pbuntrock

From the start of the year I've been flying weekly transcons out of BOS to SFO and back. The days of travel vary and I've been flying through PHL/CLT/PHX.

In previous years it appeared that about 80%-90% of F was upgrades. From my recent experience I think the percentage is much lower.

There are a lot of retired couples in their 60's and 70's. These are paid tickets, many of them are connecting to international destinations (I know this because I like to talk to people, and this is what they told me). I'm also finding a fair number of awards tickets and upgrades with miles (US sold a lot of miles over the last several years). On one recent flight on a 319 PHX-BOS I happened to see the manafest for F, only two of us had status on US; one PP and one CP. All of the rest were either *G or nothing.

The point is that the competition for US F is not just for an upgrade, but also a competition against paid F. Good for for US in an enhanced ability to sell F, harder for us on upgrades.

What's you experience?

SFO voyageur

I also recently sat next to a lady who bought a first class ticket to Europe (RT SFO-LHR) and was returning home.
She said the Envoy section Transatlantic was very nice but she was definitely not impressed with the 321 domestic first flight we were on. I should have mentioned that service with USAirways tends to be inconsistent and we were having a particularly poor experience. Not to mention that the seats on the 321 will never compare with the ones you get on the Envoy flights....

bubbashow

I think it is the lowered capacity across the board at all airlines. There always were paid f - just more spread out.

tommyleo

My tiny data point: I'm PP and flying PHL-LAX rt on 1/27 and 1/30, both A321's. The 1/27 flight was showing F0 a week ago. No UG for me. The LAX-PHL return is showing F2 and I have not yet been UG'd as of today.

geo1005

US 711 on 1/27 shows F1. Maybe a move-up if your schedule allows.

Dreamworks

I'm one of the ones ruining it for you. I'm US Gold. And I'm flying next week from DCA-SFO through CLT. I wasn't able to get the exit row seats I wanted (only middles left) so I used 15K miles to upgrade for the transcon. I didn't do it on the way back because I like my coach seats, but we'll see if I get upgraded.

tommyleo

Thanks, but I'm already in the earliest PHL-LAX flight of the day. And I'm traveling with a companion on the same PNR.

I had been watching the earliest PHL-CLT-LAX path on 1/27 to try a Move-Up, but the CLT-LAX leg went from F8 to F0 in two days. And the exit row seats only had four pax, so I'm not sure where all the F seats went.

cwe84

Even on the ExpressFirst flights I have been seeing a lot of non-status flyers in F. The agents have told me that people are paying for it at booking because they found it odd too. Its not just one or two flights but a very large amount of my flights.

BoeingBoy

I don't keep close track of such things, but when did US start pricing restricted FC only slightly higher than unrestricted coach? Same with the upgrade for miles?

Jim

jfinsocal

For domestic flights A bucket (non-refundable first) is usually cheaper than Y/B and occasionally cheaper than the M bucket. I assume the same is true for international where Z bucket is cheaper than Y/B.

TPA us ff

News flash to your bragging seat companion...US doesn't offer F to or from Europe.

BoeingBoy

Thanks. Now to my question - has this been the case since the merger or newer than that? I'm just wondering if the newly noticed increase in "paid" FC/Envoy passengers is due to changes in pricing and upgrading with miles or not related at all.

Jim

jfinsocal

Jim: I don't know the answer to this question (assuming that paid F is up and I don't necessarily buy into that assumption). I used to accrue about 150-200 Rapid Reward credits a year through credit card spend, flights, cars, etc. and used these for most of my last minute flights where Y/B/M are sometimes the only alternative. I pretty much washed my hands of WN when they changed policies and raised fares so I'm down to 3 banked RR1 awards. I'm price sensitive though and will not hesitate to fly Frontier or whatever if the price difference between US/*A and the few remaining LCC is significant.

In any case - US policies work great for me, I'm happy with *A (US/*A is a very good option out of SAN) and will stay here unless something changes dramatically.

justhere

Another data point. The other day needed to book 2 tickets PHX-NYC for mid-March. Just over $700 each for PHX-JFK non-stop on US in F. DL et al were double that for first. Y was about $350 so I booked the 2 F tickets.

tommyleo

Update. The LAX-PHL return on 1/30 was showing F0 all day yesterday and today. But I just got an email saying that my (and my companion's) UG's were confirmed. Go figure.