AAdvantage

[NCteacherlovescruising]

We have AAdvantage credit cards, but have recently started using them so we don’t have tons of miles. (Under 70k on each currently) Can we purchase an economy seat and use miles to upgrade to premium economy or purchase premium economy to upgrade to business class from Charlotte to Barcelona and Rome (or Venice) to Charlotte?  

[goletans]

From AA:

 

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/miles/redeem/award-travel/upgrade-with-miles.jsp

Upgrade with miles

Enjoy a higher cabin of service

Use your AAdvantage^® miles to upgrade on flights marketed and operated by American Airlines or American Eagle for yourself or anyone you designate.

Upgrades are valid to the next cabin of service and are valid for a single one-way trip with a maximum of three segments. Upgrades are subject to capacity controls. Excluding award tickets and Basic Economy fare tickets, the following eligible fare types can be upgraded:

• Discount Economy with published fares booked in H,K,M,L,V,G,Q,N,O,S and Military or Government fares booked in Y
• Full-Fare Economy with published fares booked in Y
• Discount Premium Economy with published fares booked in P
• Full-Fare Premium Economy with published fares booked in W
• Discount Business with published fares booked in I
• Full-Fare Business with published fares booked in J, D or R

[taxatty]

Yes, IF "C" upgrade space is available. You can call AA now and put your name on the AA upgrade waitlist if there is no current availablity.  It often doesn't appear until a few days before the flight--try calling AA then. You can also check availability by setting up an Expert Flyer notification account--discussed many times in this forum.  In addition, many AA upgrades also require cash in addition to miles--between North America and Europe, usually $350--still often a good deal.

Edited May 30, 2023 by taxatty

[Gardyloo]

Some caveats...

 

If your itinerary includes any non-AA carriers - for example connecting at London to a British Airways flight to Barcelona, or returning from Italy via London or Madrid, etc. - the upgrade will only apply to the part of the trip actually operated by American.  Any flights on partner airlines will still be in whatever fare class you booked based on the fare "bucket" - the underlying fare codes (listed above) in the basic ticket.   AA has limited nonstop service to Barcelona and only one flight (that I can find) nonstop to/from Venice (from Philly.)  There's a CLT-FCO nonstop, otherwise you'd have to change planes someplace like JFK, Dallas or Chicago.  

 

Mileage upgrades are generally not the most cost-effective use of your miles.  Just as an exercise, assign a value of 2c per mile redeemed and add the "cost" in miles to the cash cost of the underlying ticket to see how it compares to buying the better seats in the first place (for which you'd receive miles rather than spending them.)  You'd also be avoiding the (high) probability that upgrade seats won't be available on the dates you want, if at all (or one being available, not two.)