My wife and I are flying business with BA and QF RTW starting LHR. We stopover in BOSton and then cross to the west but can only travel with AA. Posters say that AA's business service is pretty poor. Can I upgrade this sector somehow to first - I only have BA miles and am not an AA card holder. Should I contact AA here in the UK, or wait until I am at JFK and see if there is availability and what it will cost?

If you are traveling to LAX from Boston, AA only provides 738 service on this route, so it's 2 Class service... For the 5 1/2 hour trip, the F service is okay, but certainly not what you'd receive on longer trans-oceanic BA & QF flights in Business Class. You indicate that you are going to be "at JFK," which is in New York. If you are flying to LAX from JFK, AA's service is on B762's, which are 3-Class. Since you are on RTW Business Class tix, you can always request an upgrade to F at the Lounge or Gate and it's often provided, if available. I travel AA transcontinental service often in Business Class and don't have too many complaints.

Welcome to FT... The AA Forum may have been a better Forum for a post specific to that airline.

Thank you for the information. I am just getting used to the forum and not sure how to navigate it yet. I will ask at the lounge or gate, but I had a look on AA's web site and there are only three seats left in F for that flight and none of them sit together - which I am sure my wife will not appreciate!!

The seat maps are pretty unrelaible guide to how full the cabin will finally be. But that said, the "premium" cabin as AA calls it on those JFK-LAX trans-cons is usually full or nearly so.

And the business class service is not so bad for a flight of this length.