gail

Flying Boston-Buenos Aires on AA. We have 120,000 miles available. I can fly, with flexible dates, Economy BOS-MIA-EZE for 40,000 milies RT. I can fly Business, flexible dates, RT for 100,000 miles. Flight costs $1,200-1,500 approx RT. Am willing to use miles, pay, pay and use miles to upgrade - and am completely confused about category of ticket that must be purchased to upgrade with miles - and whether that guarantees me the ability to upgrade or not.

I want to fly at least Business MIA-EZE but could tolerate Economy BOS-MIA. To complicate matters further, FF account has available 8 upgrade certificates (500 miles each - but there is some maximum number needed per route and in past this has not guaranteed an upgrade for domestic - just get on a list and find out 24 hours in advance.

Any help other than calling AA?

Jeff_Costa_Rica

You use the words "we" and "I." Is it just you, or you and somebody else?

The upgrade chart at aa.com is at:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/o...rade-chart.jsp

You can upgrade from most economy fares to business on North America-EZE for 25,000 miles plus a $350 copay. That's one way. The key is finding availability to upgrade. For that, I'd call AA, rather than just booking flights and taking your chances. You'll pay the fee for not booking yourself.

The 500-mile upgrades can't be used on flights to South America.

DonTopaz

For a round-trip ticket, it will cost you 50,000 miles plus $700 to upgrade to business class.

Unless you have a specific us in mind for the miles, I'd use them for this trip to Argentina: you're unlikely to get a better value for them using them elsewhere. (Assuming, of course, that award seats are available.)

In fact, you might consider flying in F in one direction, especially if you wanted to get some sleep. You can fly F in one direction and J in the other for 112,500 miles. Or, if you can get 5000 miles somehow before buying the tickets, fly F in both directions for 125,000 miles.

gail

Thanks - just me flying - the confusing pronouns are because it is husband's FF miles (he gets to stay home; trip is to visit study-abroad daughter). No problem getting more miles - we have AA credit card and can just charge stuff and pay it off.

F going south and J going north is an interesting thought - flight arrives in BA at 7 AM and wandering around a strange city where I do not speak the language without sleep waiting to check into hotel is not my idea of a good time.

Fascinating the difference in FF programs, though. Daughter required 100,000 miles RT in economy for similar itinerary on UA - mostly because of availability which was very limited at lower mileage requirement. AA has all sorts of seats available on all sorts of dates for half the miles.

Gardyloo

Whether to pop for the full 100K for a business class ticket vs. 50K plus $700 copay for upgrades really goes to the question of how you plan to spend the balance of your (husband's) miles, and how much travel you might be planning in the foreseeable future. Depending on your travel dates, straight business class fares from BOS to EZE round trip range from around $3200 to over $6000, so even if you go the co-pay route (which I normally don't think is a very good idea) the value of the miles spent in either case would be pretty good (up to excellent if you're in one of the $6000+ periods.)

Note too that you'd still earn full miles using the upgrade approach, which for BOS-MIA-EZE and back is around 11,000 miles, so it reduces the "net" mileage "cost" to around 39,000 miles for the round trip. Or, if you plan to fly AA a lot during the next 18 months, you could buy an economy ticket, use miles to upgrade, then do one of AA's "challenges" to earn elite status (good through February 2012) that would exempt you from baggage fees, allow you to pick exit row or other premium coach seats, get more of those 500-mile upgrades (good only on US/Mexico/Canada/Caribbean routes, BTW) and bonus miles on AA and some partner flights. You now have to pay for the challenges, but if you plan to fly a lot IMO it's money well spent.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

"he gets to stay home; trip is to visit study-abroad daughter"

I'd look at the other way around, Gail. You're the one who gets to go. It'll be a great trip.

"Fascinating the difference in FF programs. Daughter required 100,000 miles ... on UA. ... AA has all sorts of seats available on all sorts of dates for half the miles."

That's why those of us here who sly AA keep touting the benefits of the AAdvantage program, and you see complaining about the others.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

That should be "who fly AA."

gail

I made her fly UA coach - she is 19 and skinny - and saved the AA miles for myself, knowing they gave me greater flexibility and likely a better seat.

mrwunrfl

In this case, "100K for a business class ticket vs. 50K plus $700 copay" means that 50K = $700 exactly. That is, unless the traveler was willing to pay the $3200 to $6000 fare in which case the miles would have greater value.