At the risk of sounding like a whiner (actually I am more of a 'winer'), I am curious if anyone can shed some light on the mystery of international upgrades. I am AA Platinum and a Million Miler...hoping to upgrade to biz class on a DFW to CDG flight on Wednesday (using miles plus the copay).

There are as of today, 11 open seats in biz class. As Platinum, I supposedly have a 72 hour window on upgrades. Sadly, no upgrade yesterday...none today. So I became curious and checked the same flight departing tomorrow (Tuesday) and it also has 11 open seats. The flight leaving today at 5:05 ALSO shows 11 open seats, at least it did an hour ago.

So my question is, at what point is there a determination by AA that some of those open seats are available for upgrades? Is there some magic formula?

Today's departure now shows seven seats open in the "C" (upgrade) bucket, so barring something very unusual, I think you'll likely get upgraded. Surprisingly, AA still shows U0 for today, meaning no straight mileage redemption seats are available, despite the "C" inventory opening.

When to release seats for upgrades is an inscrutable divination performed by the Wizards of RM, who all possess advanced degrees from Hogwarts. No way us Muggles will ever understand their black arts.

Good luck!

PS going on seat maps is absolutely no indication of how many seats are available for purchase or upgrade/redemption. You need to see the fare availability table instead, and even that will not show more than seven seats in a given class available, even if there are many more than that unsold.

Thank you Gardyloo. You made me laugh!

You shouldn't have a problem as Gardyloo says.

As a million miler, you know how to smile and be polite, and do all the things to get an upgrade.

Until the last few years I was mostly Platinum, and had no troubles with an international upgrade. I was actually given a double upgrade, first to business, and then to first one time coming back from Paris. From another million miler.

Thanks Rasta. I'll let you know how this pans out. I can't believe I ever flew a million miles...but they were easier back then. : )

I buy upgrades with miles and the co-pay as far in advance as possible and have nearly always been successful.