American Airlines offers a first class cabin even on its shorter flights, but the expensive upgrade prices may not be commensurate with the experience onboard…just a friendly warning!
An Expensive Upgrade On American Airlines
View From The Wing noticed a steal of an upgrade price on American Airlines: just $2896 to upgrade from economy class to first class on the 190-mile, 36-minute intra-Texas flight from Austin (AUS) to Dallas (DFW). Honey, hold the mortgage…we’re going to Dallas!
Incredibly tempting upgrade offer.
byu/Many-Nose4266 inamericanairlines
A little pricey, but it gets to the heart of the sense (or nonsense) behind airline upgrades.
This is not a complaint or a slight against American Airlines. Certainly in situations like this, it can charge what the market will bear and if there is only one seat, maybe someone who can expense it will buy it…it isn’t only politicians who don’t care about spending other people’s money…
And AA isn’t exactly transparent about the way it prices upgrades…upgrading on AA is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get. Prices can fluctuate rapidly and be dependent on variables that may make sense programmatically (fare bucket availability) but don’t make sense in theory.
I’ll speculate about this case. There was one first class seat left (what Americans and AA call first class, the rest of the world calls business class) and so the fare bucket avaiailblity may have looked something like this: J1R0D0I0 (J, R, D, I are all first class fares, but last-seat availality maybe reserved fo the highest…and most expenisve..fare class).
And yes, AA does have a “full-fare” J ticket for $2826 for sale…
So perhaps someone who bought a cheap ecnomy class ticket was offered this upgrade price becuase that is what a walk-up ticket cost on a (of course this probably could have cut by as much as 80-90% by taking advantage of hidden city ticketing and adding a destination beyond Dallas, then just stepping off in Dallas, but that’s another matter for another day).
Bottom line, there’s logic to the illogic, but your money is better spent elsewhere…
The grand irony is, I don’t think I’d pay $2,896 one-way for the alleged “Flagship” Business Class on a long-haul flight, let alone the short hop from AUS to DFW.
(For the record, nobody in their right mind flies from Austin to Dallas, given that driving means kolaches in West going and coming.)
Yes, but then there’s the never-ending slowdowns and construction between Temple and Solado. I hate that drive up/down I-35!
I fly it just to avoid I35
Airlines are getting increasingly unrealistic about their pricing. My wife and I are taking a European cruise this summer. When looking at prices, First Class on SAS was 30% less than Delta One, despite the fact that our domestic legs are on Delta. Looking at an Asia trip next year, Delta One is nearly $19,000 per ticket, Business Class on Emirates is $8,100. Something tells me the Delta experience does not warrant a fare 2 ½ times higher than Emirates. Ed Bastian has raised prices, without improving the customer experience and is actively driving away loyal frequent flyers. I have learned now it is better to shop fares and pay for the experience. Sorry Delta, my 20 years of loyalty is gone.
I really don’t want to go politcal here, but my sense is that the new administration will turn off a lot of European visitors coming to the USA this spring/summer and that may lead to some good deals, particularly last minute.
That’s great to hear since there are a couple NFL games I want to hit in Dublin and possibly Spain this fall and rates are crazy so far.
So please keep insulting the F#cks over there with their open borders leaving potential terrorists into their country. At least the good people of Germany are starting to realize they are losing their country to the crazies that fly planes into buildings.
I was thinking more of tariffs, imperialism, and Ukraine, which have nothing to do with migration or terrorism…
I routinely search out of mainland Europe for flights given I live there part time. Searching with a VPN at European airline sites (namely AF/KL) – especially originating in Europe – nearly always returns cheaper fares. And more often then not cheaper fares ex-USA, too. YMMV, of course, but that’s been my experience. Have to finagle a bit at times. Two one-ways and such, or take easyJet or Vueling to position. But it can be a big money-saver if you’re looking for J, and sometimes even Y fares.
The point being (which I completely forgot to add after my verbose backstory) that the admin’s current approach to former allies in Europe will almost certainly see a reduction in demand ex-Europe which could mean good things for ex-US travelers insomuch as fares to/from the continent. A tiny win in a much larger maelstrom of politics.