New Way to Get Domestic First Class Upgrades for Just 5,000 Miles Coming Soon

(Unannounced) First Class booking code changes by American—just a couple of letters—will yield big savings.

A reliable FCF source has been told that in the near future—late this year or early next—American will change its First Class “inventory” booking code, also referred to as “the cabin code” or “the fare basis code” on domestic flights (all 50 U.S. states) that use two-cabin aircraft. The current First Class codes, F, A, and P, will change to Business Class codes J, D, and I. This change is coming about in connection with AA’s launch of a new Premium Economy product.

What are Booking Codes?

They are the alpha-numeric codes used by airlines to identify an available seat (an “availability bucket” in airline parlance) in a given cabin. The codes indicate the class of service booked and will influence the number of miles it costs with partners.