American Airlines systemwide upgrades now work on British Airways (and vice versa)

American Airlines and British Airways went live with systemwide improvements. British Airways Executive Club Gold members will receive two equivalent upgrade that can be used for travel on American Airlines.

We never got to see the new developments because this happened in the middle of the challenge. Let's look at it now.

Using American systemwide upgrades on British Airways

• Only valid for tickets marketed by American with at least one AA-operated segment
• Upgrade instruments issued to Alaska Mileage Plan 75K and 100K elites can’t be used on BA
• Award tickets are not valid for upgrades on BA (only paid fares)
• Only transatlantic and intra-Europe BA flights are eligible for upgrades
• Waitlisting for BA upgrades is not allowed, there must be space available at the time the upgrade instrument is applied (“Z” for first class, “U” for business, “P” for premium economy
• Upgrades are valid for one class of service only: economy to premium economy, premium to business, or business to first (or economy to business if there is no premium economy)

It is possible to upgrade the entire itinerary to business with a systemwide upgrade if you book an AA ticket to Europe in economy with the trans-Atlantic portion on AA metal. If the segment is on BA with a domestic segment on AA, then the segment could only be upgraded to premium economy from economy.

Using British Airways upgrades on AA

• Only valid for tickets issued by British Airways (can’t be an AA-issued ticket)
• Award tickets are not valid for upgrades on AA (only paid fares)
• Only transatlantic AA flights are eligible for upgrades
• Waitlisting for AA upgrades is not allowed, there must be space available at the time the upgrade instrument is applied (“A” for first class, “C” for business)
• Upgrades are valid for one class of service only (premium to business or business to first (no upgrades from economy to premium economy)

Quick Thoughts

The new agreement is an improvement over the old one. We hadn't seen anything actually come to fruition after American and British Airways promised further integration for elites.

It's an improvement that leaves something to be desired. I would like to see more flexibility in classes and routes. If you don't have the option to waitlist, it's very difficult to actually use your upgrade. It's odd that American requires that one segment be both marketed and operated by Amercan, which could cause issues for elites in US gateways like NYC and Chicago that don't have a domestic connection involved. I would like to be able to use the upgrade that we get on BA as well.

The new upgrade reciprocity is better than kicking in the pants and could be useful to both AA and BA elites.