Requesting an international upgrade on American Airlines will now cost you $250 plus the miles when you are flying on deeply discounted economy fares.

Effective December 1.

Since I use my miles for free flights rather than upgrades, this is one fee I won't have to pay. Still, another unfriendly fee for FF.

Thank you for the information. We were considering using our miles for international upgrades, but I'm not sure if it would be worth it now. It's good to know.

Thanks!
Tracy

Does "deeply discounted economy fares" mean the published economy fare I'd find on their website?

Is that information somewhere on the AA web site?

That's $250 EACH WAY....So I buy a $400 ticket to Paris, it willl cost me the miles PLUS another $500 to upgrade to business class.Not included: Y/B fares.

The official announcement will be made tomorrow.

This may have something to do with AA announcing that they will upgrade the J product. That may or may not include flat seats, an upgraded IFE and food ordering from menu before the flight. We'll hav to wait and see on that.

This sucks big time.

The AA advantage rep says this is to bring their awards in line with other carriers. Most of us have long known that you can't upgrade with miles a discounted coach ticket on MOST airlines.
Yep, I'm also glad I use my miles for full free business class tickets to Europe. In addition to this new $500 savings over upgrading, it also still gives me the benefit of a stopover or gateway stopover each way, or two of those either coming OR going.

By the way, AAFrequentFlyer, this really shows how "in the know" you are. The rep wanted to know how I knew about this since they just discussed it this morning in their meeting and she knew it had not been announced yet. I told her she should look on the Fodor's website where it was already a topic of discussion. I also said if she needed to know anything else about what was happening with her airlines she should come here. LOL.

Bah, Humbug.

Interesting the number of policy changes AA has credited to following other airline's practices lately. Fees to talk to live reps and now this. Following behind others just leaves you behind. I've always tried to choose AA because they did have different policies, even when they weren't the cheapest fare going. Oh well, that's the way it goes. Won't be doing the upgrade thing with them any time soon. I still like the seat pitch on most flights. If they lose that, I'd rate them pretty average and probably would start following the fares.

BTW, too funny Patrick. I wonder what her login will be?

Thankfully I get 8 international upgrade certs per year, and as far as I know they will not be part of this new ff program enhancement.
I'm sure this will change too in some near future.

If AA doesn't improve their J product, then it's time to start looking at other possibilities. Paying around a $1000 plus 50K miles for a R/T to London and experiemcing the inferior J product in return is not something I or few of my friends are willing to do.

For about the same money BA will sell you a seat in the Econ+ section and once you get some miles in the bank, you can upgrade to the far superior BA J product. Flat beds, great service, good food, very nice selection of wines, etc..etc..

That may be the way to go, at least for me and few others.

Clifton said: "BTW, too funny Patrick. I wonder what her login will be?"

Maybe "AAFrequentSpyer"???


"Speaking of screen names, does that mean we'll soon be seeing posts from BAFrequentFlyer?

We've discussed this before - In BA's FF club they give you just 1/4 of the miles you flew if you bought a discount ticket. Thankfully, so far, AA still gives you full credit even on cheap tickets.

BA's Econ+ is not discount economy, and you get full mileage. If I have to pay $500 for a ticket, pay another $500 and 50K miles for inferior product, why not just shell out $1000 for BA's Econ+ and if available use miles to upgrade. At least that way I get a nice 38" seat pitch and if upgraded, a far superior J product for the same amount of money and mileage.

Correction, you actually get 1.25 miles per each mile flown in Econ+ or as BA calls it World Traveler Plus.

I just paid $547 for my next trip to London (from CA) and in 10 years of travel that is the most I have ever paid to fly to Europe. I get full credit - this trip puts me in Gold which will give me 1.25 miles next year and I will be flying to New Zealand for free. I went to Ireland last year on Aer Lingus for $315 (taxes incl). $1000 to Europe? Coach is fine with me.

Nobody is asking you to switch your flying style.

I prefer business and that's the only way I will fly. At this time and for next year I will be Executive Platinum with AAdvantage, so I know about the mileage earning, but believe me, that's coming to an end as well. AA's next move after the dust settles, will be to make discounted fares either ineligible for mileage all together or just like BA probably 1/4 or 1/2 miles only.

This was pretty obvious if you follow AA business as I do. The new CEO in one of his recent interviews made it VERY clear that AAdvantage program is way too generous. I agree with him, but at the same time there is a reason for it. AA product does not compete very well with the international airlines, so AAdvantage was their way of having something to offer. Now once the programs gets retooled just like most others, and the fares being equal to what I could pay somewhere else for what I need, I will go and so will many others. AA will not have anything special to offer anymore.

<i>By the way, AAFrequentFlyer, this really shows how &quot;in the know&quot; you are. The rep wanted to know how I knew about this since they just discussed it this morning in their meeting and she knew it had not been announced yet. I told her she should look on the Fodor's website where it was already a topic of discussion. I also said if she needed to know anything else about what was happening with her airlines she should come here.</i>

With no disrespect to AAFF, this has been all over the American board at frequentflyer.com since last night...

All economy fare classes except Y &amp; B, yes. Top-tier elites (EXP, of which I think AAFF is one) may be exempt. Details on aa.com tomorrow.

As someone on flyertalk said, this will make life much easier for non-rev AA employees or their kinfolk, as they will have plenty of room to rattle around up front.

The needle on my Bozobizometer is pegged. All I need now is a nearby active volcano. Oh, wait...

I can't believe I said &quot;frequentflyer.com.&quot; That's flyertalk.com. Guess the Bozobizometer is getting too many signals at once. Duh.