One of the things that has long been on my travel bucket list is to take an around the world trip. I wrote about this a few months ago (READ: How’s this round-the-world (RTW) itinerary look?) with a possible itinerary of using 100,000 Alaska miles to fly first class Emirates from the US through Dubai into SE Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, somewhere…) and then using 67,500 American AAdvantage miles to fly Cathay Pacific first class from Asia back to the US.
Maybe a little something like this?
Impending AA devaluation!
As you probably already know, American Airlines is devaluing their AAdvantage program in mid-March 2016. One of the worst devaluations is on first class redemptions from the US to Southeast Asia. Whereas bookings made before March are 67,500 miles, after the devaluation, it will cost 110,000 AAdvantage miles (a 63% increase)!!!
So whereas before this round the world trip was kind of a “one-day” thing, with the devaluation, it became a little more pressing.
Emirates availability isn’t AMAZING, but there’s enough dates that will work. The trick is the Cathay Pacific first class availability. There’s just about nothing, but from what I understand, availability sometimes opens up 10-14 days out. We were looking at going sometime in February or so (dates pretty flexible)
Upgrading an award
American has one of the best award policies out there – as long as the origin and destination remain the same, even non-elites can change the dates, times or routing. So one thought that I had was as long as I could find ANY availability for the Singapore to US route, I could book it, and then upgrade to Cathay First Class if/when it became available.
But I wasn’t sure how that might work, especially if I was upgrading (it’s 35,000 miles one-way in economy and 55,000 miles in business class).
Would it be as simple as just paying the extra miles? Plus close-in booking fee if applicable? I know that One Mile at a Time recently posted about how it might work with award changes after the devaluation, but in my case, I’d (ideally) be booking and flying pre-devaluation (unless our schedule doesn’t work out). It looks like I would NOT be able to change class of service after the devaluation without paying the new prices, which makes sense to me.
Can anyone with more experience share how upgrading class of service with American works?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Yep – it really is that simple! Just call when you see the space and they will take the additional miles.
A little bonus is that if you have the AA Citi Platinum card or Aviator, you will receive the 10% bonus miles on the first ticket you book. This way when you go to upgrade, you will actually have to use fewer of your original miles! 🙂
Thanks! I’ll have to see how that works out for us!
And the additional miles would be 110,000 – 55,000, and not 67,500 – 55,000, if he books J now and upgrades after 3/22. Correct?
That is the thinking but has not been 100% guaranteed
I have done this several times. It’s simple and easy. As long as there is space you just pay the additional miles.
Yep, did it on a couple TATL BA flights. Booked biz initially, then called and changed to first when I saw the space. I would caution you not to make the change if the flight is only a few days away because it sometimes takes several days for AA partners to issue a ticket…
Very simple and painless. I’ve done it several times including for Cathay Pacific awards on AA.
You have to call to upgrade and all you will be charged are the extra miles and any extra taxes. No close-in booking fees if your itinerary has already been ticketed. Just know that others too are looking to do the same and only 1 seat in first class gets released. Sometimes not for every flight that day. It certainly happened to us and despite the first class cabin having no other passenger than me – my hubby still had to ‘slum’ it in biz bc Cathay never released that 2nd seat in F on any flights on our date.
If you end up having to change your flight extra fees will apply if you are non-elite.
Good luck and enjoy your trip!! The deval forced me to book an RTW trip too… but in the Etihad Apartment 🙂
Find any leg in first, pay the first class award now and then change the other legs to first when they open with no additional miles?