AA - How do I use mileage points to upgrade flight?

[drron]

A great result with so many to upgrade.Certainly another reason why Aadvantage beats QFF.I can not imagine an aadvantage member with no status being able to manage 5 upgrades from Y to J when originally issued by AA.
The twists and turns have been very informative.

 

[MelUser]

You will remember the twists and turns of the AA upgrade on a QF issued ticket.

Yet another twist has just occurred.

I am now trying to change the return date (ie the QF on QF flight) from LAX and the TA has come back with the following from QF:

"I’ve just spoken to Qantas and they can’t bring up the ticket because American Airlines have taken the booking over and reissued the ticket when they did the upgrades. As such, I can’t get this ticket reissued/revalidated to the new dates for the return. Can you please let me know if American airlines have actually issued you with new tickets and if such then we will need to speak to them to find out if they can revalidate the Qantas sector LA/Melbourne."

I have instructed my TA to contact AA to get the return flight changed.

Any thoughts (or are some of you going to say this is my fault for upgrading an AA flight on a QF issued ticket!)?

 

[MelUser]

I have now managed 12 AA mileage upgrade awards plus 2 waitlisted upgrade awards (which AA tells me should clear) for myself and numerous family/friends.

Not bad for a program I hadn't even looked into until earlier this year!

A quick question for those of you in the know. I have a relative flying ORD-LAX-NRT. I want to upgrade her on the LAX to NRT sector from Economy (L) to Business (C) which is 25000 points plus $350. There is no (C) so she'll be added to the waitlist which is fine.

My question is: do I request the upgrade for ORD-LAX-NRT as American appears to allow up to 3 segments on the one upgrade? ORD-LAX would book into First (A) as it is a 2 class service. Or does this just confuse things and should I simply direct AA Brisbane to request the upgrade for the transpacific sector?

 

[drron]

I am pretty sure the 3 segments per upgrade only applies to EVIPS not points upgrades.There are separate tables for domestic and international upgrades with AA.

 

[openseat]

My experience has been that with a mileage upgrade that three sectors (including the international one) are included in the upgrade.

 

[Dave Noble]

My question is: do I request the upgrade for ORD-LAX-NRT as American appears to allow up to 3 segments on the one upgrade? ORD-LAX would book into First (A) as it is a 2 class service. Or does this just confuse things and should I simply direct AA Brisbane to request the upgrade for the transpacific sector?

I would personally waitlist for the LAX-NRT sector and , if it clears, call back and if A is available then request the domestic sector be upgraded as part of the same award; if A is not available then can request that be waitlisted too

Would also suggest looking to see if the ORD-NRT or DFW-NRT services have upgrades available and see whether can change to those services if they do

Dave

 

[Dave Noble]

I am pretty sure the 3 segments per upgrade only applies to EVIPS not points upgrades.There are separate tables for domestic and international upgrades with AA.

The upgrade award will allow 3 sectors in a one way journey .

They do not have to be contiguous sectors either as long as are in the same direction

Dave

 

[serfty]

I am pretty sure the 3 segments per upgrade only applies to EVIPS not points upgrades.There are separate tables for domestic and international upgrades with AA.

The tables may be separate but the 3 segments rules are basically the same:

http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/disclaimers/one-way-upgrade-chart.jsp

Upgrades are valid to the next class of service and limited to a single one-way trip with a maximum of three segments.

 

[MelUser]

Tks for that.

Does anyone know where, if anywhere, in reservation waitlists for upgrades show?

I only have reservation staff word that upgrade is waitlisted (unlike QF website which states that am upgrade is requested etc etc).

 

[serfty]

As posted earlier, wait-lists do now "show" online- they easiest way to find if you are waitlisted is to call AA.

Me? I try to use ExpertFlyer or the like to look for "C" or "A" class; book segments with availability in the relevant classes and upgrade immediately. 99% of the time this will avoid any wait-listing.

 

[MelUser]

A very good friend has kindly EVIPed my relative and this is what has happened:

ORD-LAX has come back confirmed in First (A);

LAX-NRT shows on checkmytrip as waitlisted in business.

Interestingly, AA has already reissued the ticket - gone are all references to 081 and the ticket is now a 001 ticket.

So it seems that waitlisted upgrades show on checkmytrip as follows:

(1) EVIP upgrade waitlists show

(2) mileage upgrade waitlists do not (although can show briefly before they are processed. I had some show after a flight number changed but very quickly moved to a confirmed (A)).

 

[Dave Noble]

As long as you ar happy that the EVIP may end up being used just to upgrade ORD-LAX and will be spent, then looks all ok. Personally I would have waitlisted the business upgrade to NRT and waited until that cleared before upgrading the other sector

Dave

 

[MelUser]

I have faith in waitlists clearing!

I will (try to remember to) report back on the outcome.

Interestingly, when AA waitlists passengers (whether for upgrades or other reasons) it prioritises them according to their oneworld status.

Anyway, I don't want to start a debate on order of precedence with AA upgrades - that debate seems to rage ad nauseum on other websites.

 

[serfty]

...
Interestingly, when AA waitlists passengers (whether for upgrades or other reasons) it prioritises them according to their oneworld status.
...

If nothing else, that's because the AA systems that matter can basically only handle AA's status levels, so (aside from BPs) Emeralds show as EXP, Sapphire shows as PLAT etc.

 

[MelUser]

An update - AA mileage upgrade waitlists from Economy to First for travel on 28 November LAX to DFW were confirmed today ie pax are now in First - so 8 days out (or 9 if you consider that LA is actually a day behind).

It appears clear that the mileage upgrades are done before all of the airport nonsense - stickers, EVIPs, 500mile credits and all other convuluted forms of upgrades that AA offers!

 

[Dave Noble]

It appears clear that the mileage upgrades are done before all of the airport nonsense - stickers, EVIPs, 500mile credits and all other convuluted forms of upgrades that AA offers!

EVIPs would be applied at the same time or ahead of mileage upgrades. Both are confirmed in C or A class. I wouldn't call electronic upgrades nonsense; they are a nice way of getting into a premium cabin ( stickers haven't existed for many years, only electronic credits for 500 miles )

Dave

 

[MelUser]

I was having a dig at the excessive number of ways one can upgrade on AA!

Interestingly for my last 2 sponsored upgrades which cleared today, AA is refusing to reissue the QF stock tickets. Apparently they have had a policy change for non AA (AND non oneworld products) issued tickets. They will still take over the reservation and reissue for oneworld products irrespective of the original ticketing carrier.

There now exists a note in the reservation to direct checkin staff to issue boarding passes in the cabin reflected in the reservation (but now not the cabin shown in the ticket).

 

[MelUser]

Report on AA First Class upgrades on QF ticket which was not reissued by AA -
Upgradees checked in in SYD for QF and AA (now upgraded but not ticket reissued) flights. SYD-LAX-DFW.

QF checkin person asked whether there was a paper ticket/coupon for AA flight. Couple checking in said "no". Not a problem, QF issued the QF and AA (now in First Class boarding passes) without a drama at all.

In LA the QF issued First boarding passes went through at gate no problem at all.

Lesson is - it does not appear to be a problem if AA does not reissue the ticket after upgrading AA segment.

The battle will always be getting an AA person in Brisbane to process and/or waitlist the upgrade if it is a QF issued ticket. Some will but some won't.

 

[MelUser]

As long as you ar happy that the EVIP may end up being used just to upgrade ORD-LAX and will be spent, then looks all ok. Personally I would have waitlisted the business upgrade to NRT and waited until that cleared before upgrading the other sector

Dave

The waitlist for the EVIP upgrade [LAX to NRT] from Economy (L) to Business (C) cleared at about 72 hours before the flight.

Upgrador was an Exec Plat (equiv QFF Plat) [they are the only ones issued with EVips] and the upgradee was a Qantas Silver (equiv AA Gold)