wshoe

Has anybody bought those upgrade certificates from folks on e-bay? Or any business/1st class tickets from internet sites who buy unused miles from people? We are flying to London from Sacramento or San Francisco and would love to fly business class. Anybody have advice/experience with the above-mentioned ways of flying business/1st? Any and all info much appreciated.

AAFrequentFlyer

The most important part of the deal is to make sure the person you're dealing with is honest. <BR>After that make sure that whatever you're buying it's usuable by you. What I mean is this. American Airlines upgrade certificates &quot;VIPOW&quot;, are given out to the top tier (Executive Platinum) status members. They are dated, so your round-trip has to be done before the date. Each cert is good for one-way upgrade for any flight on AA metal only, but, only people that have any elite status with AA could upgrade from just about any economy fare, while people with no status could only upgrade from the unrestricted(read:expensive) coach fares to business. In order to upgrade to first you have to purchase a business ticket. Also, although they're transferable, AA reserves the right to void them if they suspect that they were sold for cash. So if you do buy them make sure you and the seller have a story in case AA asks how you were able to have them. <BR>You could also do the miles ticket, but in that case the seller would have to request the ticket with your name on it after you agreed on the dates and s/he would have to check if the award ticket is available. Expect to pay somewhere around .02 per mile. So a business ticket to Europe would need 90K per ticket, so somewhere around $1800 per ticket, still a great deal as the normal business ticket runs somewhere around $5000 per. <BR>In both situations you would be flying first class on any domestic connection flights.<BR>Can't tell you about other airlines, but I suspect it would be similar.

wshoe

AAFrequentFlyer,<BR><BR>Thanks so much for the valuable input. I did contact one of those sites where you buy business class tix from them that they get from purchased/unused miles. It would be about $1500 per person, roundtrip. A lot of $ for us, but still so much less than buying a business class ticket outright.

Flyboy

Just to amplify what AAFrequentFlyer is telling you above: be VERY sure that you understand the program rules. In the case of the airline program that I do most of my flying with, award tickets can not be sold and there are no &quot;ifs, ands or buts&quot; about it. The risk is that if the carrier happened to find out that you were flying on a purchased award ticket, you could end up having your ticket voided at any point in your journey and be forced to pay for a ticket (possibly full fare) to get yourself back home.

petlover

I have bought and sold such upgrades on ebay.com I agree...make sure the seller is reputable!! Most upgrades are NOT transferable but some system wide are. I've sold some that were 100% transferable but were going to expire before I would have time to use them. I've also bought some on airlines that I don't normally frequent for long flights. I've never had any problems but I always make sure I know what I'm either buying or selling. The reliability of the seller is key! Feel free to contact the airlines as well but when you do this, act as if this is being &quot;given&quot; to you not that you're buying it on ebay.