Hi,

As you've pretty much already know, the odds are slim- approaching zero..

Airlines today have very strict rules about how any upgrades are done.. In almost all cases, they'll first offer them to passengers as a pre-flight sale option... if any are unsold, they'll then offer then to anyone who has requested to upgrade via one of AA's upgrade programs..

The last issue is free 'comp" upgrades.. IF that becomes necessary, they'll almost always look first to anyone who is an elite FF passenger on AA and/or is traveling on a high(er/est) price Economy ticket..

That's just how it works..

You can always ask.. but, I think that if you want or need that to happen, then you've got to have a real plan in place for that, as the odds they'll just comp upgrade two out of Y to C/J-- to be seated with two other award C/J passengers is very close to zero..

.. and that ORD-NRT flight, like most of their US-Asia services, tends to have a fair number of elite passengers or those on high-fare tickets.

Travel Safe,

My question is: what is the chance that the two of us in the economy class can possibly be upgraded to business class so our family can all sit together

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Very low, as it should be, because if buying two business and two economy was a good reason to upgrade passengers for free then everyone would do that wouldn't they? :-)

I suggest (and presumably you'd do this anyway) that you have one adult and one child in business in one direction and then swap over in the other.

Keep in mind that award availability changes constantly. If there is some flexibility in your travel schedule, you might be able to wait if you don't mind having your entire family sit in economy (and thus have a chance to sit together).

As others have mentioned, chances of two of you getting upgraded to business class for this reason is virtually none.

Thanks to all! I've been checking for the availability in economy for months, but they've never become available. Not sure if they are gone or AA never released them. Yes, I understand that the chances are very slim. Right now we have two adults using the miles and will be buying tickets for the two kids since kids get 20% discounts. But in reality we'll have one adult and one kid in business and the other pair in economy.

Ymafree2

Why don't you pay for the kids upgrade. That way you'll all get to sit together and still qualify for the discount.

Kind regards

Jim

The tickets for the economy class do not qualify for upgrades. They only allows for certain class tickets to be upgradable.