American Airlines seems to be selling first class upgrades for less than they used to.
I’ve seen reports of American Airlines selling domestic upgrades for as little as $40. The lowest offer I’ve ever gotten was $43. So this report of a $35 upgrade buy up offer seems significant.
I’m being offered upgrades for $35 per segment for a flight that leaves in 28 hours.
The upgrades should have triggered at 48hrs. They are clearly looking to squeeze out every penny here and no longer give out upgrades for free. I’ve seen upgrades for <$100 before offered in the app, never that low.
I’m being offered upgrades for $35 per segment for a flight that leaves in 28 hours.
by
u/Beave1 in
americanairlines
The flyer reporting this has AAdvantage elite status and is confused. They do not understand why a flight with first class seats available a mere 28 hours before departure is offering them for sale instead of giving them their upgrade.
It’s very common for me to see this misunderstanding among frequent flyers. They’re told that they ‘get upgraded’ 48, 72, or 100 hours prior to departure. They do not understand that means if the airline decides to do it. And airlines increasingly decide not to do it, hoping to sell the seat for any amount of cash that they can get.
- When the price is so low it makes sense for the casual flyer to buy it! That customer might not even have a seat assignment, or might have a middle seat in the back, because some other better pre-assigned seat was going to cost at least this much.
- And the $35 comes with priority check-in, priority boarding (so you don’t have to gate check your carry-on bag), and free checked bags as well – a single checked bag is now more than this.
However, it’s also deeply offensive to the customer who thought they had focused their loyalty for an upgrade benefit because that is what the airline told them. There’s a first class seat available, it’s a mere day to departure, and they’re entitled to complimentary upgrades into unsold seats but the airline is trying to charge them $35 for something that was promised to them free in exchange for their loyalty throughout the year by choosing the airline over and over for flights and by choosing to spend on the airline’s cobrand credit card. It feels like a double cross.
It’s important to understand that complimentary upgrades are almost no longer a benefit of airline elite status in the U.S. Delta laid this out 11 years ago when they explained this as their goal, and when they began talking about extra legroom ‘Comfort+’ seats as an ‘upgrade.’ Marriott renamed its advance upgrades from ‘suite night awards’ to ‘nightly upgrade awards’ to normalize the idea that elites should no longer expect upgrades to suites. So the idea isn’t just limited to airlines.
And Delta has taken this the farthest – twenty years ago 90% of first class seats wound up empty and available for upgrade. Now, Delta sells about 88% of its first class seats.
- From Delta, elling often means taking as little as $26 extra on short flights, upselling coach passengers with an offer for a cheap upgrade. I’ve never seen a $26 offer from American. This $35 offer is the lowest I’ve ever seen.
- They’d rather take a few tens of dollars from a once a year passenger than offer it as a reward to a $30,000 – $50,000 per year customer.
- I wrote last month that American’s CEO celebrated the idea to investors of catching up and following Delta (and United) with these upsells that crowd out upgrades.
That means the strongest benefit of loyalty to U.S. airline frequent flyer programs is largely gone. There are some days and some routes were customers have success, but 12% of seats being available for upgrade is just an average – on some routes it’s far less than that! And this comes at a real cost to the program.
And that is why the best airline status sweet spot is usually mid tier status like American AAdvantage Platinum and United MileagePlus Gold. You get confirmed extra legroom seats, priority boarding, check-in and free checked bags. You get lounge access on international trips. And you don’t build an expectation of actually receiving upgrades, so you aren’t disappointed.
I still have American Airlines Executive Platinum status but I do not go out of my way to earn it. I also don’t fly American as much as I used to, even as I travel at least as often. There was a time when travel planning began and ended at AA.com because they just offered me the best deal, why look elsewhere? That hasn’t been the case for years.
The same would be true though if I were regularly flying another airline from my home airport in Austin. Air carrier monogamy just no longer makes sense once you’re past that base level of mid-tier status.
Dear loyal customers, Pay the $35. Best regards.
You keep posting versions of this like that will accomplish anything! The world (and business model) has changed so accept it. If you want first pay for it.
100% agree with this article. Not sure why airlines think that loyalty should only go 1 way. With American rarely having upgrades for EXP members and selling them for almost nothing, I am no longer qualifying my wife as EXP with $150,000 of credit card spend. That is going to a 2% card now. We are also flying other airlines now and are shopping for the lowest fare where I used to fly AA almost exclusively, shifting $20-$50,000 of airline spend. I’ve gotten so disgusted with the airline that I try to give them as little money as possible when I fly also. American will probably make $500 extra dollars not giving me upgrades and selling them but they lost my entire family as great customers and are losing thousands. Not providing upgrades in the window and trying to sell them to me and everyone else was the last straw.
I was offered an upgrade to first from cattle Las to Lax for 450 dollars certainly not 35.00 for me
and Las to JFk for 2000.00 dollars both hard pass.As an exec plat bah humbug
“…that is why the best airline status sweet spot is usually mid tier status like American AAdvantage Platinum and United MileagePlus Gold.”
Exactly. So glad I earned AA PLT (2MM) and UA Gold (1MM) both for life.
Unless its a 6 am flight up or down the west coast or you’re traveling on Thanksgiving day upgrades are pretty much non-existent.
I recently had Delta for $26. From Econ to Biz, domestically; albeit it was only a short 1h hop out of ATL.
As an ExecPlat (for life), I still occasionally get complimentary upgrades on the ORD-SFO route — maybe one time out of 10 (I’m on ~50 AA flights/yr). The paid upsells start at $192 (never seen lower). If I can buy the upsell for $200, I sometimes do, and rationalize it by remembering that 8-9 years ago, I used to get those upgrades for four 500-mile upgrade “stickers”, which were $40 each once you ran out of free ones. About the same cost as now, considering inflation. So I agree, practically speaking, “free” upgrades now are very rare.
Unlike Retired Gambler I wouldn’t mind if you posted this information several times a week to raise general visibility on this issue AND to embarrass the hell out of American Airlines and the others.
If you don’t want to pay 35 usd to confirm your upgrade and you call them elite flyers , you are living in an alternate reality.
Pay, and confirm your seat.
@Gary – It’s tough to dispute your facts but one thing you don’t go into is why? Sure, on the most surface level this is greed pure and simple. But that doesn’t address why an airline would go out of their way to shoot themselves in the foot for pocket change. Why piss off your best customers, who are often deeply involved in your ecosystem precisely because of upgrades, for short term very small gain? Do they think that people won’t care? Or that there’s no other viable choice? Or that people just aren’t paying attention to the biggest elite benefit? It makes no sense.
What does American Airlines need to be embarrassed about? The age of “freebies” is over – If you want a better seat, room or rental car, pay for it.
How hard is that to understand?
That picture of the first class cabin seat on Delta looks like it’s 20 years old. Oh, wait…
No US airline cares about loyal, long-time customers. Most flights are full, and someone is paying for the seats. Someone will always pay for the seats. For every long time flier that bails, another will take their place. Airlines are not shooting themselves in the foot.
Airlines could decide that the ticket you purchased may or may not be used for an intended flight if they can sell the seat for a higher price to someone else. And people would STILL buy tickets and keep the flights full.
what’s that got to do with being a loyal customer? I’d pay 35 dollars that’s fair enough
If you are a “loyal elite”, chances are you are flying on OPM.
The reason why you are flying in the back is your employer. Take it up with them or just take it.
At some point, the airlines will have to stop calling them Loyalty Programs because loyalty is clearly a one-way street with this industry.
Experienced flyers see the writing on the wall. Purchasing/credit card strategies will change. The airlines will lose their best customers.
A giant race to the bottom. The bean counters win again.
AA has become Spirit light. Or Ryanair
Why would anyone accumulate points/miles there? You can do it using Cc or other options and buy fares AND status. -if you want it
I’m a United 1K and have been for many years. I get upgraded with Plus Points all the time on longer flights. I don’t waste them on flights less than 1.5 hours. They rarely serve food on those flights, and sitting in an exit row is fine for me.
It does suck that AA continues to devalue their ‘loyalty’ programs. While there are ways to figure it out, the only benefit for me as an EP is (was? I got screwed on myh last PHL-MSP trip a few weeks ago!) that you get status to rebook. And you usually do, but they epically failed with me, regardless of the in person visits I made or phone calls the same day, and somehow a guy 2 places below me flew standby first, then 2 pilots too the last two seats.
I ended up using my backup flight on Delta for $900.00 last minute.
WTH AA?
Earning miles and getting a free upgrade to a seat in business class? This is definitely the land of entitlement.
US carriers are credit card companies that also sell flights. They expect us to pay them for our loyalty. We were loyal for stickers back in the day.
@Gene — WFBF?
@WearyWatchdog — For now. We’ve lived through previous economic downturns and black swan events like the pandemic where demand diminishes, and then, miraculously, all these companies beg for loyalty again and simultaneously demand government taxpayer funded bailouts. (So much for the ‘free’ market…) We may be due for that cycle again soon.
so apparently what American is doing is offering seat upgrades/enhancements BASED on the cost of your TICKET vs what the lowest fare is selling for that particular route/cabin, etc. So I’m pretty certain a BASIC flyer isn’t going to see that $35 upgrade, but probably something along the lines of $300++
I get these same offers on Alaska, Delta, and American – there is no set fee – but the upgrade cost is normally just buying into the cabin based on the lowest fare for that particular segment and not a flat fee to upgrade (unlike Qatar, which seems to be $1300 – $1600 to DOH regardless of what you pay)
@haolenate — $1,300-1,600 for upgrade from Y to J on QR (especially if Q-Suite, long-haul) can (but not always) be an acceptable ‘deal,’ but it usually doesn’t include lounge, and you earn based on Y, not J, for frequent flier programs. Of course, you take the risk that there will be no availability, then stuck in Y for 14 hours. Is this your typical strategy (paid, last-minute upgrade, Y-to-J)?
How many times is this drum going to get beat and why is it always aimed at AA? BTW where are those $35 upgrades someone please tell me because I never see them.
ALL airlines are monetizing the premium cabins. That’s not going to change. NO AIRLINE is going to give you top status for flying 100K miles of cheap tickets and automatic upgrades at the upgrade window. Like the rotary phone that time has come and gone.
Sure, I’d love (and my wallet would really love) to go back to a 2007 world. Not to mention I was younger.
The biggest benefit for me isn’t upgrades to first class (even though I was upgraded twice last week). The biggest benefit to me is MCE seating at booking. Anything else is gravy.
I am EXP and have accepted the fact the the era of free upgrades are over and am willing to accept the other perks, mostly the EXP help desk and same day flight changes as the rational for continuing to chase EXP.
That said from an AA standpoint. I can not understand the rational of screwing a customer that may spend 30k a year on the airline for $35. Even a customer that only gets EXP through 200k CC spending is giving the airline between 2000 and 4000 per year in sold miles. In the first case the airline has to sell 1000 upgrades at $35 to make up for 1 lost loyal customer. In the later case about 100 $35 upgrades.
I am embarrassed to say I love these “elites” being left in coach so the airline can actually receive revenue for the better seat.
I understand why people on this site would be unhappy about this, but I’m confident that American Airlines knows better than us how to maximize their revenue . . . and selling a product to the high bidder is rarely a mistake. Frankly, I prefer this and not to have to be tied by loyalty to get affordable upgrades . . . how often have you paid >$35 to fly the carrier on which you have status? You are paying one way or the other.
AA nor any other airline is going to change it’s business strategy based upon a couple of flyers complaining on a blog. The airlines are getting takers to pay for those seats. Maybe try DL. Oh, they monetize the first class cabin too. Ditto UA.
Loyalty is not profitability.
As several have said, they are selling out the planes (most of the time), so why do they need to give upgrades to loyal customers? I am not aware that any of the airline points programs offer any meaningful free upgrades any more. While that would be a powerful incentive for me to fly them, if they will sell that seat anyway, why should they pay to incentivize me? Even when I was a UA 1K for many years, I saw my ability to use GPUs and PPs just evaporate over time. Most were expiring unused or only worked on short domestic flights. I can get transferable points from most any credit card, I don’t even have to fly them. The only status I value at this point is OW Emerald through AA because it allows you to pick seats for free on long haul BA award flights – to me, that saves me a few thousand dollars a year.
@George Nathan Romey — If these blogs are meaningless, why do you frequent VFTW and OMAAT spreading corporate propaganda? Like, maybe, stop inserting anti-worker, anti-consumer, pro-industry sentiment. Or, does what people say on here matter?
@1990 – that’s what I’ve been seeing for quite a while when I recommend QR to friends or even fly them. Sometimes there are some good deals in J on QR/EK/EY – however they’re all watered down. Now on my last upgrade on QR to J, I did get lounge access on my connection – but that was also 2 years ago. I didn’t get any of the other cool perks. The FAs even converted a middle section of seats into a “suite” for me and let me sleep there, never slept in a ‘full size’ bed on a long haul before. Its amazing what you can get for just being nice to the crew!
In terms of the other comments here, I’m from the same school as Gary – when we had PlaneBusiness and USAviation as our main “geek” outlets. Lots of us flew just to get first class and would pick flights based on the plane and how full first was, and get upgraded. It was amazing. However, as times change, so have my habits, and the airlines too. I miss the days of upgrades, but even when I was an Alaska 100K, I wasn’t getting upgraded nearly as much as I was as a measly GOLD back in the mid 2000s on Alaska. Airlines are monetizing every inch of the plane, and sadly the only UPGRADE we seem to be getting is coach legroom from 1985.
The $35 is probably for a very short flight i.e. TUS – PHX a better seat for a 25 m flight 🙂
When the airlines got into the loyalty biz, you got upgraded. Then the credit card companies became their biggest customers, and you got bupkis.
Wake up and smell the roses. They don’t need to give away first or biz class seats.
It is you, the customer, that is being taken for a ride. For heaven’s sake, stop talking about loyalty. The only happy customers are the ones that are free agents. We don’t need to whine about loyalty. We get the service we pay for. If not, we move on to the next airline.
Are you saying that loyal customers are prevented from paying those cheap prices or are you saying they remain in the back just because they don’t want to pay?.
I’m confident that AA knows what customers are status seekers. Why give away a seat to those “loyal” customers that have demonstrated they value status? AA can sell it for a nominal amount and possibly hook another “loyal” customer status seeker. Additionally, judging by the flights I’ve been on, AA doesn’t need to give anything away…right now.
I call BS i was given the choice to upgrade on a PHL – PVD for $162. one way. When a round trip ifor PHL -PVD is $450. This is an 1 hr flight. You get up to 30k then start going back down.
A BCN – PHL upgrade to Business one way was over $2,000
where was that $35 upgrade?
@alanZ gets it. For these programs, whether airlines or hotel chains, the “customers” are the property owners, and the guests are merely the “product,” or at least that’s the case until demand plummets or regulations protect the guests/passengers from abuse by owners and these airlines/hotel chains.
@Steve
And yet you stick to them like glue. You want loyalty, get a dog.
@ alanZ. Yep, a Golden Retriever. There’s a reason they are on all public dog signs.
I left Delta and their AMEX card when they stopped upgrading me as a diamond. Flipped over to AA and back to being upgraded at about a 50% clip again. It’s a pain to stay loyal to one airline and I hope AA doesn’t follow Delta’s myopic move !
This sounds great. I hope to get an upgrade by paying a little bit in the future.