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

[MelUser]

I have a multi passenger booking to US later in the year.

Travel is MEL-LAX (QFonQF) and then LAX-DFW (AAonAA) [and return]

The AA flights (LAX-DFW-LAX) are in Full Economy (Y).

I am a QFF and reservation has QFF number plastered all over it.


I could join the AA Frequent Flyer program (free to join). I could then buy Miles - 40000 cost USD$1000 - there is a bonus at the moment so I would end up with 52000 points.

Could I use these points to upgrade everyone on the reservation from Economy to First for the AA flights? (All passengers are QFF members and the QFF numbers are embedded in the reservation)

How would go about actioning such an upgrade?

Are upgrades instant or like the QF international waitlist and then find out at checkin system?

thanks

 

[simongr]

The AA site has pretty much everything you need to know:

American Airlines - American Eagle - AmericanConnection

Have you checked out the cost of paying to upgrade the fares? You might earn some nice SCs...

 

[MelUser]

It gives me a lot of information but doesn't actually say how to upgrade the flight using the points?

I know and understand the QF system very well. IE - log in, enter reservation number and hit upgrade.

Has anyone used their AA mileage points for an upgrade on AA.

I don't want to spend $1000 USD only to find out that for some reason my flights are inelligible for whatever reason.

 

[serfty]

For full economy LAX-DFW and DFW-LAX would cost 5,000 AAdvantage mileseach way per PAX.

You need enough A class availability on each segment.

i.e. If you have 6 travelling, you would require A6 availability on each segment and 60K AAdvantage miles.

 

[MelUser]

We are in full economy (Y) so I take it that it is 10000 miles return per passenger?

How do I activate such request? Do I phone AA reservations once QF issues the ticket and there is an ETicket number or can I do this online? Will AA get upset given that there is a Qantas Frequent Flyer number in the booking for all passengers and I am simply using an AA freq flyer account where I have puchased the miles?

 

[serfty]

Given you booked on QF you would have 081- ticket numbers. For the upgrades they need to be 001-, so I believe AA would have to re ticket the upgraded segments.

Earlier this month I upgraded quite easily an AA ticketed reservation simply by calling AA on Oz.

(LAX-DFW-ONT from N class, cost 15K AAdvantage miles and USD50)

 

[MelUser]

Thanks for that - I knew it was probably too good to be true.

The ticket numbers will all start with 081 as is the case with tickets issued from Austalian TAs - after all this is a fare purchased from Qantas - MEL-LAX-DFW and return.

What about buying 500 mile upgrade credits - how do these work? Are they very different to mileage upgrades - presumably I could buy these instead.

There are 5 pax in this reservation and plenty of A class at this stage.

 

[NM]

You need to call AAdvantage to do the upgrades. Mileage upgrades can be confirmed at the time of request if there is sufficient availability in A class as serfty mentioned.

Also as mentioned above, AA will need to re-issue the ticket so the sectors are now booked into A class. The ability for AA to re-issue the ticket depends on the rules of the fare purchased. Some fares may be a QF fare only and unable to be re-issued by AA. I had that recently when upgrading someone using an eVIP and I was informed there is a workaround for them to overcome this re-issue limitation at check-in time and the EXP desk agent entered the details of how to apply the upgrade without re-issue into the PNR so the check-in agent would know and be able to do it. I assume that can also be done for a mileage upgrade as it was for an eVIP upgrade as both are booked into A class.

 

[MelUser]

This is all starting to sound a bit complicated!

I take it that should not spend $1000 USD on the mileage points until I can confirm that it can be done.

What about phoning AA and saying "how much will it cost to change seats from "Y" to "A".

Will AA say: "that's fine sir, please pay us $X and we'll go ahead"

or

will AA say "we didn't make or ticket this reservation so we are not touching it"

 

[NM]

Will AA say: "that's fine sir, please pay us $X and we'll go ahead"

or

will AA say "we didn't make or ticket this reservation so we are not touching it"

The latter if its a paid ticket issued by QF using a QF fare.

 

[MelUser]

I doubt very much whether AA would agree to reissue a QF 081 ticket - after all, what's in it for them?

I take it that getting from "Y" into "A" whether with mileage or upgrade credits (whatever they are) or paying money is only possible on AA if booked and paid for via AA.

Note this is unlike the QF upgrade system where all QF looks for is QF on QF - it doesn't matter who tickets it - it is points upgradeable.

I might try calling AA after the tickets have issued and report back on whether they are interested in doing anything.

 

[drron]

I upgraded the 2 of us on our current DONE4 on the DFW-FRA sector to F using points.The ticket was QF issued.So AA reissued the whole ticket.Upgrade was confirmed immediately on phoning AA(Australian office).But I have status with AA and so the rules will be different-reissue fees etc may come into it.As well you will now be on an AA ticket with your AA number.You can put your QF number back in when checking in but make sure the agent takes your AA number out because if not A comes before Q and the flights will be credited to AA.
As has been said if a number of you the chances all can be upgraded drop.My guess is not a worthwhile idea.

 

[serfty]

... The ticket numbers will all start with 081 as is the case with tickets issued from Austalian TAs - after all this is a fare purchased from Qantas - MEL-LAX-DFW and return. ...

A ticket number beginning with 081- indicates the ticket was issued by Qantas, irrespective of whether it was issued in Australia or not..

American Airlines tickets start with 001- . My LHONE4's bought last year from AA in OZ start with 001.

Others? 016 is UA, 125 is BA & 160 is CX ...

 

[MelUser]

I could ask my TA to issue on AA but I'm sure she will say it can't be done.

She (as do many small independent TAs) uses Concord in Sydney to issue her tickets.

 

[NM]

I could ask my TA to issue on AA but I'm sure she will say it can't be done.

She (as do many small independent TAs) uses Concord in Sydney to issue her tickets.

Just being issued by Qantas on 081 ticket numbers is not a problem in itself. I and many others here have had Qantas issued tickets re-issued by AA as part of the upgrade process. The time you may run into problems is if you have purchased a Qantas fare for which the fare rules say it can only be issued by Qantas or only issued on 081 ticket stock. This often applied to negotiated corporate fares or special heavily discounted fares. If AA cannot see the fare rules in their reservation system, then they cannot re-issue the ticket without contacting Qantas to determine if such a re-issue is within the fare rules.

Its easy to do for a OneWorld explorer since the fare rules for a xONEx are common for all OneWorld airlines and re-issue into a different airline's ticket number is permitted.

And as I noted above, I have upgraded a person who had a Qantas issued ticket that was a special Qantas-only fare that AA was unable to re-issue. This did cause some confusion and almost came unstuck as one agent failed to complete the upgrade process and cancelled the upgrade since they were unable to re-issue the ticket due to the fare rules stating it must be a Qantas issued ticket. It took several calls to the EXP Desk to get it sorted out. But the passenger was upgrade for both outbound and return sectors without the ticket actually being re-issued. But this did require special processing by the AAgent at check-in at the airport - both times.

 

[drron]

I could ask my TA to issue on AA but I'm sure she will say it can't be done.

She (as do many small independent TAs) uses Concord in Sydney to issue her tickets.

Until this recent trip my TA was happy to ticket on AA but now her consolidator refuses to do it.A real bummer.
I have tried to upgrade others with my EVIPs when I had them but the Aagents I spoke to either did not know a work round of QF only fares or would not.

 

[NM]

I have tried to upgrade others with my EVIPs when I had them but the Aagents I spoke to either did not know a work round of QF only fares or would not.

I have managed to do it twice. Both for the same passenger on the same trip, but had to be done for outbound (HNL-DFW) and return (DFW-HNL) separately and each time done without re-issuing the Qantas issued ticket using a Qantas-only fare. The first time, the passenger had problems at check-in and I called the EXP desk while he was at HNL trying to check-in. The EXP Desk agent spoke with the check-in agent and got it sorted out. The second time the EXP desk agent noted the details into the PNR for the check-in agent at DFW to follow and there were no problems at check-in.

I have also had no problems with several Qantas issued OneWorld Explorer upgrades.

 

[Dave Noble]

I could ask my TA to issue on AA but I'm sure she will say it can't be done.

She (as do many small independent TAs) uses Concord in Sydney to issue her tickets.

The way around it would perhaps either book AA codeshare on the flight to USA and then they have no reason to book on QF and should be able to insist on AA stock or , if it is just a combination of 2 fares, book the QF and AA as separate itineraries

Being in full Y, you may still be able to request an upgrade using electronic upgrade credits and if it clears, pay the cost of the upgrade credits. Being in full Y , you can use these upgrades even though not having status

Dave

 

[MelUser]

I did see these upgrade credits yesterday on the AA website - it looked as if I needed to buy 1 upgrade credit for each 500 mile per person.

However it appeared from the AA website that these credits had to be purchased upfront - US$30 per Upgrade Credit - again I would be happy to pay if I knew that they stood a chance to work - ie that I would not be disqualified because my Eticket numbers started with 081 and not 1.

What was not clear from the website was how one requests an upgrade using the upgrade credits. What is even less clear is how to not pay for the upgrade credits unless and until the upgrades are successful.

Presumably also to use these Upgrade Credits the ticket has to be issued by AA and start with 1 or do the upgrade credits work outside the ticket number system and more like the qantas click the upgrade button system?

It suits us to be on one ticket - this way we are protected if connections miss - only have 2 hours in la on way over and back.

Also, want to be on QFQF for purposes of upgrading the QF flight.

At the end of the day, it is not the end of the world but something I thought I would look at. In my view, this certainly makes the AA Frequent Flyer Program look complicated and one more reason to stay with QF.

 

[LuisT]

Note this is unlike the QF upgrade system where all QF looks for is QF on QF - it doesn't matter who tickets it - it is points upgradeable.

So how do you go about upgrading an AA booked QF ticket?

If I put my AA booking reference, it says it can't be found...