aa instant upgrade

[hellytravel]

Hi
someone told me that the aa instant upgrades give qantas status points that are calculated as first class fares. Is this correct or are they calculated as disc economy, economy or business
We are looking to come back from Los Vegas to LA, and the seats offered in instant upgrade are in the first section
the flight is 236miles and if first I think we get 60 status credits.

Is this right, or am I way of track
thanks

 

[drron]

Indeed if you buy the instant upgrade fares you will be credited F SCs.The only exceptions are on 3 class transcontinental flights where the upgrade is to business class and hence J SCs.
And welcome to AFF

 

[serfty]

It's the fare bucket class of that you are booked into. e.g. First class SC's can be earned if the fare class is P (or A*) for AA flights.

This is easy to tell before booking; click "[+] Flight Details" and look for "P" (or "A") as the "Booking Code:"

(* with A class it's revenue bookings only, First Class upgrades with AAdvantage Miles/SWU/eVIPs book into A class in which case you should earn for originally booked revenue class.)

 

[hellytravel]

thanks for the advice

 

[NM]

Indeed if you buy the instant upgrade fares you will be credited F SCs.The only exceptions are on 3 class transcontinental flights where the upgrade is to business class and hence J SCs.
And welcome to AFF

Similarly any international flights, including to/from Canada, will be business class and not first class.

 

[smarty11]

Yes if it is a 2 Class Aircraft you will get FC SCs. Last time going from NY to Chicago, I used instant upgrade and the SC credited were full F SCs.

 

[pshepvic]

Similarly any international flights, including to/from Canada, will be business class and not first class.

Also goes for domestic flights to US Territories rather than Mainland States (eg. US Virgin Islands, Peurto Rico etc).

 

[Ben174]

Hey Guys

Im going to be in LAX on July 14th. I have a week to kill basically and want to do some travel, but only to destinations that have great cheap SC earners on Instant Up fares. Any one have some good recommendations for some routes from LAX? Probably have about 2k or so to spend on flights in my budget

 

[Ben174]

Hey Guys

Im going to be in LAX on July 14th. I have a week to kill basically and want to do some travel, but only to destinations that have great cheap SC earners on Instant Up fares. Any one have some good recommendations for some routes from LAX? Probably have about 2k or so to spend on flights in my budget

Hey Guys

Found a flight. LAX - TPA. Instant upgrade is $527.

Now on AA It shows this flight as LAX- DFW 1235 Miles (would be 120SC) and DFW-TPA 929 miles (would be 90SC). Now would i get credit this way as thats an amazing $2.50 per SC OR would it be considered as 2164 miles total earning just 120 SC? or a less flattering $4.39 per SC (still not bad i guess) ???

 

[serfty]

Look here: Discounted First Class and Flyer Talk Fares

After it loads, select "[+]Carrier Filters" and click "American (AA)

"

Also check the Caribbean under "[+]Destination Zones"

That will show return travel costs with cheapest first. Then you need to check routing possibilities on AA.com .

 

[Ben174]

Thanks Serfty

A lot of the good cheap routes per mile usually have a stop over. If each of those flights is credited separately its amazing SC earning. Is this the case? Or is it the first leg miles plus the second leg miles to give the SC based on that rather than each leg?

 

[Ben174]

Sorry to post all this. getting so addicted to SC earning! Ahhh what have you done to my AFF! haha .

Found a route LAX- BGI via MIA



Now the each way for Instant upgrade is $719 however one flight is in First Class A and the other in Business Class I.

Would i be right in saying that the flight LAX-MIA in A 2342 miles would earn 120 SC and that the MIA-BGI flight in I 1611 miles would earn 80 SC ? Total 200 SC ($3.59 per SC)

Or am i calculating this all wrong? Have no idea how SC gets earnt in this scenario and in general when the AA flight has a stop over and connecting to different flight number?

 

[serfty]

Segment based!

See here: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....-advantage/good-sc-earning-value-ex-8840.html

 

[Ben174]

So would i be right on those booking classes above? One would get SC earnt at F rate and the other at J rate for QFF posting?

Wow, so stop overs can be great to add even more SC's? These are some bargain basement SC's! I need to hit platinum! hahaha

Not asking anyone to search for me, just if you know of the top of your head, if you were in LA what flights would u take on Instant Upgrade on the pure basis of cheapest SC per dollar with a budget of 1500 to 2000 $ total for return

 

[drron]

Pricing changes all the time so you do need to keep searching.In general high capacity routes are not as cheap-eg LAX-JFK.
Best are the indirect routings if the same price-and often they are.
However there is one problem-if a cancellation of 1 sector you may lose your F seat and then these fares book into Y.This is not a great problem if you belong to Aadvantage but QFF SC's will drop dramatically-ie to one sixth.90 SC's becomes 15.
This happened to us yesterday.

 

[serfty]

...
Not asking anyone to search for me, just if you know of the top of your head, if you were in LA what flights would u take on Instant Upgrade on the pure basis of cheapest SC per dollar with a budget of 1500 to 2000 $ total for return

I suugest you start with what was indicated in post #10.

That's what I do when stating out to look.

Note that I have been advised of some current reasonably inexpensive routes but did promise not to advertise them on public fora.

 

[JohnSydney2000]

Or am i calculating this all wrong?

Nope, welcome, shhh!! Loose lips sink ships.Happy travels.John.

ps Strongly advise you follow what serfty has posted

 

[Ben174]

Came across this:. The FLighs between MIA and AUA are in Business on the Instant Up Fares and the other flights are all in First. This nets 450 SC i believe and would earn me just under 14,000 QFF points. Total cost $1275.00. $2.83 per SC. That a good one?

Your Itinerary

?

Carrier	Flight Number	Departing	Arriving	Aircraft Type
City	Date & Time	City	Date & Time
AMERICAN AIRLINES	688	SFO San Francisco	Jul 20, 2011 07:45 AM	DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth	Jul 20, 2011 01:10 PM	738
AMERICAN AIRLINES	1819	DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth	Jul 20, 2011 02:20 PM	MIA Miami	Jul 20, 2011 06:25 PM	757
AMERICAN AIRLINES	1318	MIA Miami	Jul 20, 2011 07:30 PM	AUA Aruba	Jul 20, 2011 10:15 PM	757
AMERICAN AIRLINES	1036	AUA Aruba	Jul 21, 2011 09:05 AM	MIA Miami	Jul 21, 2011 12:05 PM	757
AMERICAN AIRLINES	217	MIA Miami	Jul 21, 2011 02:20 PM	LAX Los Angeles	Jul 21, 2011 04:40 PM	757

 

[Ben174]

SORRY for yet another post.your all probably sick of me now but i really want Platinum! IM drooling for it.


I land in LAX around 10pm on July 14th from JFK on the QF flight and i need to get to SFO the following day. I really wanna do a Instan Up Run and i know LAX is not the cheap airport to base these from, but does anyone know of any routes from LAX that would leave early morning go to a couple airports and then land me in SFO in the arvo? (15th July)


Or i could do it on the way back from SFO - LAX on the 22nd July. Happy to have a trip between those 2 cities with 2 or 3 stops in Instant Up Fares.

Budget is about $1500.

Would really appreciate help.

 

[SYD]

It's probably the wrong side of the country for you, but I've done LAX-DFW-FLL several times and it can be a fraction of the price for flights to MIA.