MilesBuzz! - What's the best FF program for upgrades?

I consolidated all my flying to AA after their AANYC offer early this year. That, and some non-flying miles offers landed me some nice upgrades (SFO-JFK and BRU-JFK, both done with miles) as well as awards tickets (JFK-EZE from the AANYC fares - which cost under $400 total!; NYC-YHZ and NYC-YYZ at 15K each shorthaul). Given that the two AANYC flights to California also netted me Gold status from a challenge I'd have to say that AA has been awfully good to me.

One of the most attractive things about AA was a very liberal upgrade policy, including the ability to upgrade discount economy fares with miles and no co-pay. I understand why that probably isn't great for their business model, but hey, I'm greedy.

Now that AA has instituted a co-pay for upgrading on international flights, which airlines remain with a more liberal upgrade policy?

Systemwide space-available upgrades on OK are FOC for golds (50k/30 segs) and only cost 2K for silvers on long-hauls (FOC intra-europe).
Of course this only makes sense if you come to Europe often, as you won't get upgrades within north america, and the Asian network consists of 2-3 destinations, but you will have full Skyteam benefits and be able to collect miles/segments on any CO/DL/NW flts.

While AA is no longer the best, a $500 roundtrip copay off the lowest fares is likely to beat several carriers such as NW and DL where the required fare is in most cases going to be more than $500 above what you'd otherwise pay to sit in the plane.

I really don't like AA's move. I wish, if they had to change things, they'd have just implemented a new tier of mileage award... maybe double the miles instead of more money, at least as an option (though in most cases this would be a poor use of AA miles at least the pure mileage option would exist).

I find UA to be pretty good, though mileage upgrades do require buying an "H" fare or higher internationally. Lots of times my flights are only available in H to begin with given the destination and time of year I find myself flying so I'm not really paying more. But YMMV, especially as H is one of the higher economy buckets.

Want liberal upgrades? Check out MX. All fares are upgradeable, on a complimentary basis, for their gold members. Upgrades are confirmed 7 days in advance of flight and there's no special upgrade inventory. Upgrades come out of discount business (D).

If you are Platinum Elite in KLM's Flying Dutchman program, you get free upgrades on Northwest domestic flights (subject to availability, of course) on any fare. (Actually, I believe you may get them as a Gold Elite as well, depending on availability, but first crack goes to the Platinums.)

At least, that's the case through 31 December 2004. They haven't published the T&C for 2005 yet that I know of.

Problem is that in order to be a Flying Dutchman member, you must have a non-North American (and some other areas) mailing address.

Also, you don't get free upgrades on NW internationally, or on KLM at all :eek:.

What's the best FF program for upgrades?

The answer has a lot to do with what routes you want to upgrade and what fare levels you typicaly fly with.

For a purely domestic high volume flyer, AA is great: as an EXP you get unlimmited free upgrades on all fares...domestically. And AA has about as good of a product as any of the other domestic carriers with a good EXP desk to handly tough situations.

Several other domestic airlines offer unlimitted complimentary upgrades on any fare to their top tiers...but fares usually are a major factor in determining who gets the upgrade.

To Europe the answer is all contigent apon what kind of fares you are flying...it makes the difference between 10K miles --> 30K miles or non-upgradeable...depending on the airline.

I didn't realize Czech Airlines offered such a liberal upgrade benefit on their transatlantic flights....if only they gave a 100% elite status bonus (they only offer 50%) and flew from Chicago (they only fly from New York), I would be tempted to start flying them to/from Europe. For those with experience, how good is their J product?

Aeromexico offers complimentary upgrades on all their flights except to/from Europe. I have flown MEX-SCL-MEX five times this year with a 100% success rate + dozens of Mexico-US flights and upgraded every time. :D

Downside: They have a special "R" bucket for upgrades, so sometimes you don't get them until you're at the gate.

Whats is considered the best program regarding upgrades especially for International Travel.

I didn't realize Czech Airlines offered such a liberal upgrade benefit on their transatlantic flights....if only they gave a 100% elite status bonus (they only offer 50%) and flew from Chicago (they only fly from New York), I would be tempted to start flying them to/from Europe. For those with experience, how good is their J product?

I'm quite confident you could buy an OK code on CO (via EWR) or DL (via JFK) from pretty much anywhere in the States. I fly about 20 segments a year on CSA, but it's all within Europe so wouldn't be able to comment on the long-haul service. From what I have read here, it appears that J seating on long-haul is not top-notch (no flat seats)...But if service is anything like the European biz class (quite possibly the best in the industry) then it'd be a decent overall product. PRG has a great lounge and is a delight to connect through- once I made a 35 min connection that involved being bussed from the ATR to the terminal without any running at all, and even managed to find the time to score an upgrade at the gate! :D

I had great success with Continental out of Edmonton to Houston. I showed them my Alaska Airlines gold card and they upgraded me both times I have flown with them.

I would think that Northwest has probably one of the worst odds at scoring International Upgrades. If you purchase a full Y ticket to Asia or Europe, the upgrades come out of a better bucket (think -- I - ) which is suppose to be similar to the Z bucket. However, if you look using a tool like ITN, you will find it is pretty rare to find any Z inventory on any days to Europe or Asia for this summer. However, some of the elite members have told me that they have indeed been able to upgrade, even in the summer, so in theory it is possible - I just think the average joe would likely not be able to upgrade well in advance on NW international flights in most cases. Less then Y fares are even harder then Y to upgrade on. Note only Y - B fares can be upgraded, except to a handfull of Asian destinations (excluding China) - you can also upgrade Y-B & M fares.

AA - I found there was some availability out there ahead of time. Especially I think from JFK-Europe. The further the distance (say LAX-LHR) the less likely you are to get the upgrade. However, with the new $500 per return upgrade fee, there may be even more seats open this summer. Also if you are looking at upgrading more then 1-2 people on the same flight, your chances will be much less on any airline.

UA - From what I have read, I believe UA is about as easy to upgrade on as AA. However not all fares are upgradable.

BA - I think is pretty good about upgrades, except they go one class above. So from coach you only go to coach+, from coach+ you go to Business, and Business to First. The best value in my opinion then is to buy a coach + (world traveler) ticket and upgrade to Business.

I am not the expert on upgrading international tickets so this is just from what I have learned from reading the forums at FT. Also note, sometimes if you are elite with a particular airline, you may have an easier time upgrading international flights.