Here’s an interesting fact about American on domestic routes: Its First Class mileage upgrade inventory uses the same booking code (A) as its lowest discounted First Class seats. Most often, an airline puts these seats in separate “buckets” with the upgrade bucket being, by far, the smaller of the two.
In a random search among AA’s domestic routes, we found that, in every case, the number of discount First Class seats available on a flight matched the number of upgrade seats. That means American is giving you more access to First Class upgrades than most other airlines. (See chart, bottom right, for sample upgrade availability.)
Best of all, you can save up to 50% by using this strategy: Book your seat with a mileage upgrade instead of buying a discount First Class ticket. Even with no miles in your account, you can buy all you need and still realize huge savings (see chart, above right). Domestic upgrades require 30,000 miles round-trip (at a cost of $750 plus taxes), a $30 transaction fee, and, starting Dec. 1, a $150 round-trip co-pay.
American’s annual purchase limit is 40,000 miles. If you have Starwood or Diners Club points, you can transfer them to American.
[table_opt style="gray-header" id="1529" width="" alignment="center" responsive="all" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter"]
[table_opt style="gray-header" id="1530" width="" alignment="center" responsive="all" heading="thcenter" rows="tdcenter"]