I'm an AA platinum member. AA tells me that to be upgraded on flights ot/from Japan I have to redeem miles an not upgrade coupons. Last year for domestic flights and flights to Europe I used upgrade coupons. I currently have lots of 500 mile upgrade coupons. Could fodorites please let me now the best way to use AA upgrade coupons. Thanks in advance.

The 500 milers are for domestic upgrades only, or at least what AA considers domestic. They can't be used on flights to/from Japan, Europe, South America. They can however be used on flights to/from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Caribbean and Central America.

Miles plus co-pay (25K miles plus $250 each way) to upgrade from most discounted economy, is one option.

Executive Platinums get 8 <b>System Wide Upgrades</b> per year which could be used by anybody to upgrade from any published fare except Q fares. It's against the program rules to sell/trade these coupons, so in order to keep within thr rules you would need a very generous EXP to gift you 2 coupons for a R/T.

If you have lots and lots, you can call the Platinum &quot;desk&quot; (it isn't) and ask if they will convert your e-stickers into miles (at 500 mi. each.) If they will and you have 50 of them, there's your 25K miles for the U/G (plus the $250, don't forget.) If you have a hundred, there's your 50K miles.

If you used them last year to go to Europe keep quiet about it.

There is no way that the OP used the stickers for upgrades to Europe. It never happened. Guaranteed.

It's possible that what the OP meant was that the upgrade was for the domestic part of the trip. For example: flying SFO-ORD-LHR, the OP could have used the 500 milers to upgrade the SFO-ORD segment. The OP could not have used the stickers for the ORD-LHR segment.

Thanks for the feedback.

AAFrequentFlyer is right about using the 500 mile upgrades only on the domestic portion of my Europe ticket, just wanted to clarify this.