AA 500-mile upgrades

[mick]

APOLOGIES - long-winded post follows!

A couple of days ago, I booked the following: SYD/LAX/JFK JFK/LAX LAX/SYD - all QF marketed/operated except for JFK/LAX (AA operated). My QFF number was entered on all flights.

Being a deep discount fare (N & Q), I can't apply for any upgrades to J using my QFF account (boohoo!). I was warned of that and so I'll live with it.

One of the very beneficial things I've learnt from reading AFF was the importance of seat allocation and so I went about changing my seating on the QF-operated flights to window seats in the 70s rows, as I've done before, over the phone to Qantas (and they didn't even charge me 2,500 points to do so! ). When I checked my seating on the JFK/LAX flight, it was less than satisfactory and so I thought I'd see if I could change it online.

Another beneficial thing I've learnt from AFF was how to be a candy thief and so I logged onto my account, not sure whether AA.com would locate my flight, seeing as it was booked with a QF flight number, but to my surprise it found the QF LAX/JFK and QF JFK/LAX flights. However, it displayed the former as a QF flight and the latter as an AA flight.

The interesting thing is that it hadn't indicated "Not Offered" in the section regarding 500-mile upgrades and it had a space to enter my AA number. :idea: So, I figure, if I put my AA number in, maybe it'll allow me to apply for an upgrade on that sector. Every time I tried to enter my number in, it crashed. So I called the AA Plat Desk and they keyed in my AA number and it showed up - not only that, but the checkbox to "Request Upgrade?" appeared! I tried and it too crashed but when I went back in, it had registered the upgrade request!

I know that this may fail because the T&Cs state that it must be an AA marketed and operated flight, but I've got nothing to lose - except the points for the flight if I don't enter my QFF number back in before departure because fare classes N & Q are not eligible points earners under AA's program (or so I believe).

Has anyone any experience in this area? I guess I'll find out what happens in September, but it'd be nice to know beforehand!

 

[Dave Noble]

If it is an AA marketed and operated flight, then if you are having problems with it crashing, I suggest asking the AA desk to put the upgrade request in for you

Dave

 

[mick]

If it is an AA marketed and operated flight, then if you are having problems with it crashing, I suggest asking the AA desk to put the upgrade request in for you

It looks like the upgrade request has been registered OK:



If, once the upgrade has cleared and I change the booking to remove my AAdvantage number and insert my QFF number, will it post to QFF as a business class flight?

 

[QF WP]

Will definitely post as an AA Business Class flight, but you should only receive SC's and points in your QF account for the paid economy ticket. A couple of us who have gone there before you, have had the fliights post the same way..seems that QF plugged the hole last year.

 

[Dave Noble]

It looks like the upgrade request has been registered OK:

View attachment 14

If, once the upgrade has cleared and I change the booking to remove my AAdvantage number and insert my QFF number, will it post to QFF as a business class flight?

From the picture, it definately looks like it has registered ok. Do be aware that that those trunk routes are quite hard to get upgrades on. If you want to increase your odds of travelling in comfort, you might like to consider going via ORD or similar. Also, if you can change the LAX/JFK to an AA flight, you have a chance to upgrade there too

It wont post as business. Mileage upgrades ( which book into C for business and A for 1st class ) used to nicely post as the travelled class, though that was fixed by QF. Upgrades using electronic upgrade credits , being in R for business and X for 1st , are not even in a class that would be likely to do

Dave

 

[mick]

From the picture, it definately looks like it has registered ok. Do be aware that that those trunk routes are quite hard to get upgrades on. If you want to increase your odds of travelling in comfort, you might like to consider going via ORD or similar. Also, if you can change the LAX/JFK to an AA flight, you have a chance to upgrade there too

It wont post as business. Mileage upgrades ( which book into C for business and A for 1st class ) used to nicely post as the travelled class, though that was fixed by QF. Upgrades using electronic upgrade credits , being in R for business and X for 1st , are not even in a class that would be likely to do

Thanks for your responses, Lindsay and Dave. They must've plugged the hole post-July 2005 because I definitely benefitted from that little beauty back then. Oh well, all good things must come to an end some time...

I'm unable to change the routing or flights to AA at all because the heavily discounted fare I obtained from Qantas required it be booked on QF flight numbers only, in either Q or N classes and had to be via LAX or SFO to get to JFK. What shows up as AA117 on AA.com is actually booked as QF3030. So whether or not AA will allow the upgrade if there's availability remains to be seen.

Also, as it is booked in Q & N, I need to ensure all sectors are credited to my QFF account, as they are non-earning classes with AA.

 

[NM]

If you want to increase your odds of travelling in comfort, you might like to consider going via ORD or similar. Also, if you can change the LAX/JFK to an AA flight, you have a chance to upgrade there too

ORD is difficult from JFK. He would need to start at LGA to use ORD as a trasnit. DFW is well served from JFK and makes good connections to LAX.

If doing this, looke for 763 aircarft on the DFW-LAX sector as they are much more spacious up front.

And of course you get to upgrade into First Class rather than Business Class on the 3-class trans-continental service - not that there is much difference .