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You Can Now Use American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades Online

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James Larounis
Updated: 
Edited by: Ryan Smith
You Can Now Use American Airlines Systemwide Upgrades Online
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After a test phase recently, American Airlines now offers the ability to redeem coveted systemwide upgrade certificates online, a welcome change to frequent flyers. No more waiting on hold while praying award space doesn’t disappear.

Here’s what you should know about these changes.

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What Are Systemwide Upgrades?

Systemwide upgrades (SWUs) are given to American Airlines’ top flyers, allowing you to upgrade to the premium cabin. You can earn them with as few as 175,000 Loyalty Points earned. From there, they’re offered at various reward levels.

There are a few basics to these rewards:

  • They can be used on any American Airlines itinerary, allowing you to upgrade from Main Cabin to First Class on domestic flights, Main Cabin to Business Class on international flights, or Business Class to First Class on all flights.
  • You can upgrade up to 3 segments on 1 upgrade certificate (for example, DCA to JFK to LAX to HNL).
  • Certificates are good on select British Airways flights. On intra-Europe flights, you can upgrade from Euro Traveller to Club Europe. On international flights to and from London, you can upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World.
Bottom Line:

Systemwide upgrades allow you to confirm an upgrade to a better seat, rather than waiting for space-available upgrades closer to departure based on your American Airlines AAdvantage elite status.

The Previous Way To Redeem Upgrades

The previous method to redeem systemwide upgrades was cumbersome at best.

Once you found upgrade space, you needed to call in, message American Airlines on social media, or use American’s in-app chat. The agent usually could upgrade you, assuming the upgrade space was available. In some cases, though, the agent needed to process the tax associated with the upgrade, such as flights from London.

To redeem an upgrade, you essentially needed to get in touch with a human. With the variability of upgrade space, this presented a huge risk. You needed to hope the upgrade space was still there by the time you got in contact with someone. Especially during peak hours, or during major weather events, it could be almost impossible to reach an agent in a timely matter.

American Airlines A321T FIrst Class looking forward
You can redeem a systemwide upgrade to sit in First Class on American’s A321T aircraft. Image Credit: James Larounis

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New Way To Redeem Upgrades Online

American Airlines conducted a trial phase, allowing users to redeem upgrades online. Now, this feature is available to everyone, allowing you to:

  • Select your preferred segment that can be confirmed; assuming it can be confirmed, you can waitlist any other segments on the itinerary.
  • Waitlist all segments if no available upgrades can be confirmed.

This can be done in the app or on the website, and AA elites should have received an email about it.

AA email about online SWU redemption
Email to elite members going out today. Image Credit: American Airlines

American Airlines is the last of the 3 major U.S. airlines to enable upgrade redemptions online.

Final Thoughts

If you earn systemwide upgrades on American Airlines, you know how great this change is, finally allowing you to redeem these upgrades online! It can take a lot of effort to earn these certificates — and took almost an equal amount of effort to redeem them. With these new changes, you can simply visit the American website or app to waitlist or confirm your upgrades as available.

Featured Image Credit: James Larounis
James Larounis's image

About James Larounis

James (Jamie) started The Forward Cabin blog to educate readers about points, miles, and loyalty programs. He’s spoken at Princeton University and The New York Times Travel Show and has been quoted in dozens of travel publications.

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