A frustrated American Airlines elite flyer is complaining that he can’t get upgraded, while pilots fly first class. And his conclusion is that he should switch to Delta – where unbeknownst to him, only 13% of first class seats go to upgrades.
Platnuim pro on @AmericanAir but still cant get upgraded to first because 2 pilot’s are sitting in 2 of the first class seats. bout to eye up delta real soon. pic.twitter.com/Knbvpvu5jF
— JOHNNY "DELUXE" TOWN (@4EverEboy) December 31, 2024
Upgrades have gotten nearly impossible on most airlines, but a massive increase in premium seats that airlines will be offering could shift that dynamic.
One small element that’s crowding out elite upgrades is that pilots now sometimes take priority over passengers. While United prompted this by adding this for pilots in 2020, American Airlines changed its policy with their 2023 pilot contract. For the first time, their deadheading pilots receive upgrades ahead of customers to available first class seats at the gate.
Officially, in American Airlines computer systems, these pilots are coded with a higher priority even than top status Executive Platinum and even ConciergeKey members. Here’s the full detail, from an internal memo, on how pilot priority for first class upgrades works now at American Airlines.
Unsold first class seats now go to employees who are not piloting an aircraft between segments on a trip they’re working. That’s different than commuting to and from their base if they live in a different city than where they’re assigned to start and end their trips.
This is broadly similar to a benefit that United pilots won four years ago.
In fall 2020, after the first round of taxpayer subsidies to airlines ran out, Delta and Southwest didn’t furlough anyone. American and United did. But United didn’t want to furlough pilots. They need to keep flying in order to stay current and it’s costly and time-consuming to run pilots through simulators and get them takeoffs and landings.
United wanted to spread out the limited amount of flying they were doing across their pilots. To get the union to agree to this (yes, it’s an odd world where the company has to give something to the union to avoid furloughs), one of the concessions was that United pilots would have top upgrade priority for available first class seats at the gate.
Some readers said ‘this is business travel’ so pilots deserve it, but most companies don’t pay for first class on domestic travel, and certainly not companies like American Airlines that lose money in what should be their best quarter (their third quarter loss was due to cash payments… to pilots).
I do think it’s a bad look when customers never see an upgrade, but they see pilots clearing ahead of them. I don’t blame the pilots at all. They’d rather have first class than coach, and they negotiated it as part of their contract. The problem lies with management, whose priorities I see as off, and who have failed to keep up with demand for premium products so upgrades have become exceedingly rare – even as they promote those upgrades as a benefit of regularly buying tickets with the airline and spending on their co-brand credit cards.
Holy smokes. Those were some long ones above here. Ctrl-C. Ctrl-P. Jeepers.
On a lighter note: Anyone recall Dr. Dao, the fellow from the Orient that literally got punched-the-F off that oversold United flight in order to make room for a crew that was deadheading?
I guess it can always be worse than merely not getting an upgrade because the pilots union negotiated better seats in their contracts.
Hope that guy got a massive payout for his troubles. United’s PR team even tried to sully his good name, but that backfired, too. Sometimes, gotta just pay up!
One of the weirdest things about living today has been the complaints and comparisons between generations. One of the things I’ve read is how the newer generations are much more compassionate and much more egalitarian, and shun elitism.
So I don’t know who’s doing all the complaining about not getting upgrades to first class all while being an elite flyer, but it doesn’t sound too compassionate or much shunning of elitism to me.
Fat Gary doing click-bait again lol
First, it’s only when a pilot is deadheading on his/her own metal, which means the pilot is being sent to another base to operate flights from there.
Second, it’s given, although underline RARELY, to ensure the pilot arrives, often off a long flight, well rested so that he/she can be safe operating flights for the rest of the day.
Third, if you want first class but don’t want to pay for it, then be happy when you get it as it’s a thank you gift for your loyalty.
And fourth, if you want first class, pay for it. Don’t get into all this BS trashing pilots, as you love to do while you sip your cheap cocktail, when we’re the ones keeping the operation running as we welcome you on our aircraft.
Oh and fifth, if you’re so entitled, why not be a real Elite and fly private?
When a pilot is to deadhead the seat is blocked out of the schedule months in advance. If you booked on fc ahead of them, you got it. If it is afterwards and there is seats available, you got it. If you are planning on a last minute upgrade, you might or might not get it depending on the long list of people doing just what you are.
Well the airlines can do anything they want with us. We are just sheeple
My take is that pilots are first in entitlement now. Since I don’t pay for the expensive seats and I am not entitled, I am glad that the pilots are getting better rest so that they can perform their jobs better. That could actually affect me.
Waa. Waa, Waa! Poor entitled crybabies. First they whine over wheel chair passengers and now they whine about a Pilot getting an upgrade they think they are entitled to. I would rather see that upgrade go to a Pilot any day so that they are well rested on their next trip. Whiners should just go sit down and suck their thumb and for heaven sake stop complaining about every little thing. These people are so annoying.
I owned and ran two customer facing businesses where customers were treated first employees treated second and I was third. Airlines turn this upside down. Management first employees second customers who pay both management and employees salaries are treated last. No wonder so many people hate Airlines as do I since Airlines management and their employees apparently don’t give a damn about who’s paying their salary.
@gene
Provide proof..what planet are you on? You can provide proof they do not.
You are like a kid looking to pick a fight and argue like a kindergartner.
@tim
I doubt you work for an airline. You would fail the MMPI and/or Hogan assessment. Your argumentative personality does not belong in the cockpit.
An customer upgrade is a benefit. A pilot upgrade is a contractual agreement with AA.
Those are the current rules. Why argue about it? Do you not have a life to attend to?
Choose where (AA, United, FC, coach) you want to spend your hard earned money.
Deadheading pilots has to be a fairly rare occurrence. The airline doesn’t want to pay pilots to sit in the back. When a pilot gets sick, or irregular operations changes to a trip itinerary are the most likely reasons for deadheading. Some deadheading is for a return to base trip when the crew arrives too late to fly the next segment, so reserve crew is assigned. A large international destination, such as London for AA may deadhead extra crew so that someone getting sick won’t cause a flight cancellation. But, in general, deadheading crew is relatively rare, and generally not the reason upgrades don’t clear.
So there are humans on the plane who are more important to the operation of the airline than the FF Elites? How very dare they!!
Get a grip.
I just flew America and they refuse to let me move to an empty seat in coach after take off.. Said it was a premium seat. I have status and get free upgrades to premium but the flight attendant didn’t want to hear it. Instead I got my one drink on a 5 hour flight as they crew played in their phones.
First preference: no upgrades to first (I paid, you pay)
Second preference: pilots before status holders (never saw a deadheading pilot being entitled, putting naked feet on bulkhead, or being an @$$. I’ve seen numerous upgraded pax doing bad things.
Blah, blah, blah! Status means nothing and you should not expect an upgrade.
If you want a FC seat, BUY one. Crews are only occupying status upgrades or free upgrades. This is just click bait. I would rather have my crew rested. Imagine, being called out last min to take a transcon to operate a flight back to the base and being stuck in the last row, center seat. Not sure I want to fly with that crewmember back to base. And they have long days in a metal tube.
Gary, you’re partly correct about United pilots getting this as part of the 2020 negotiations. First class for pilots started way back in 2000 when it was negotiated into the contract then. It was taken away during the bankruptcy era post 9/11. As another person stated the deadheading pilot gets a first class seat, if available, at the time of booking. Since the schedule is created a few months in advance so are the bookings. So this is why a pilot isn’t upgraded but scheduled for a seat well in advance of ever showing up at the gate. What’s amazing to see change over time is that the customer is given an upgrade for purchasing a cheaper seat and they now feel so entitled that they are upset because someone else takes what they perceived they deserve for their cheap purchase. What ever happened to using all those miles they’re receiving for those purchases to upgrade? Then they wouldn’t have to worry about the upgrade list since they’ve “paid for it, with miles”.
Wait until the inevitable upgrade priority (or even positive space upgrade) concession during commuting happens and there will be an even bigger outcry. It’s one of the few things airlines will be able to offer when they have to go back for wage concessions at the downswing of this revenue cycle.
@Tim Dunn
AA, UA, and DAL all have upgrade AHEAD of paying customers provisions in their contracts. Please stop lol spreading fall info.
Pretty bad when unions tell large corporations what to do.
@Gene…..I agree with Kurt….Neatly pressed shirt required? Well, people are traveling in bathrobes these days. A pilot could wear a conservative dark blue bathrobe (or a trench coat) and carry his/her uniform jacket in a garment bag. (Like that elderly organized crime capo who would go to court in a bathroom, hoping to be declared mentally unfit.) It would be worth avoiding on board glares from passengers trudging by on their way to sardine-can coach.
I often see deadheading flight attendants in de-uniformed uniforms.
A lot of cockpit crew members like to strut their stuff, uniform-wise.
My only response to all these insane encounters people are facing is it’s incredulous. While I’m personally not much of a travel aficionado, I have been running my own business in the luxury resell market for 15 years. The company is me. I literally do everything, including running to various shipping companies daily. I can not recall ever once receiving a thank you in 15 years considering I spend 15 hours a day purchasing the rarest of the rare, cleaning up 60 year old bags for hours making them look brand new, packing up everything and shipping it, all while battling mental illness including bipolar. But i never make excuses, i treat everyone with respect and they still show my how low society has sunk by lowballing me daily and having total disregard for all the effort i put into my passion project. But regardless, i have never had the audacity to ask for a tip and im actually doing a hell of a lot of work. Anyone who thinks the bags magically appear at my door looking as perfect as they do when they receive them is delusional. But it’s my job. I would never act like these people. Nobody owes me a tip and I have never asked for one. A simple thank you for your efforts is enough. Just ignore those fools. You don’t owe them anything. It’s their job. If they don’t like it, they are welcome to find employment elsewhere.
Stay strong and don’t cater to this insanity.
Best
Adam D Hershkowitz
The entitlement of expecting a free upgrade (yes you spend a lot of money in coach but you always have received what you have paid for haven’t you?) and getting mad when an employee on duty (deadhead is still working) gets an empty seat that never got sold.
In a time when customer service has left the building, I understand pilots want the best seats. So do the “Elites,” who spend thousands yearly to do business with 1 carrier. I rarely get upgraded to first class anymore. I do get Economy Plus which is basically the old economy. I am not going to chase the elite status because it has lost most of its value. I’m going to prioritize my travel needs and not be tied to 1 carrier. The customer service for being elite isn’t all that great. Remember airlines, now that we don’t care about your airline, the one that does the best job will get the most customers…
I know this place is unfortunately generally anti-union, so here is a great example of the power of a labor union. The pilots and airline negotiated as part of their collective bargaining agreement to receive FC seats as part of their working conditions when deadheading. Employees and management are allowed to negotiate this just like you would be allowed to negotiate the number of vacation days you get or if you get to work from home when starting a new job. If anyone is butt hurt about it, vote with your wallet and go fly on a different airline or take the greyhound. The airline won’t shed a tear.
As a EP, I have been on flights waiting for an upgrade, and I pass by first to see several pilots there. What’s the point of getting a high status when you know you have less probabilities of getting an upgrade??? AA, you should have thought more about your customers….
AA flies some of it’s employees in first class (thank goodness). So do most of the Fortune 500 (when not flying private), law firms, consulting firms and so on.
Nothing to see here.
Note that this benefit for the pilots was a negotiated benefit. It was part of the compensation “pie” of the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement. As such, the pilots received this benefit, a cost item for the company, in exchange for something else. IOW, the pilots gave up something to get this benefit.
In Europe, no one gets a free upgrade.
I don’t get the American system at all,
Here you maybe get bumped for an upgrade if the economy is full, and then is gold members and then highest paying ticket.
US travellers are a global plague with their status obsession and their frequent flyer/guest entitled attitude. No other airlines in the world give you unlimited upgrades. Most of the time you need to use miles or pay for them. Watching a yank arguing about getting a free upgrade is what makes foreign carriers abhor them. Most of these pseudo elite flyers got their status through company paid traveling. Time to send the cheap free-loaders to the back of the bus.
Alan,
the AA pilot contract was RICHER than the one it replaced so, no, they didn’t GIVE UP anything.
Their union negotiators might have chosen to get upgrades instead of something else, but they didn’t give up anything.
why some people can’t see that paying customers looking for an upgrade AND pilots both have legitimate ECONOMIC reasons to want priority over the other is what is hard to understand in this debate.
And it is AA and UA mgmt before them, according to Gary, that allowed this setup to take place.
As for those that insist that DL upgrades pilots ahead of revenue customers, there are two reasons I doubt that is the case.
First, I have never seen a uniformed DL pilot in first class when there are still paying customers on the standby list – which is almost always.
Second, DL gives nothing to its pilots that it doesn’t also give to its FAs unlike other airlines that deal with each union separately. If there were DL pilots that were being given upgrades ahead of revenue customers, there would be uniformed FAs up there as well with revenue passengers still on the standby list. and, again, I have never seen that. Pilots get access to the cockpit jumpseat for standby travel (commuters) which FAs do not and I also think – not sure – that DL does not allow its pilots to sit in cabin jumpseats even though other airlines allow that.
and if this was happening at DL, we would hear about it. Gary is an equal opportunity offender. There is a lot of dirt that can be thrown at DL about its loyalty program but I have never read this is one of the issues – other than people that recently have started to argue DL does it because AA and UA also do it.
and, let’s dispense with the notion that there is a safety issue that gives pilots priority to sit up front. These are still STANDBY benefits for pilots. If there was a safety issue, it would not be negotiated and it would happen 100% of the time.
This is a perk that pilot unions asked for and the companies gave because they were willing to placate labor at the expense of paying customers.
AA selling in app upgrades plus new pilot contract makes It hard to upgrade – this has been the case for least 12 months now. as both of these phenomena are not new. . My view: don’t complain, adjust your priorities — is it really critical to work to get EXP on AA to jump to the top of a line that will rarely yield an upgrade? I says no.
American feels like a tiny step above Spirit.
I feel for you if you live in an AA hub, but not sure what you’re expecting.
Just like “self check-out” you try it, they hook you and then it becomes the norm and you CONTINUE TO WORK FOR A COMPANY THAT DOES NOT PAY YOU. When you COLLECTIVELY start putting a foot down AT THE START you make a statement and things change or get reversed. The money grab at the expense of LOYALTY to your brand needs to stop!
How can people get so torqued about air travel. The level of seeming anger on this site alone is way out of balance, is this how people act in the real world over such trivialities? Fact of the matter is the airlines seem to want only high dollar cargo for the front of the plane while selling the back to those who learned travel manners on Greyhound. Why is anyone surprised when this turns into a fecal hurricane? This is what affordable travel looks like and is only the transit part: the hotel guest behavior part is even worse, has anyone witnessed budget highway hotel breakfast games? I have witnessed people taking hotel laundry bags full of the breakfast offerings to their rooms… literally every breakfast sandwich…and give everyone else a “fight me” look. Manners are history, we are all going feral.
Make seating and service more comfortable for ALL flyers. Take us back to the air travel experience of the ’60s-’80s, when a seat in coach was sufficiently comfy, uncramped, and you got actual food to eat. You’d have fewer complaints and requests for upgrades.
Safety is more important than your upgrade and pilots should arrive rested for their next flight.
Has your company looked into a fractional share of biz jet service?
I don’t care what anyone says, implies, or calls me: AA IS WRONG FOR THIS. I’m a longtime higher level EXP & was very disappointed and disillusioned when seeing myself and my spouse as #1 & #2 with 2 seats available on a DFW/MIA flight and then all the sudden 2 on duty employees take those seats at the last second.
Sure, tell me I’m whatever and should have whatever and blah-blah.
AA still has an image problem on their hands because this is wrong.
Also GARY: When exactly are those “more premium seats” coming out? I’m guessing 90% of those are for International and the only increase in domestic with be TransCon…..
I get tired of arrogant pilots. Breaking line at TSA, showing up to the gate late with a bag of food. They stand around the gate when dead heading and just whine and complain nonstop about their schedule or having to travel from Idaho where they live to Miami where they are based
A lot of whining and self entitlement from I can only assume middle aged or even older adults. You didn’t pay for a first class ticket. It was an upgrade based on availability. I’ve worked for AA inflight. When you are dead heading; you are actually on the clock flying to that particular airport that needs crew to work that flight. I strongly suggest if you want to experience the benefits of being in first class: pay out right for your ticket. It will guarantee you your seat. Being upgraded to first class is not a God given right!
All I know is that if you pay for a first class seat you’re going to get a first class seat. Feeling wronged by not getting a freebie is… well… wrong. It wasn’t a freebie for the pilots; they negotiated it. And in United’s case their pilots gave up flying hours (read: tens of thousands of dollars in salary per pilot) to get the perk. Plenty of free customer upgrades still occur, but they’re not guaranteed. Want a guaranteed first class seat… pay for it.
The airlines spent years trying to build loyalty and they were very successful with that. Now they are systematically devaluing that loyalty.
I am a million miler on American, and just got a UA credit card that gives me almost the same perks. AA doesn’t l value my loyalty, so no need to be loyal anymore.
It is that simple.
Here’s an idea: Pay for the seat you want out of your pocket. Stop expecting something for free, then getting butt-hurt, when you don’t get it. Pretty simple.
So, Johnny “Deluxe” Town, an inebriated mendicant who fails at basic English writing, is miffed about an employee contract stipulation. One that increases his safety.
You want FC. You pay for it. Take your beggars cup elsewhere.
Better yet, focus your pathetic mind towards becoming a better person, Mr “Deluxe.”
This article is factually inaccurate on several points.
1. United did not furlough in 2020.
2. United pilots gave up pay (temporarily) to avoid furlough but also got the first class upgrade on last minute deadhead.
3. This: ” They need to keep flying in order to stay current and it’s costly and time-consuming to run pilots through simulators and get them takeoffs and landings.” Is a an English teacher’s nightmare.
@Tom – United did not furlough PILOTS, which is the point I made, giving this to pilots was part of that deal. But United furloughed 13,000 employees in 2020. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/01/919029571/united-and-american-airlines-tell-32-000-employees-theyre-now-on-furlough
Maleko,
A union negotiating with an employer is not a union telling the corporation what to do. In reality, it is a mutual agreement between the two parties.
“I know this place is unfortunately generally anti-union,…”
Being “anti-union” is a principled position. I see nothing “unfortunate” about that.
The entire problem is this “I flew a million miles therefore I’m entitled”. A million coach miles and a million first class miles are VASTLY different in terms of profitability to the airline. I flew a quarter million miles between AC and WJ, but I can promise you AC made more money the single time I flew business class (last seat, desperate to get home).
Your ridiculous blog post is disingenuous at best, outright fallacious at worst.
If “paying” passengers cared so much about upgrades to first class then they should probably just pay for them. This is a capitalistic society after all.