Can you upgrade fare basis for 1 segment out of 4?
 

I am currently fying LAX-HKG-BKK at the end of December (and SIN-HKG-LAX back in January). Currently booked in econony - H fare. For AA status requalification purposes, I would love to (and be willing to pay a reasonable amount for) upgrading the LAX-HKG segment to a Y fare so I can earn 1.5 EQM on that segment vs the 1.0 EQM I am scheduled to earn.

Is this even possible? I have flown round-trips with mixed fare codes before on AA (i.e. full Y one-way and discount something on the way back), but can you do it on Cathay and can you do it for only one segment within a multiple segment trip?

Ooops - sorry, misread the question. (Which is misleading - you're looking for a higher sub-class, not a higher class, in the way I use the terminology anyway).

I suspect it would be easier to upgrade to J - certainly the airport staff are more likely to have a process for that.

I am interested in upgrading the fare paid (changing my current ticket). A Y fare on that segment still has me physically flying in economy.

I find it hard to believe that an airline wouldn't let you voluntarily pay more money just to sit in the same economy seat. Also keep in mind that B fares on CX will also give you 100% AA EQMs and 1.5 EQPs. It might be a bit cheaper (but probably not much) than full Y.

-FlyerBeek

you are looking at about 500 bucks minimum for 3500 Q points you can not even redeam these

i could not justify this

looks like B class is not so much more than H which might not be bad but dont rebook full fare Y

HKXSPCL CX H Round-Trip 1619.00 (USD)
BHAP12M CX B Round-Trip 1654.00 (USD)
YR CX Y Round-Trip 2888.00 (USD)

FlyerBeek - thanks for the suggestion. I was reading the AA site left to right and was assuming B was higher than Y, but with azmmza 's numbers I will definitely look into B.

The rationale is that I need about 2500 miles on AA before end of year. Plenty of options to get them, but I hate taking unnecessary flights and using up 6-8 good hours on a mileage run if there is a way to get them on the flight I already have. I am pretty sure they will let me up the ticket, but not sure they will let me upgrade just one portion to B without upgrading the entire itinerary? In particular the LAX-HKG segment because I am connecting through to HKG-BKK. I know logically they should take more money from me, but a good portion of fare terms are not logical to begin with, so you never know? But given the difference above, even upping the entire trip may not be that much - and perhaps worth it (about 4000 additional EQM to start the new year).

And christep - thanks also. My original question did read like I was asking about a flight upgrade, so based on your original response I changed the wording to be more accurate to what I am looking for.

If seats in the right class (e.g. U - business award) are available, using points to upgrade from an economy seat to a business seat for one segment is feasible. I realise it's not what you were looking for, but I do that a lot without drama.

Yes, but to be clear, on a CX flight that would need AsiaMiles, not AAdvantage points/miles (which cannot be used to upgrade CX flights).

Yes - sorry - should have been clearer! Thanks.

dbuckho - I want to be sure you're not confusing EQMs (elite qualifying miles) with EQPs (elite qualifying points). You state that you need around 2500 additional American miles. This makes it sound like you are trying to qualify for AA elite status using miles and not points. Even though either 50,000 miles or points will get you PLT - there is a difference between the two. You cannot spend points and you don't get any kind of PLT bonus on points. Unless you've done a bunch of paid premium class travel this year (in which case your YTD point balance will be considerably higher than your YTD mile balance) - you shouldn't be worried about how many points you'll be getting on your CX flights. With this in mind, H fares on CX (technically a discount economy fare and cheaper than Y or B) will also net you 100% AA EQMs (but only 1.0x EQPs). Thus, H fare should do the trick for you and save you a little bit of money.

Also, for what it's worth - I know that AA lets you upgrade the fare class of a single segment like you want to do (although when I was a PLT they charged me an extra fee so I could have the priviledge of paying them more money for the same seat!). So, from a technical standpoint, I think it would be possible to do on CX.

-FlyerBeek

Thanks for all the advice. Believe it or not, I need either 2487 EQP or 2527 EQM to re-qualify for Platinum. That is because I fly transcon a lot, but half the trips are work where I fly business (1.5 EQP) and the other half are the cheapest discount economy I can find (0.5 EQP) and I buy or use upgrades. Early in the year I was way ahead on points, but the miles have caught up -- with both balances around 39000. The end of year trip to asia and flying LAX-HKG-BKK this year was unexpected and with the 8500 or so miles puts me close to re-qualifying - so I want to find the most efficient way to get there without taking extra flights. There is no way to earn extra qualifying miles on this trip - the distance between LA and Bangkok is fixed -- but there is a way to earn more EQPs!

I have to wait until Monday to speak with my travel agent, but changing the ticket from H to B sounds like the way to go. Only thing I am worried about now is that the flight shows zero B class available for sale (zero economy for sale in general). Not sure how his system will react to that -- hopefully he can call Cathay directly and rebook the ticket while keeping my spot on the flight (as I am traveling with my wife).

infoworks and christep - since the subject of flight upgrades has come up, can you use an Asia Miles upgrade award to go from Economy to Business and still earn AA points/miles for the flight? If yes, are there any quick transfers to AsiaMiles from the U.S. (i.e. Membership rewards)? While I doubt I could find enough miles in time, I am intrigued by the possibility for a 15 hour flight.

Also, does the upgrade award availability follow the availability of regular business awards? That was plan A for this trip - works send me business and I use AA miles for my wife - but a business award was not available for the dates we wanted, so I took advantage of a policy we have allowing two economy tickets if it saves more than 50% vs. a business ticket. Right now there are 4 Business seats for sale on the flight.

Yes you can - you earn AA points/miles for the underlying economy fare. You would need 35,000 AsiaMiles for the oneway upgrade from LAX to HKG.

The upgrade availability in advance is the same as the business award, but CX yield management is difficult to forecast - seats may appear again at any time, although LAX is one of the routes with the highest J demand.

Amex MR is the obvious way to get miles into AsiaMiles quickly, I think, but I am not based in the US so I'm not sure.

It will be easier and cheaper to upgrade one way on the entire segment ie from LAX to final destination (BKK)than just 1 segment. Check with your travel agent or who will do an upsell on your fare. Forget Y fare.. try B instead.

I would probably have to concur, the fare you are buying is LAX-BKK and fares/rules on that route can be entirely different from LAX-HKG. I'm pretty sure if one is booking a r/t flight on AA.com (or wherever) that makes a connection, the 2 segments in each direction will always be the same fare code (and fare class), although the outbound may have a different fare code than the return.
Of course you could always construct a separate LAX-(B)-HKG-(H)-BKK fare, but it would likely be more expensive than even LAX-(B)-BKK.

Hence, what Guy Betsy said.

Solving the issue of no B availability (or any economy availability) is another problem, it would probably take an empowered supervisor to override inventory constraints.

But the weird thing is, the BLE4M fare on LAX-BKK apparently books into H inventory. Not sure what the AAdvantage ramifications are...