Originally Posted by
tom911
Right now an upgradable base fare SFO-SYD on UA is $1,730 vs $1,038 for discounted economy, so almost $700 more to get on the upgrade list. I know an FTer that has similarly priced fare for Singapore coming up in order to get on the upgrade list. There is no guarantee you'll clear the upgrade list (in fact, the term "upgrade lottery" has been coined on the UA forum). No refunds or reduction in fare if you don't clear, either, and this is after buying the higher priced ticket.
How would you be able to even use an AA SWU to Syd?
Business travelers who don't want to take convoluted routings to use their elite SWUs are going to find AA harder to fly based on where they are going. For price sensitive leisure fliers EXP is a dream, but I'm not sure that is going to drive a profitable bottom line.