How do I upgrade using StarPoints?
 

Hey there:

I have a super-quick question for you CXperts...

I have 35K Starwood Starpoints to spend. I'm trying to get an upgrade on CX between HKG and DEL...am travelling UA from SFO to HKG.

I can xfer the files into most FF programs.

The AA folks are giving me 2 different stories. One time they say they can do an intra-asia upgrade. Other times, they say they cannot do it. The NAm-Asia upgrade code is 25B.

The AsiaMiles people say they can do it, for 35K miles. More expensive, so less ideal than AA.

What's more: the CX rez people in the US have said that AA _can_ do this kind of award.

In case you're wondering, AsiaMiles says that inventory is available for my dates of travel. Further, the ticket is booked in Y.

Can any of you provide suggestions/ideas about how I could make this work on AA? Which AA rep is telling me the truth? Anyone have experience with Starwood->AsiaMiles deposits? (Note: I have a zero-balance AsiaMiles account).

Thanks muchly!

Gabrielz

I've never heard of AA offering an intra-Asia upgrade and I would just think the agent who said there is was misinformed.

But if the agent says yes, why not let him/her process it.

The only way to upgrade I can think of is AsiaMiles. Yes, they require more miles than AAdvantage. DEL flights are probably via BKK?

Chiangi is right. On AAdvantage you can only upgrade FROM/TO North America-Asia/Pacific and not WITHIN Asia. Besides you'll have to request an award certificate first, and then produce that along with your FULL ECONOMY CLASS ticket at any American Airlines ticket counter to do an upgrade.

So if you're only doing an Asian upgrade, you can only upgrade with EITHER Asiamiles or Swissair/Sabena's QUALIFLYER programme. These two programmes can upgrade almost every kind of economy class ticket.