Frequent flyers with 
American Airlines
will no longer have to call a customer service agent to redeem their systemwide upgrades (SWUs) online. Following a successful beta testing phase that demoed the ability for select AAdvantage members, American is rolling out the ability to apply systemwide upgrades online to all members with SWUs in their accounts.
Upgrades all around
Systemwide upgrades were previously redeemable only through calling Reservations. They are a perk provided to AAdvantage
members who reach select Loyalty Point Reward levels, beginning at 175,000 Loyalty Points. The airline’s Million Miler members also receive four systemwide upgrades when reaching two million miles and for every Million Mile level after.
Photo: American Airlines
The ability to redeem the SWUs was promised earlier this year following the airline’s move to allow passengers to earn miles and Loyalty points when purchasing cash upgrades.
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Members of the oneworld Alliance carrier’s AAdvantage frequent flyer program can earn at least 5 miles and Loyalty points per dollar spent on upgrades
The rollout follows several weeks of testing. It is expected to simplify the process and benefit travelers who may potentially already be abroad or otherwise less able or excited to pick up the photo and call an agent for an upgrade. Speaking to Simple Flying, an American Airlines spokesperson confirmed this was one of the most highly-anticipated features in the airline loyalty program:
“We’ve heard positive feedback from our members who’ve enjoyed the beta version of this feature of the last several weeks. We’re pleased to continue to make the AAdvantage program easy for our members to engage with through this new capability that members have requested for quite some time.
“Members with at least one available SWU in their account can now instantly confirm the use of their SWU or waitlist if space is not available on aa.com or the mobile app. Prompts onscreen will guide the member through the most favorable redemption options for their SWU.”
Photo: American Airlines
Still to come this year, according to the airline’s website, is the ability to redeem miles for upgrades with additional airline partners.
How do the upgrades work?
Systemwide upgrades can be used to upgrade most Business fares and most economy or premium economy fares to the next class of service with American Airlines. This includes all classes within the economy, so it would bump a passenger from basic or premium economy directly up to the business cabin. Business tickets will upgrade to First.
For economy tickets, the upgrade depends on the aircraft and destination. In aircraft with three travel classes, passengers can upgrade from Economy or premium economy to Business. In a 2-cabin aircraft, the upgrade is from economy to First on domestic flights or from Economy to Business for short-haul international flights.
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First class on American Airlines is available on flights within North America.
The upgrades can also be used on 
British Airways
to upgrade most Business fares to First, premium economy to Business, and from Economy to premium economy when flying transatlantic. It counts for one-way travel of up to 3 flight segments on flights, including those operated by British Airways and marketed by American. Passengers must have at least one American-marketed flight in their trip to be eligible.
Photo: Tupungato | Shutterstock
To use the award, log in and make sure you have systemwide upgrades available in your AAdvantage account. When booking your flight on the airline’s website, there should be a systemwide upgrades link to find cabins with upgrades available. If there’s no link, systemwide upgrades are not available for that flight.
You can request or waitlist a systemwide upgrade on the website or in the app. If space is available, the carrier immediately confirms the upgrade and deducts the required number of upgrades from your balance.
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If an upgrade is unavailable, American will waitlist your request and not deduct your systemwide upgrade from your balance until it’s confirmed. This also allows passengers to enter more waitlist requests than they have vouchers, providing more opportunities for an upgrade. Passengers whose upgrades have not been confirmed by the time they check in will be automatically added to the airport upgrade standby list if they have the required number of upgrades in their account.