That is a COMPLETELY inaccurate statement. All that is needed is your name and another piece of identifying information, such as your address, DOB, etc.

It is a dangerous and potentially costly misconception that your SSN is needed for a credit check. Ask anyone who just test drove a car "for fun" and came home to find their credit was pulled.

It probably would be wise to not use your FT name and password.

Anyone, anyone? All discssion here is related to AA and the FAQ examples are about AA. Someone attempted to open this in MilesBuzz to expand it beyond the AA forum, but it was shut down and pointed back here.

This sounds like a great tool, but 90% of my travel is not on AA. Can I see award availability on US, UA and *A partners?

I can answer that. I finally bit the bullet and signed up for a month and I found that the availability part is for pretty much any airline, and you can specify a specific class to search for like smile67's tool. Now weather the airline makes all the classes available or not is a different matter. The seat maps work for just about everything I tried too (AA, UA, DL, CO, BA, US....)

They say on the site that they support 100+ airlines, so it can't just be AA. I also did some fare searches and it came back with all the airlines I new of that flew the route. Seems pretty comprehensive in that respect.

Some of my ITN's don't come up but some do. I emailed the support about it and I got a response saying that the GDS will either have it or not and there isn't much more they can do about it. And the ITN has to be public as well.

Hope that helps.

I hope expert flyer is reading this. I would add links to more information so for example every flight in my itinerary links to the seat map of the flight

Ok, I just signed up. The first thing I wanted to check was upgrade availability for a DFW -> ANC flight I want to book.

So I enter in the time and date (7/19/2005) and get the following:
Which doesn't show any X at all, not even X0 (X is what I want for miles upg right?

If I put in X as the class in the search it only shows me one flight from DFW -> IAH and then IAH -> ANC on CO.

Any ideas on how to check what I'm looking for?

It also takes away a query credit even when it can't find your PNR info

For a domestic mileage-based upgrade, from coach to first class, on a two-class aircraft, you should be looking for "A" class.

Here's a brief summary of the fare codes on AA, as I understand them:

A = Upgrade from coach to first on a domestic 2-class flight, using miles or VIP.

C = Upgrade from coach to business, using miles or VIP.

R = Upgrade from coach to business, using e-upgrades (500-milers). This class will not show up until 100 hours before departure (not even as R0).

X = Upgrade from coach to first, using e-upgrades (500-milers). This class will not show up until 100 hours before departure (not even as X0).

T = Free coach ticket using miles.

U = Free business ticket using miles.

Z = Free first ticket using miles.


Hope that's helpful.

I am confused.

I am using this tool to check on upgrade (eVIP) Coach up to biz, LHR to DFW. Am I supposed to be asking for X, C or R?
Thanks,

You would want "C" class.

If you are connecting someplace within the United States, then you would want "A" for the domestic portion (assuming it's a two-class plane), and "C" for the international portion.

X and R are ONLY for 500-mile upgrades (you know -- the ones that clear 100, 72, or 24 hours out, depending on your status).

Hope that helps.

It does not appear to work for UA award inventory. I cannot get it to show any of R/X/I/N inventory for UA flights, even when I can find the flights (and those classes) available through united.com's award tool. It continually shows strange multi carrier connections (which don't even have the corresponding inventory requested). I also cannot get it to bring up any UA itineraries.

Working great for AA-related things though.

Thanks for the suggestion, but all of my itineraries are already there as I book them all via aa.com.

How/why would it show availability in R if on an international (Europe) AA flight???
(one I'm looking at has "R7" JFK/FCO, 5/5/05, AA #166 (as of now it's r7)

And, if a seat map shows several seats available (on another int'l flight I'm looking at) yet "C0", that just means that they havne't "released" those seats for "C"/miles-based upgrades, right??

I may be way off, but I seem to recall (from FewMiles?) that R also covers upgrades from full Y, as well as another upgrade to Business as well... others will likely have a better answer. I do see the C0 - it means no seats remain allocated for VIP / mile upgrade from Coach to Business. It may be they never allocated any, and it may be they will allocate more, IF yield suggests it. But IMO, you are SOL on C for FCO... Try some other dates, since flexibility is often the key to using VIPs / miles to upgrade (as opposed to paying a few thousand more dollars...)

You likely know this, but if you click on a fare basis letter designator, a popup will give you an abbreviated list of the different fare first letter designator (because there are variations... I upgraded April and May flights bought in L, but the entire fare basis code is actually LLW30AR,) to C inventory using VIPs, after scoping it all out on ExpertFlyer. The C inventory showed as everything from C2 to C7 on the flights I booked.

Skye, I'm just as surprised as you to see R on an international flight. I remember that there was quite a discussion last year about whether the new electronic VIPs would be using "R" inventory internationally -- but the consensus was that they wouldn't be starting to do that just yet. Someone else may remember the details better than me....

I am quite certain, though, that "R" is the correct class for using the 500-mile "stickers" for upgrades to business class in North America. (For example, on the LAX-JFK run, with lots of business-class seats, "R" will print out on your boarding pass if you upgraded using the 500-milers.)

A couple of observations regarding why "C" shows as 0 when the seatmap shows seats. First of all, the seatmap is a notoriously bad predictor of how full any given cabin is -- seats may not have been assigned, but have been sold, thereby making the map look like there's open seats when they have actually been sold (just not assigned). Also, as you said, they may be holding the seats back from upgrades, and the seat(s) may or may not be "released" for upgrading closer to departure....