplier includes Economy to First (which is only a 1 cabin upgrade on US dom). Now the chart is out-of-date post 16th Nov'11 but the principles hold, no?

Maybe it is feasible out of an AA flight number (as timezonehopper's post touches on).

Upgraded!

I don't think the AA vs. BA flight # should matter (in fact I think I recall reading specifically that as long as the reservation was booked via the carrier whose miles you wish to MFU with that the flight # was irrelevant). The one time I did a cross-carrier MFU it was a BA flight with a BA flight # booked through AA and upgraded with AA miles. I was told, however, that it didn't matter which flight # I used, though, as long as I booked through AA (it mattered to me since I could get an R fare on BA barely more than the cheapest I fare and MFU it to F ).