On a recent domestic trip, I was offered upgrades on American Airlines. However, when re-pricing the trip, I found it was cheaper than upgrading the segments.
Upgrade Offered
I recently had a short trip for which I redeemed a small amount of miles (7,500) for the one-way award ticket. A week from departure, an American Airlines upgrade was offered on a per segment basis. As it required a connection, I had two offers with different prices for each segment to move from my main cabin extra seat (secured because of my Executive Platinum status level at the time of booking) to first class on this all-domestic routing.
It wasn’t incredibly expensive, and I already had my complimentary upgrades requested but this would allow me to guarantee a little more space with a little more comfort rather than chance it at the gate. All status members are allowed to request complimentary upgrades (in fact, it’s done automatically) but higher statuses are prioritized. Depending on how many outrank a traveler will determine who gets the remaining free seats and in what order. Most of these are awarded to either Platinum Pro status holders or Executive Platinums, but they are also sold on the open market for tens of dollars or some miles.
Originally the ticket purchased cost 7,500 Aadvantage miles one-way for the entire journey. Adding these two upgrades would bring the total expenditure to 22,800.
For the avoidance of doubt, the cost of 7,500 miles was better than the cash rate for the segment (over $200) but with the added cost of upgrading both flights it would drop to a poor value for first class as sold, priced at just under $400. I am totally aware that this is a short flight route, that first class isn’t really necessary for a pair of 60-75 minute flights and I would likely clear for either. That’s not really the issue, it’s whether there is an opportunity on other flights where the route may be less tolerable and an upgrade more desirable.
Re-pricing The Whole Award
I stumbled upon this because I was looking at options to move my flight. I re-priced the itinerary by one day and found the whole journey marketed at a lower redemption rate on the new target date. I looked back at buying the same flight I already possessed but on my original date in first class.
Alas, buying the entire itinerary from scratch in domestic first class was cheaper than my total redemption plus the upgrade amounts. It priced at 19,000 total for the journey vs the 22,800 if I upgraded piecemeal. While the difference was only a few thousand miles, it was 20% cheaper to re-price entirely than to take American’s offers.
As it was an award ticket, I had the option to cancel the ticket outright and re-book without consequence.
Is This A Hack, Bad Tech, Or Flexibility?
It’s entirely possible that this is the result of bad technology where by the redemption isn’t connected with the upgrade system so one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. That could make this a “hack” to upgrade for a lower cost.
Additionally, it’s possible that there’s a sort of discount for purchasing both rather than a single segment programmed into the system. If I chose to upgrade only one of these segments (either), I would still pay less than cancelling and rebooking under a completely new fare all in first class at 19,000 total points rather than the coach base fare of 7,500 and a new total of 14,100 or 16,200 for one coach segment and one in first class.
Short Trip, Maybe An Anomaly
This was an admittedly very short trip with two insignificant segments. Curiosity has me wondering if this trick still works for business class upgrades for longer haul flights. For example, if I redeemed for a ticket to Europe at 25,000 points one-way in coach, but was given an option to upgrade the whole flight for 60,000 by re-pricing or 10,000 more for a domestic first class segment, and 20,000 for the long haul segment, I would jump at the chance to move up for the long haul and stay back in coach for the short connecting segment.
It’s also possible that because it was such an inexpensive flight (comparatively to something long haul), the math might not work the same at scale because the costs were so low in the first place. On a future flight I purchased a cash business class ticket that included six total segments, two short haul on a partner in Europe, two long haul on flights marketed and operated by American, and two domestic US connecting flights. Five of the six segments are confirmed in business class/first class but one segment is a domestic coach segment. The upgrade offer for that flight between Florida and the northeast is being offered to me at 100,000 points.
For what it’s worth, I did not upgrade and I cleared both segments anyway.
Conclusion
My experience with this upgrade offer was limited in scope, was on short domestic routes, and may or may not be indicative of the wider experience for others. I can’t be sure if it was a mistaken, intentional to provide flexibility, or solely due to the nature of the trip. What I can say is that in the future, I will look to re-price awards and compare costs before moving forward.
What do you think? Have you had a similar experience?
Well, I hafta wonder what your equipment was. Last week, I was on a E175 (12 F seats) ORD-BIS-ORD.
I did not get a paid invite to F, but as an ExPlat, I got free upgrades. Indeed, there were empty seats in F – 7 of 12 were empty on the BIS-ORD leg. This was dramatic as it suggests that every elite, including lowly golds, got upgraded and there were still empty seats in F.
My wonderment is whether you would have been upgraded anyway.
My short-haul AA flights from ORD to Midwest destinations on AS-issued award tickets have had sky high upgrades from economy class to first class this year. I have AA Platinum status for life and barely any loyalty points, so this has been a positive surprise even as the flights aren’t that long. My loyalty points situation and status at AA may skyrocket next year back to EXP after a very long break, but I don’t really need higher AA elite status than the mid-tier I have.
Isn’t the segment upgrade pricing in Dollars and then you have the option to use points at about a .96 cents (.0096) per mile? So it was more like a $64 and $84 upgrade price. So in reality it would make more sense to pay cash (like buying miles at less than 1 cent each, assuming you usually get more than 1 cent a point redemptions. Then I guess you could gauge it vs repricing the who itinerary.
I’ve only seen the ‘cheap’ offers on short-haul, regional aircraft, like E175, which already has 2-2 in Economy, so, to pay for an upgrade on a ~2 hour flight, without a meal, feel like a waste of points or cash, but ‘you do you.’ Even with these offers, I’ve still received complimentary upgrades with Platinum Pro on the same routes, so, sometimes it pays to wait.
Unpaid 350 for a flight LAX to KOA and being an executive platinum member I get upgraded to premium seats at no cost. American offered me an upgrade to first for almost $2,000 but if I rebooked the whole trip the total would be $1,200. $1200 vs 2350. Don’t understand the math here but maybe they think some of us aren’t very smart