Tag Archives for upgrades.
American Airlines upgrades on Qantas are now live. It’s managed by PlusGrade, the company that sells ‘bidding for upgrade’ programs to airlines. And it’s a “cash or miles” upgrade option. Basically you have the ability to upgrade on Qantas, as a Qantas member might, but pay using AAdvantage miles. And this is the oneworld upgrade program.
Passengers express frustration as pilots receive upgrade priority over them, prompting a reassessment of the value of top-tier elite status versus the advantages of mid-tier benefits.
While there’s a tradeoff upgrading pilots versus passengers along a certain margin, that’s not the reason most elites are sitting in back most of the time – just a visible lightning rod. Still, re-evaluating loyalty and status makes sense.
Two weeks ago American Airlines detailed changes coming for the AAdvantage program in 2024. One of those changes was ‘upgrades on select partner airlines’.
While American declined to offer any details of the new option for upgrades on partner airlines, I wrote that I expected this to be the long-delayed oneworld alliance upgrade program.
The Sydney Harbour Marriott at Circular Quay has many rooms with fantastic views, of the harbor and even the Sydney Opera House, though of course there are simply ‘skyline view’ rooms which are less desirable.
You can imagine how disconcerting it was for Marriott Bonvoy elites to hear from the hotel that if they were staying on property during the “festive season” they would not be entitled to room upgrades.
Here’s the full detail, from an internal memo, on how pilot priority for first class upgrades works now at American Airlines.
Delta Air Lines has announced several changes to its frequent flyer program for 2024, to replace the changes they had announced to its frequent flyer program for 2024. In the midst of all of the rancor and chaos, there’s a change to who gets upgrades going forward.
‘Spicy’ flight attendant Cierra Mistt is back, offering dubious advice. She says you’ll get upgraded if you give a gift card to a flight attendant on your flight. And she claims that this works *every time.”
How about being first on the upgrade list, there’s a seat available, and the gate agent doesn’t bother processing upgrades? Or someone no shows and the agent doesn’t bother coming on board to upgrade someone into the seat.
Or, there’s what happened to this American Airlines passenger: they were first on the list, a first class seat was available, but it was broken? It’s always the American Airlines Airbus A320s.
The general manager of a premium Los Angeles-area chain hotel writes to me, explaining why his hotel will not offer top tier elites to suites even though the chain requires them to do so.
Spoken.io is a furniture price comparison shopping website, and they promote a number of life hacks to save money – like how to get a free upgrade on a flight. And this particular tip is… a little weird?
In a video posted recently, they suggest that if you have a short layover, ask for an upgrade with this simple script.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
