Originally Posted by
Microwave
Why not the person who paid the highest fare? Nothing is worse than paying twice or thrice what others have paid for a last minute ticket, only to lose out on an upgrade because someone with an O fare bought it 3 months ago. Or how about going on customer LTV? If you make AA more money, you should go higher on the list. What about aggregate annual spend? If you're a big spender, they'll want you happy up front, right? There are a myriad of ways they could order upgrades--they had to pick one and go with it. I think I benefit from the status quo as often as I am dinged by it, so I just roll with it. If you frequently buy cheap fares, you may not like what other legacies are doing much better.
One reason I stuck with AA after trying CO was the fare-class based upgrades. I was 2 for 6 on CO flights with well in advance purchases of the cheap fares. On 2 of the flights I took their TOD upgrade (~$90R/T SEA-IAH-FLL, IIRC) offer to first since i figured I had no chance of getting an upgrade the standard way.
I appreciate being able to book a low fare class well in advance and having a good chance of upgrades on AA. Most of my purchases are deep-discount economy with an occasional just discount economy. Last year had 5 I+ fares due to the JFK-GIG $1100 a/i sale and a SFO-MGA MR, but that was definitely an anomaly for me.