Upgrade Finnair using AA miles?
 

Is it possible to upgrade a Finnair economy ticket using AA miles? It would make for a nice birthday present for my Mom's trip to Moscow next fall.
thanks,
frank

No, sadly that is not possible.

Switch to the AA flight to Moscow that starts in June and then you can upgrade.

Unlike Star Alliance, Oneworld does not allow upgrades on other carriers. Usually you can only upgrade flights of your home FFP where the flight has your airlines flight number and is on their metal.

Star Alliance has some cross carrier upgrades.

True. But then again it's always worth a quick check here:

http://www.webflyer.com/programs/mileage_converter/

A few times I've found a way to get what I wanted by transferring some miles from a rarely used account. Many moons ago as a newb I realized that HHonors points and AA points can be swapped and saved about two grand on hotels over weekend trip that was about to get way too expensive.

But upgrading other OW carriers metals, as you point out, is usually not going to happen.

In any case your mom can buy lounge access at HEL into the Servce Select Partners (SSP) Finland run lounges for 25 euros (2007 information)

No showers but soft and alcoholic drinks, salads and small dishes, newspapers and magazines plus internet access.

http://www.gatewayrestaurants.fi/?cmscid=395

You can also book her Champagne for any Finnair flight in any class through customer services.

Maybe I misunderstood but accoding to the second chart CX Asia Miles can be used to upgrade AA and BA flights?

http://www.asiamiles.com/en/redeem/flights/charts/#2

Hmm, this may be new. In any case the upgrades are restricted to high cost coach fares- Y, B & H. Moreover with BA, its Y to Y+ OR Y+ to J. More here:

Asiamiles has always been usable to upgrade on CX, BA and AA. ^

Asiamiles is a shared frequent flyer program between CX and BA. BA doesn't offer a loyalty program in the Far East; BAEC Far East is for status only, no points/miles. I have no idea why AA is included. :confused:

FT is just great. You learn something new everyday.

In the future this is something to take into consideration when people in this forum ask about which FFP to join. Asiamiles has an advantage over others in this respect.

So, Japan is not a Far East country ? :):)

Residents in Japan can join BAEC, and earn BA miles, and redeem BA miles for award tickets.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...s/public/en_jp

Airlines tend to have their own idea of where each country is. :p It may not coincide with geography. Actually, I think Japan may be the only exception as China, Korea, Taiwan and countries in SE Asia are all covered under BAEC FE. BAEC FE service center is based in Hong Kong.

AA miles cannot be used for upgrades on other airlines, but Asia Miles can and has been for years. So indeed Asia Miles has an advantage over AAdvantage in this respect^. However, the earn/burn ratio for Asia Miles is very poor compared with AA:td:.

CX also separates the loyalty programme from the mileage programme. The loyalty programme is Marco Polo Club, which costs USD50 to join (with some exceptions). Unlike AAdvantage, MPC members can only advance in status one step at a time, but can lose all status overnight (no soft landing).