Supose I find a good price on a ticket to Maui on Orbitz, or other web site. If the ticket I purchase online is on American, can I call American and ask for an upgrade to First Class using FF Miles?
Thanks in advance!!!

Welcome to FT!

Generally, it should be no problem if upgrade inventory is available. Your best bet is to call AA just in case you're buying some esoteric fare that's ineligible.

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Vasant

This brings up a good question. Is there an easy way to tell the fare category?

On Orbitz, you can look at the fare rules any time. On aa.com, once you've bought the ticket, you can't see the fare rules any more. At the top of the fare rules are the fare codes (6-8 characters), the first letter of which is the fare class.

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Vasant

Orbitz also shows (clearly, on the front page) if you are buying a Web Fare. Depending on the airline, these may not be upgradable. Double-check with the airline directly when you do it. If you fly AA, there is an excellent chance that your fare will be eligible for upgrade (they're pretty good about this). Availability is another story.

Now for my opinion: check to see what your routing, aircraft types, and seat assignments would be in coach before you decide to upgrade. (Use seatguru.com for more information.) I flew F to Hawaii last year and probably won't do it again on American. I was on 757's and MD-80's all the way, and I would have been better off carefully picking good coach seats and saving the miles. The service in F to Hawaii is basic domestic F service (at least on the 757). If you are talking nonstops ORD or DFW to HNL, then biz/first might be a better value. I say this mainly as a credit to AA (not a criticism) - they have made MRTC tolerable enough that I no longer obsess about getting up front.

Thanks everyone. I'll take all this under consideration.