purchase upgrade at airport
 

Hello -
We're flying out October 1 - RDU-JFK-ZRH. I am an AAdvantage member (no miles yet). Do we have any remote chance of purchasing an upgrade from coach to business if we check in at the kiosk early at RDU? If so, does anyone know the average price we might be looking at?

On the above, I meant the JFK to ZRH leg.

Thanks!

AA will happily accept the difference between your economy fare and the business fare at the kiosk.

It's not exactly unknown for AA to permit paid upgrades at check-in, but it;'s also not unknown for people to be hit by meteorites.

Gardyloo is right - your chances of purchasing an paid upgrade are slim. Upgrades are offered first in order of elite status - Executive Platinum - 100 hours before flight time, Platinum - 72 hours before flight, Gold- 24 hours before then to non-elite AAdvantage members on the day of the flight. The reality is usually there are more upgrade requests than available seats and many Gold members and some Plantinum members often don't get upgrades which means non-elites have an even less of a chance. As someone without elite status the only way to insure you can fly Business or First Class is to purchase the ful fare ticket for the class of service you want.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but A_Traveller's comments on status and check in apply only to domestic flights. The OP wants to upgrade on the trans atlantic leg.

mjz_kc is correct. I didn't focus on the transatlantic portion of OP's question. Sorry if my response may be misleading.

I don't fly American, but on other airlines it is sometimes (not alot, but definitely sometimes) offered for Coach passengers wanting to upgrade to Business class for a price (sometimes reasonable). There is always the caveat that your ticket must be a certain type (usually the full fare kind of ticket - Y, but also a few others). I have only seen this happen when Coach is totally full, and business class is really empty. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen that often - so I wouldn't count on it. Good luck!!! I purchased an upgrade coming back from Germany once for about $150....

I was told a few years ago by someone who worked at AA that they would rather leave business class seats empty rather than "give" them away to coach passengers. The rationale was that once they start to make seats avail for less than business class fare fewer passengers will buy them up front, counting on the hope they can upgrade at checkin.

Thanks to all for your comments. I've checked the seat map so far, the plane looks pretty empty in coach. It won't allow me to see the business class seats. We'll give it a shot when we arrive early in RDU.

sc...There are 22 Business Class seats available for sale on that flight..

Beach Boi -
Does that imply anything in particular now? Or is it still too early to tell?

I dont think it means anything more than they havent sold but 8 Business Class seats.I personally have not witnessed upgrades sold at the gate with AA, but that too means nothing.If that particular day there are not that many travellers on the waitlist to use their miles for the upgrade, then perhaps the sale at the gate scene may indeed come to fruition.Best of Luck!

Anybody can buy upgrades using AA miles, and in the case of transoceanic flights, payment of a co-pay. For RDU-ZRH a coach > biz upgrade is 25,000 miles and $300 one way (i.e. 50K mi and $600 RT) if business class seats are available.

Elite status priority kicks in when there aren't enough upgrade seats to go around.

Yes, that flight is wide open. Frankly I'd save the money and shoot for 2 seats in coach, raise the armrest, enjoy your "food" and "free" soft drinks, think of Heidi and try to "sleep" for a few hours. Use the $600 for a hellish good hotel in Switzerland for a couple of nights to recover.

If you're going to be traveling by air much in the coming year, go to the AA forum on flyertalk.com and read up on the Gold and Platinum challenges - your trip could get you pretty close to Gold status with even a minimum coach fare basis. Gold would enable you to choose exit row seats, use the business class check in lines, get a mileage bonus, and other perks.

Has anybody seen AA sell cash upgrades at the gate? Sounds like it's not something that they do. If it's something that an airlines does not do, then how can the OP be hoping that it'll happen?

It's like saying IRS will waive your tax for next year. It is not their policy and it has never happened. But sure, we can hope. Yeah, right!

If the OP wants to fly up front with no miles and no status, then they should just call today and buy up the fare. If that's too expensive, then go buy a lottery ticket ASAP. At least there's SOME CHANCE of happening. Then use the winning money to buy up the fare.

Funny that with 20 seats left to sell, there is not one seat avaiable for the upgrade with the miles + copay....Like I said, I've never seen it.I have friends working on a project in Beijing.They fly United and on the 2 trips they have made so far, the Business Class upgrade has been avaiable for sale at the gate $600 each way.That makes their total BizCls experience a total of less than $3K round trip ATL PEK.

BeachBoi - I don't think anybody says there's no mileage upgrade for that flight. The OP has no miles, so that's irrelevant. Unless I'm missing something here.

AA does not do cash upgrades, but rather will sell 500mi upgrade 'stickers' (as they used to actually be) for $30 ea.


Here are AA upgrade rules

Upgrades Rules

* Upgrades are valid for Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum AAdvantage members from any individual published coach ticket to the next class of service.

* Regular AAdvantage members, traveling on a published full fare Y or B coach ticket, may use purchased upgrades to the next class of service.

So since swisschocolate is a regular advantage member (not gold, plat, ex), the only way to upgrade is from a full fare coach seat. Current price is $3200 round trip for the full fare coach seat.

500-mile upgrades cannot be used on transoceanic itineraries.

Since the OP's tickets are already paid, upping to full Y (or better, a B fare if it's available) doesn't really help much.

BTW the OP asked the question on Flyertalk and has had some comprehensive answers.