milohoss

My employer has booked me an AA flight in basic economy. This is presumably done out of ignorance but I'm too new here to rock the boat and complain.

I don't mind paying the difference out of my personal pocket to avoid the horror.

The question - is it possible? Can I call up AA and pay to get a main cabin fare? I'm not talking about simply paying for a seat selection, I mean a true Main Cabin fare so it get AAdvantage credit, etc... I have successfully done this on Delta within in the 24 hour booking window but not on AA and this darn thing was booked a while ago before I noticed.

Thanks!

donotblink

You're out of luck :-( --check this out: Upfare / Buy Out from Basic Economy to Standard Y?
https://viewfromthewing.com/american...basic-economy/

donotblink

Actually, if you're on a transatlantic itinerary, you can.

thunderdeacon

You can purchase a specific better seat as it gets closer to your departure date. My suggestion would be to wait until the last minute to check in to see if you get a good seat randomly. You can purchase a better seat if you don't like your assignment.

milohoss

Ugh. Thanks guys, Anyone know if it's possible to make the adjustment in the future if I catch it before the 24 hour window closes? I'll chat with my employer at some point about this, but to soon to be annoying complaining guy here especially since they probably have no idea what this nonsense is about.

AA100k

You might want to ask other employees at the company if BE is company policy before approaching your employer. If you find out that this flight was a mistake, I’d just ignore it.

leighjohnwi

It's risky, but another option is to call within 24 hours of booking and re-book, depending on how you pay for business travel. If you have a record/receipt for the original booking price, and use your own personally-managed payment method (a credit card in YOUR name), you can simply call back after your company books the travel, and cancel/change the reservation - paying the difference in fares. This is fraught with various risks, but it's an option...I've used it to book a first class ticket for business travel when the difference in price between coach and first was small.

Best of luck!
Leighjohnwi

PHL

Does your employer use a travel agency? If so, I would call them and just ask what the policy is on BE vs. normal discounted coach.

erik123

Being timid is not going to get you anywhere. It is perfectly acceptable to ask this question.

FlyingEgghead

Just to make sure you're aware, BE earns full EQD and RDM for the amount paid, and half EQM and EQS. For many people EQD is the limiting factor, but upfaring just to get 1 EQD (and 5-11 RDM) per dollar spent may not be worthwhile. It would really be a good deal in AAdvantage only if the upfare is small and you need EQM/EQS.

enpremiere

Hopefully as you start to settle in you can help "educate" your employer on the benefits of non-basic economy tickets.

MSPeconomist

If your business travel requires that tickets sometimes be changed, that would be an argument for avoiding BE fares.

BTW, what was the process under which your employer booked this trip apparently without any input from you? Did your boss simply hand you the ticket details and basically tell you that you're going? It seems odd to me that you didn't either communicate with the corporate TA or book the flights yourself through Concur or whatever unless you're traveling as part of a fairly large group.

This sounds like a new job. Did you ask about business travel before taking the offer? Have you ever looked at the official travel policy? Check whether the rules mandate BE if available (or prohibit it) as well as whether there are restrictions on paying personally to upfare or upgrade your own tickets or procedures for doing so.

Cledaybuck

What horror, exactly, are you looking to avoid?

ijgordon

I would certainly encourage the OP to seek out the company's travel policy, which should be a written document unless it's a very very small company. That said, my company's travel policy makes no mention of basic economy fares, although they are suppressed via the Concur online booking engine (so it's basically moot). They do mandate nonrefundable tickets though unless plans are very likely to change, and they reimburse change fees when necessary (they even keep inventory of unused tickets and sometimes they can be reissued in the name of a different traveler).

FWIW, I am of the view that companies should generally NOT be booking basic economy fares for business travelers primarily because of the "no changes" rule.