Pardon me for a question from the beginner's section...

I have a couple thousand miles in an AAdvantage account, that I'm hoping to use for upgrades. Do I need to call American and ask them to mail me the upgrade certificates in advance, or can I just walk up to the counter at my departure gate and "spend" some miles on a whim? The reason I say on a whim is because I have some extensive travel ahead of me over the next 2 months and I'd like an upgrade depending on when I'm really tired or when coach is really crowded. So my question is, should I keep some upgrade certificates handy or can it be done on the spot (assuming I want to use my miles to pay).

Thanks.

Welcome to the board!

I do not have specific AA information but I am sure you will get a reply here very soon!

To get an even quicker reply from those AA experts out there I would post under the AA forum located further down the list!

Once again, welcome and hope you hang around for all the great info and discussions!

Dorian



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Star Alliance RTW Price Chart: http://www.informationlab.com/rtw.htm
Star Alliance Comparison Chart: http://members.home.net/deercroft/starall.html

As previously mentioned, there's a forum of AA folks farther down the list off of the main menu, but I'll answer here. But we should take any further discussion to the AA area.

Sounds like you're talking about using mileage to upgrade as opposed to the credits that you get if you're an Gold/Platinum/Executive Platinum level (25,000 miles per year, if you don't understand what I'm saying, you're not one).

For mileage awards (5,000 for a full Y fare one-way, 15,000 for any fare one-way), AA will charge you $75 (yes it's a ripoff) to "expedite" an award within 21 days. So, you can order the awards now if you're confident you're going to use them within a year, because they'll expire a year after you order them. They'll show up in about two weeks.

Then you just have them at home, and when you want to upgrade you call AA and give them the certficate number, and bring the certificate to the airport.

hope this helps!
nick

I wonder if there is a central board or website anyone has created here merging all the flyer plan upgrade and redemption levels for easy comparison? I fly with 4 or 5 majors and find it had to compare apples with apples.

goldelite

Good question! Randy publishes a book that you can buy that has all of that data. You can buy it on this site and I think the cost is $15-$20. It is a good reference book.

[This message has been edited by newself (edited 09-04-2000).]