Originally posted by I'llMissCP:
If offering upgrades is decreasing J revenue to the point where J is no longer special, then I would suggest that upgrades be eliminated or reduced to full Y. At leats the revenue stream would be there to support a quality product.
Don't forget one crucial fact: Upgrades are base on AVAILABILITY. The whole point of upgrades was that they would fill seats that are not being sold anyway, not to give people confirmed-in-advance seats that reduce revenue. Eliminating upgrades would be too broad a sword, and would not save AC any tangible amount of money (or improve in-flight service), aside from the SE "confirm-at-booking" benefit which probably munches more J revenue than the old x-number-of-hours scheme...