Upgrading AA flight with avios

[PM88]

Hi all,

I’ve had a search but finding it difficult to work out if it’s possible to upgrade an American Airlines flight booked via American Airlines with Avios.

All flights are ticketed and operated by AA.

Has anyone been able to do this in the past and if so how. Looking to upgrade premium economy to business.

Thanks,

Paul

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

How did you book an AA ticketed flight using avios?

Is this an 001 or a 125 ticket number?

[davefl]

It’s not possible to book an AA flight with Avios, they use AAdvantage miles.

If you booked a codeshare via BA there may be an option but you’d have to call BA to find out if it’s an upgradable ticket.

[LittleNick]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

How did you book an AA ticketed flight using avios?

I read it as use Avios to upgrade an AA flight booked via AA. I don’t think this is at all possible as AA can’t access your avios and BA wouldn’t be interested as it was not ticketed by them. The AA flight would have to be ticketed by BA at a bare minimum to be possibly eligible to be upgraded and then there’s rules on which fare classes can be upgraded. You either find some AA miles and use that to upgrade or accept the flight as is or cancel (could be costly).

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

It was just confusing how the OP wrote it.

But definitely no using of Avios on an AA booking or AAdvantage miles on a BA one.

[PM88]

Sorry yes it’s a cash ticket bought via AA and is ticketed by AA, not as a BA codeshare.

From the replies it looks like I can only do this if it was bought via BA or was a BA code share and has a 125 ticket number.

I wasn’t sure given the joint venture if the upgrades came from the same pot, albeit different loyalty currency.