American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades

In our Facebook group, we regularly tell members to “book the class of service you want.” We do not recommend booking economy (with either cash or points) and hoping to upgrade to a higher class of service later. That plan rarely works, at least not for good value. You should plan to book what you want as soon as you can. But what about IMMEDIATE upgrades to the class of service you want? That sounds perfect and it is available to airline elites. Today, I discuss our experience using American Airlines systemwide upgrades to book economy seats and immediately upgrade to business class.

What are Systemwide Upgrades?

In a nutshell, American Airlines systemwide upgrades (SWUs) allow you to book an economy cash fare and upgrade to a higher class of service. These valuable upgrade certificates will upgrade you:

• On one-way travel;
• Up to three (3) flight segments on American Airlines;
• Up to three (3) flight segments on British Airways, so long as one of the flight segments is operated by American Airlines;
• When flying American Airlines, move from business to first or from economy or premium economy to the next class of service (business or first);
• When flying British Airways, move to the next class of service (economy to premium economy, premium economy to business, or business to first); and
• On any routes flown by American Airlines or transatlantic routes including British Airways.

Any cash fares work for systemwide upgrades, other than government or military fares, flights ineligible for miles accrual (think award flights), or codeshare flights operated by airlines other than American or British. As long as you have any level of elite status, you can even apply American Airlines systemwide upgrades to basic economy tickets.

How to Earn American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades

Under the new Loyalty Points program, there are two main ways to earn American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades: via Loyalty Point Rewards or via lifetime status. As you earn Loyalty Points, you can select systemwide upgrades at these levels:

• 175,000 Loyalty Points: One choice available and an option is two (2) systemwide upgrades.
• 250,000 Loyalty Points: Two choices available and an option is two (2) systemwide upgrades.
• 400,000 Loyalty Points: Two choices available and an option is one (1) systemwide upgrade.
• 550,000 Loyalty Points: Two choices available and an option is one (1) systemwide upgrade.
• 750,000 Loyalty Points: Two choices available and an option is one (1) systemwide upgrade.
• 1,000,000 Loyalty Points: One choice available and an option is four (4) systemwide upgrades.
• 3,000,000 Loyalty Points: One choice available and an option is six (6) systemwide upgrades.
• 5,000,000 Loyalty Points: One choice available and an option is ten (10) systemwide upgrades.

Additionally, once you reach two million lifetime miles flown on American Airlines marketed flights, or on base miles earned with partner flights, you earn:

• American Airlines lifetime Platinum status and four (4) American Airlines systemwide upgrades.
• You then earn an additional four (4) systemwide upgrades each subsequent million miler threshold (3,000,000; 4,000,000; 5,000,000 etc).

Once earned, or selected, the American Airlines systemwide upgrades are deposited into your AA account within a few business days. You should allow for up to 72 hours. I should also note that the upgrades are redeemable immediately upon deposit. Each systemwide upgrade certificate expires exactly one year from the date it is deposited into your loyalty account. However, it is important to note that you can travel after the date the certificates expire, the expiration date is only a deadline to apply them to a reservation.

How to Search Systemwide Upgrades

Once you confirm your American Airlines systemwide upgrades are in your loyalty account, which you can find in the “Rewards Hub,” you are ready to apply a certificate to your reservation. One of the best things about these upgrade certificates is you can use them for anyone, and you are not required to travel.

Option 1: Searching American Airlines' Website With Executive Platinum Status

To find award space, you can search cash fares and check for a “systemwide upgrade” tab if you are Executive Platinum with American Airlines.

Once you find a flight with the “systemwide upgrades” tab available, you can click on the details to learn what is available for that flight.

In this flight example, space is available for an immediate upgrade to business from either basic economy (if you have any status and are flying yourself) or main cabin.

Option 2: Searching via ExpertFlyer

However, since you can select American Airlines systemwide upgrades at 175,000 loyalty points you may have access to them before you become an Executive Platinum member. That means the systemwide upgrade tab will not be available when you search on American's site. That is unless you earned Executive Platinum the previous year and still have that status at least. If you are starting the year without status then you will need to search another way until you earn Executive Platinum status.

If that is you then you will want to use an advanced search tool, something like ExpertFlyer. To be honest, this may be the quicker way to search even with Executive Platinum status. When you are searching with your preferred advanced search tool you will want to try to locate the appropriate fare code for upgrades. The following fare codes apply:

• Code “A” space is business to first upgrades on 3-cabin American Airlines flights
• Code “C” space is economy or premium economy to business on American Airlines flights
• For British Airways, code “Z” is business to first, code “U” is premium economy to business, and code “P” is economy to premium economy.

In the example above, you could apply up to 7 systemwide upgrades on this one flight. That would allow you to upgrade 7 people from economy to business class on American Airlines Flight 45, operating between Paris and New York. Awesome!

How To Apply Systemwide Upgrades to New or Existing Bookings

Once you have confirmed space available to apply your American Airlines systemwide upgrades, you should call the elite member telephone number for your level of status and ask to apply the certificates to a new or existing booking. If space does not exist, you can call American Airlines and add yourself to the upgrade waitlist with your systemwide upgrades for AA flights. Unfortunately, British Airways flight segments are not eligible for a waitlist. Your upgrades clear based on the following criteria:

• Status level
• Upgrade type
• Rolling 12-month loyal point accrual
• Booking/fare codes
• Date/time of request.

Generally, these upgrades are most valuable when you can confirm space yourself. While there is always a chance you are upgraded shortly before the flight, there are no guarantees.

On a positive note, American Airlines has promised that systemwide upgrades will become redeemable online sometime during 2024. We will update everyone when this occurs.

Our Experience Using Systemwide Upgrades

I earned 175,000 Loyalty Points in early December 2023 and planned to select two (2) systemwide upgrades as my milestone choice. I delayed my selection a bit since I didn't have an immediate use for American Airlines systemwide upgrades. That made sure the one year expiration didn't start ticking for no reason. On December 30, while vacationing at Ventana Big Sur, we suddenly had a use: Sarah was invited to Paris to visit a friend. I searched for Philadelphia and New York routes to Paris, since both are non-stop routes on American. Availability ~60 days out was wide-open to apply these upgrade certificates.

Ultimately, we opted to book Philadelphia to Paris and Paris to New York due to cash prices. We could have booked flights as cheap as $598 roundtrip and applied these certificates immediately. As Sarah had no status, and I was not traveling with her, basic economy was not an option. We paid $900 all-in and applied two (2) systemwide upgrades for her to fly roundtrip business class to Paris.

The phone call to American Airlines to book the flight and immediately apply the systemwide upgrades took 11 minutes. Was this the best deal ever? Maybe, or maybe not, but it was enough to convince me to go all-in on American Airlines systemwide upgrades (more on that tomorrow). That decision changed my spending strategy to hit 250,000 Loyalty Points by February 29, 2024 and earn four more SWUs! I now believe these upgrade certificates are super valuable and are usable most anywhere you wish, with a little bit of flexibility.

American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades: ToP Thoughts

While booking directly into the class of service you want with points is the goal, there are other excellent travel strategies. American Airlines systemwide upgrades offer an excellent opportunity for its elite members to book cash fares and upgrade to business or first on any route in the world. While upgrade space is never guaranteed, with a little bit of flexibility, you will find many outstanding options to all regions of the world. Our experience using our first two systemwide upgrades made me change our short-term spending strategy for January and February 2024 and we are all-in to hit 250,000 American Airlines Loyalty Points this elite member year (through 2/29/24) and earn four more systemwide upgrades.

What are your thoughts on systemwide upgrades? Do you select them for your AA milestones? Have you had success applying them to reservations. Come over to our Facebook group and let us know.