Now that American Airlines charges us $500 each to use our miles to upgrade to business class on international flights I'm disgusted enough to look around for other airlines. Anyone particularly happy with theirs? We will be flying mainly from Sacramento/San Francisco to Italy and upgrading to business class. We also make good use of the airport lounges when we travel. I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

What?!! You have to pay to upgrade with miles? Ann from Hawaii uses AA and we compared details of AA vs. Delta and AA came out way ahead.

With Delta, you have to buy a more expensive class of ticket to upgrade from. So a trip to Europe would cost me $1800 each return and then I could upgrade from that.

Now we are also using British Airways and they let you upgrade from their sale prices. On our last trip, our flight was $1000 each return for Premium Economy, from which we upgraded with miles to Club World.

I was thinking of switching over to AA since we don't always want to fly through England. But first we may use up those Delta miles for a trip.

I am going to move this thread to the Everything About Travel forum.

We used to live in SF and had a pile of miles on United. I am not totally sure what they are doing with their new (weird) program, but back in the day it was not difficult to upgrade. Of course it depends upon where you would want to go. They will put you on Lufthansa, but you can fly to Florence and other places. Worth checking out, especially since they are always sending credit card offers for 25,000 miles upon first purchase etc. Also, I always felt there were more United flights out of SF than American, but I could be wrong.
I now live in Boston, and we take AA or BA because they have lovely day flights to London where we can hang with friends before setting off somewhere else. I swear the Day Flight from the US makes a HUGE difference.

Hope this helps...

Pauline, our comparison was years ago, and AA has since changed its policy. BUT you can upgrade from its cheapest ticket, which is very difficult to do on other airlines. I hate forking over the $500 roundtrip, but then I'm paying maybe $1200 plus the $500 for a ticket that would cost $8,000 (HNL to Europe business class), so that makes it less painful.

Phoebebennet, could you tell more about why the AA day flight is better for you? I'm about to book!
Thanks.

I'm so glad so many people are jumping in here. I was shocked when I called in Feb to reserve my upgrade for August and was told about the $500. Apparently it's new in the last year. They charge 250 each way for each ticket. We ended up paying a total of about $1600. each for business class to London, then we have to fly coach on British Air from there to Milan. I'm interested that United might let you upgrade on their partner airlines too. I'll have to give them a call to check out their current rules and flights. I'm also getting used to checking flights from SF instead of LA as we're moving from here to outside of Sacramento in August. We've really liked the overnight flight from LA to London - it somehow seems to make more sense for sleeping than a day flight. I may be rethinking my whole european travel strategy.

Dear Mindy,
I have two small children (now 4 and 7, but we have been going to the UK since the older one was 8 mos. and we lived in San Fran.)
Yes, one loses a day with the day flight, but it has been my experience both with and without small children in tow, that the jet lag is greatly reduced with the day flight.

Now a couple of qualifiers: I don't sleep on planes and neither do my children. Those who can sleep are justifably cross when my children are bouncing around on an overnight flight. For us, it works just like a very long day.
We leave boston at 9 on AA or 8 on BA fly for about 6 hours and arrive at LHR aroudn 8 or 9 pm local time. We then go eat something and pretend that our body clocks are on local time,, go to bed by 11 pm, and that's it.

I have found that with kids, and as i get older,Jet lag is harder. With night flights, I have been basically useless for at least 2 days and the kids are cranky as all get out.

If you are someone who can sleep on Planes, though, (and I do apologize for my and other children who can't--they don't mean to bother you. And believe me, the parents are very very sorry and desperate) then you are maybe ok.

When I arrive at LHR at 6 or 7 am, the hotel, or friends we stay with are not all that cordial... I find myself begging for coffee and trying to convince my husband that it will be ok for me to take a 5 hour nap in the middle of the day. Not so good.

So, If this is not helpful, and obviously if it is not a factor for you no big deal. I just find that kids or no the day you "waste" on the plane saves you from wasting 2 or more from stress and exhaustion on the other end..

my email is bjkm@rcn.com if you have any more questions.

PS When I was 22 (now 41) I couldn't have cared less about time!

Best,
Barbara

My understanding is that you only earn AA miles flying BA if your flight starts and ends outside the US. Therefore you'd have to connect in Canada to a BA flight to earn AA miles. Because of that, the OneWorld alliance doesn't work for me; other than that it is considered a good FF program.

I've been almost exclusively flying SkyTeam for the past 4 or 5 years. I think it has the best network, the most options to Italy, since I can fly Delta, Alitalia, Air France, KLM, NWA... lots of choices. I've been using the Delta program, but lately I've found Alitalia's MilleMiglia program has some really attractive features for non-Italian residents. It gets complex, you really have to lay out a spreadsheet to compare programs to see what works for you. There is a good discussion thread comparing all the SkyTeam programs on FlyerTalk

Do you also need to redeem American Airline miles along with the $500 upgrade charge?

Yes, the usual 50,000 miles for a roundtrip upgrade, plus the $500.

The majority of our miles are on Continetnal (part of sky team); we just wiped out our American miles getting me to/from Paris. The problem I have with Continental is their easy pass (aka, cheaper mileage seats) are rarely to never available, especially on overseas flights. What we've ended up having to do for the past four years, is book using our Continental miles on one of their partner airlines (mostly Delta or Alitalia). If you don't mind doing that, it's fine.

Is the 50,000 mile upgrade, plus $500, for First Class or Business Class?

It's 50,000 miles + $500 for an upgrade to business from discounted economy fares; 30,000 miles and no co-pay from a full fare coach ticket; and 50,000 miles to upgrade from business to first. You can only upgrade to the next higher class.

Sounds like it's better to buy full fare coach and upgrade with 30k miles, rather than discounted coach and pay $500 + 50k miles.

Gargolye - that was my thought when I was planning our trip to France in November. However, full fare economy class was around $4,000!!! Just checked to see what it is now - Full Fare Economy DFW-CDG for November travel is currently $5,725.60!!!.

My solution?? We just sucked it up and are using our AA FF miles only and flying coach. I just figured with what we'll be saving in FF miles and $$$, we will be able to take a second trip, hopefully, next spring.

Suzanne

Be sure to check on what are called "I" fares for cheaper business class travel.

quote:

Full Fare Economy DFW-CDG for November travel is currently $5,725.60!!!.

Wow, I wonder what they're getting for first class. Hey - if you can get the exit row on AA in coach, try for that - we found it pretty darn roomy.

The plane we are on is a 767-300 (763), so there are only two classes (coach and first/business). The first/business tickets (with restrictions) are $7,815.

Although, we considered trying to get exit seats with more legroom, the configuration for this plane with 2-3-2 seating has a "mini-cabin" in coach (probably used to be their former business class). This area is separate from the rest of coach and only has four rows. Therefore, we opted to possibly give up some legroom for what we hope will be a quieter area!

Back to the subject of FF miles - I've come to the conclusion that none of the programs are perfect. Unfortunately, here in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, we are pretty much stuck with American since this is a main hub and their headquarters city. Delta used to be somewhat competitive with them, but now they only have a few flights out of DFW.

Can't wait to move to the East Coast. Hopefully, once there we'll have more options for flying with other airlines!

Suzanne

quote:

if you can get the exit row on AA in coach, try for that - we found it pretty darn roomy.

Note that exit row seats can be a bit colder than other parts of the plane. It doesn't bother me, but it will bother some people.