American Airlines will now try to sell you an upgrade when you’re trying to use a systemwide upgrade to confirm one, according to an internal update shared with View From The Wing.
- People who want to upgrade are actually the best target to sell and upgrade to!
- And it wasn’t really fair that those trying to confirm an upgrade weren’t eligible for cheap upsells. They can make up their mind if they want one.
- But it’s a pretty bad experience to be told “we know you’re waiting on a confirmed upgrade using the instruments you earned with your loyalty, but we’d rather take $299 from someone that’s never flown before for the seat.”
Historically there’s been a tension between making these upgrade offers offering upgrades to elite frequent flyers. United led the way with ‘tens of dollars’ upgrades on domestic flight, but elites weren’t eligible for those. United even pitched non-elites with the number of loyal customers waiting for an upgrade that they could jump over with their $59. Meanwhile, they didn’t want to rub elite noses in those offers, so they wouldn’t get the offer.
- A non-elite might get a $59 upgrade
- While an elite wasn’t allowed to buy it
That’s the worst possible experience! And it loses revenue.
Now, though, we’re in a world where airlines are no longer afraid of the optics. They want the revenue! And customers know that upgrades rarely happen – they’re willing to buy the upgrade when airlines sell them cheap.
The worry for airlines, though, is that customers learn their loyalty doesn’t mean very much.. and this degrades their loyalty, and especially degrades their use of the airline’s co-brand credit card.
Plus, on these merchandised upgrades American Airlines only values the miles at around a penny (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less). If you’re only getting one cent out of each mile, and you’re earning one mile per dollar on most spend, if you do the math you realize how bad a deal that is even against a no annual fee 2% cash back card which could go twice as far earning you these paid upgrades!
So this change carries some risks as part of the broader move to monetize premium seats for any revenue, prioritizing over customer loyalty, which is a trend across U.S. airlines. Delta will now upsell upgrades for as little as $26. I’ve not personally seen American go below $40. And only about 12% of first class seats on Delta go to upgrades. They’ve gone farther than anyone else.
It’s no coincidence SkyMiles are the least valuable major currency – but Delta has other advantages. American needs to remember that their primary advantage is AAdvantage.
Personally – if they were smart they would offer discounted upgrades to elites. This way they can show they see the value of their customers loyalty by offering them a better “deal” and takes away the animosity away when non elites get better offers.
Granted fare classes play a role here but if they instill more transparency in the process they can indicate along the lines of you are currently booked in economy (G) and your offer to move into business (I) is $XXX.
I think this will drive back some level of value in the loyalty program despite complimentary upgrades largely becoming a thing of the past.
AA used to do this regularly – even for CKs booked in J – when flying to LHR, offering upgrades at check in to Flagship First suites (rows 1 and 2) on its then-new 773s for $499 each way. Those were the days.
Captain Freedom
I suspect that AA and UA will both be offering relatively cheap upgrades on their new/refurbed aircraft w/ much larger premium cabins.
With these low upgrade fees so much for deadheading pilots being in first class. One problem solved!
I got 4 systemwides last year for hitting 3MM LT miles. I’m using them on domestic MIA’LAX flights and one CLT/DFW flight and even I have doubts about those clearing. They are pretty much worthless.
@Golfingboy – agree, although I’ll bet a 10% discount on upgrade cost will arrive as a credit card perk first versus going to status members. Or offer a different inducement – miles/LP for instance. Took until 2024 to earn 5-11x miles/LP on your paid upgrade on AA. If you are in the 20% or 30% LP bonus for eShopping etc., how about that also applies to upgrades? Suddenly a $100 upgrade can earn 1,430 LP instead of 1,100 LP if in the 30% bonus. It’s not nothing!
My biggest complaint about SYUs is that unless it clears at the time of booking, I am not going to use it. If I am not in a premium cabin, particularly long haul, I’m just not going to go on the trip. If it was an SYU and $299 to guarantee, that would be something. I would also spend more on my useless AA Executive card to get to 250k LP to actually get SWUs opposed to just requal for EP at 200k. SYUs are just useless now.
How are mileage upgrades different from instant upgrades, since the TATL 25k + $350 instruments died over the summer. Recently I got JFK-LHR Y to J for $600, which i was pleased with in comparison to the old deal. The miles option was a little worse that one cent, 62k IIRC,
As 5 MM i dont need to worry about requalifying, But I (mildly) contorted my cc activity this year to get to 175 LPs for the 2 SWUs, hopefully they wont be useless. Unless i need them beforehand I will wait until 3/31/26 to make the election, for duration to expiration and to get more datapoints on the usefulness question.
With so many cards offering airline fee credits, I welcome upgrade offers. So annoying when I dont get any for flights id prefer to guarantee first class rather than wait and see or pay full fare. I have pretty good success for upgrades, but sometimes I would welcome the option.
Well, we were able to use three of our four systemwide upgrades on LAX-SYD this year. We may have been helped by the government shutdown as one of them didn’t clear until boarding was complete.
@Joe T says:
December 14, 2025 at 11:06 am
With these low upgrade fees so much for deadheading pilots being in first class. One problem solved!
Not so fast. The pilots Deadhead in the highest cabin available at the time of booking. If the upgrades are last minute, the cabin may already have deadheading crew assigned. Especially if it’s a scheduled (pre plotted) deadhead.
I had no idea about this practice until recently. I was restricted from buying because I had a system wide request it. What makes it worse, there were three seats available almost till flight time.
This is why I gave up on systemwide upgrades (they weren’t clearing, similar to PlusPoints). The only status-earned ‘certificates’ that’ve seemed to work well for me, as-in confirmed in-advance, no Waitlist nonsense, is RUC and GUC with Delta when booked well ahead of time. For AA, when I was earning those selections, I went with points and the credit card bonus (5K). It’s not fun to see SWU go to waste.
@Not 1990 — That’s impressive you were able to confirm long-haul upgrades like that. Still, for a 14+ hour flight, you don’t want to be waiting until after boarding… AA needs to overhaul this process, unless they are doing this by-design (which is what I expect.) Nice name, btw. (Apparently, I live rent free in your head. Hope the views are nice. Does it include W/D? 2 bed/2 bath?)
The upgrade game is dead. Delta has proven to itself and its competitors that you can openly rejoice that 90% of its front cabin is occupied by passengers paying for the privilege (even if it’s $26), and there’s no exodus from the top tiers of the program who used to get these for free. This is basically a dead issue, so much so that I don’t even know why airlines still give out confirmable upgrades as a benefit. Perhaps United is handling it best by moving to dynamic PlusPoints pricing and providing alternative ways to redeem them. While it’s frustrating to see the value decline, the others just continue to hand out worthless instruments.
If airlines value the frequent flyer, the person that pays for the fuel, labor and depreciation, then their loyalty program needs to reflect that fact. At this juncture that should look like the top 3 tiers will be offered the lowest cost upgrade before all other customers. They have to make a profit so the near elimination of free upgrades is a fact of life. However loyalty should be paid back by ensuring the best customers have right of refusal on the best rate paid upgrade.
What is a Mileage Upgrade? Under the new regime, other than these instant upgrade offers (for cash or miles) I thought the only upgrade instrument is a SWU
Incredible as an Exec PLAT on AA I rarely see an upgrade anymore
Welcome to the new era of meager value of elite status (sigh) I pity anyone that earns it
I agree with the other poster if they are going to be revenue whores at least discount the upgrade to elites to at least recognize their loyalty somehow
“Oh, I’m not eligible for the $59 upgrade?”
*shifts award crediting from UA to SQ*
“Could you please check again?”
An additional thought, and one I’ve suggested before – I’d be just as happy if the airlines started ditching complementary upgrades but offset that in some way. A few thoughts:
(1) More confirmable upgrades (which could be, by accounting, handled as some sort of “revenue” from the program to the airline).
(2) Straight discounts on booking premium cabins. If an airline is willing to sell me a $200 coach seat and then offer me F for $50 more, offer it to me at booking, not months later.
(3) As a hybrid, some sort of “upgrade dollars” that can be applied to the difference between Y and Y+/J/F (or certificates good for $X in that difference) but where you have to buy the underlying ticket.
Or, you know, just give more miles/credit for premium bookings than coach bookings and call it a day.
I don’t mind paying for F up front, be it in cash, upgrade certs, or miles. I actually sort-of prefer just knowing where I’m going to be vs playing those games. And I say this as someone who almost never fails to snag an upgrade to F when they’re not booked there, because I can read seatmaps and interpret what I’m seeing.
Maybe the upgrade seats should be auctioned off. Put in your bid and if you bid high enough you win.
Just reading some of these updates, I like Gary’s idea of having the airline deposit upgrade money in your account to use. Even if it is not available to book the upgrade at time of booking since they hold out some until they think the seat will not be sold at full price. It is frustrating using the system wide upgrade and not knowing if it will work or not.
1 Airlines aren’t your friend.
2 Loyalty is almost always a one way street, and doesn’t work in your favor.
I am AA Executive Platinum and supposed to get upgraded as far ahead as 100 hours before my flight but that is a big fat lie. There is no such thing as an upgrade awarded that far in advance. Case in point: I am flying to Cabo via DFW in about 30 hours… a little more than a day from now. There are SEVEN unoccupied seats in First Class and I have not yet been upgraded. They are still trying to sell those seats for $135 or 15K miles each. I suspect I will be upgraded at some point but AA is going to wait until it is absolutely certain no one is going to pay for that privilege. And that will never happen 100 hours before any flight.