Upgrading at the counter for AA International (DFW-NRT)
 

I hear that it is often possible to upgrade to available business for an additional 500.00.
I have never been offered this option, so I don't know how it works.
I am AA Platinum.
Anyone do this? How does it work?
My friend who just did this told me that coach was oversold. Do they offer this upgrade option if coach IS NOT oversold?
Any info is appreciated!
Thanks!

I have done it several times. Nothing to do with coach being oversold, although if coach is oversold, they might be a bit more lenient in their buy-up price!! But the price is not a standard $500. The price depends on your E ticket fare basis and the distance travelled on the flight, and maybe other things as well. I don't really know what all goes into deciding the price to "up" to biz.

It just cost me $500 from IAD to ZRH last night (arriving in ZRH just this morning) on United. I also had to throw in some miles. I did it, because the biz class seats were the newly reconfigured ones with lie flat bed. I was able to sleep about 6 hours on the flight. I would not have slept in my original seat in economy+. This was not quite the same as a straight buy-up to biz. This was a miles plus $$ offer. There was no standard buy-up available (and I don't know why). Biz class was not full. I was happy to pay the price, in any case. The miles were not a big deal since I have nearly 400,000 of them in my FF account.

Good luck to you.

Never say never, but $500 at the kiosk for DFW-NRT? Highly unlikely. (These are called "LFBU"s - load factor based upgrades.)

If Y is oversold, then <i>maybe</i> they might do a "cabin roll" - an operational upgrade in which some economy pax get moved up; as a Platinum member you might get lucky, but the planets need to be pretty much aligned. More likely on longhauls they'd ask for volunteers who would get vouchers, then put on the next flight. Remember AA has two 777s a day from DFW to NRT, so having all economy seats on both flights oversold is pretty unlikely.

If you really want to upgrade, use miles and copay.

More info: http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...rades_%28AA%29

I would agree that $500 to NRT is a pipe dream. It would more than likely be around $700-800 to upgrade. I can't recall what I paid from ORD to NRT a few years ago for a buy-up at the gate, but for sure it was not $500.

Well, I managed to get upgraded DFW-NRT and NRT-DFW using AA VIP upgrades bought on eBay for 250.00 per segment :)
What a bargain!
Now if I could shake the jet lag!

<i>Well, I managed to get upgraded DFW-NRT and NRT-DFW using AA VIP upgrades bought on eBay for 250.00 per segment :)</i>

Hope AA doesn't find out. They really go after both seller and buyer in these circumstances.

For International travel it does depend on the capacity and the Traveller's status. I was flying Cathay Pacific from SFO to HKG. At the place where I dropped off my bags, one of the "managers" said "for a $1,000 I'll give you an upgrade to Business Class". I managed to get the price down to $800.

The nice part, since I was Platinum at the time, was that I was given Biz rates for my bonus mileage. $800 may seem like a lot, but when your company is paying the rest, and you get some extra comfort, food and booze on s 14 hour flight, it certainly is worth it.

Also the extra miles the Biz rates given to me were enough to make platinum for another years, a big bonus.

Gardyloo... they actually do not. I am 'related' to AA and have had pretty extensive discussions with them on this issue.
Apparently, they choose to ignore the practice.

Maybe, or maybe it's just a case of YMMV. Have a read here: http://www.travelingbetter.com/forum...ead.php?t=2508

Interesting. Has anyone confirmed the stories this JonNYC tells? I am just curious because my group has been doing this for years. I have one guy in my group that has done it for just about every international trip for many, many years. Of the group, no one has ever had a problem.
I guess we are all just lucky!
A collegue just told us that his neighbor (Exec Plat) just got laid off and will be selling all his VIP Upgrades.
They have all be 'claimed' already!

JonNYC's bona fides are unimpeachable. He's quite circumspect regarding his employment, but clearly he's an AA insider; his knowledge of the AA FF program is second to none. My opinion: trust him on this.