Originally Posted by
nypdLieu
With AA and UA upgrades on those ultra cheap fares, what are the bonus miles received by the FF, and what are the fees and mileage that one has to give up for the UG?
AA: No bonus miles, but no fees to use a SWU and therefore no mileage lost. If one uses miles to upgrade rather than a SWU, the co-pay is $300 and the mileage is 25,000. However, the resourceful FlyerTalker obtains SWUs instead.
So, for AA vs DL, one can use a SWU w/no copay on both airline. No M+ bonus miles for AA but also no upgrades below M on DL at all. Winner: AA
If one uses miles, the copay for miles round trip makes AA $600 more expensive than DL for the upgrade. However, the minimum fare is likely to be thousands of dollars less. On AA, co-pay is waived for mileage upgrade from full fare economy (Y and B). Winner: AA
Finally, there's an added bonus on some routes for those who fly AA in paid J: use of SWUs or miles to upgrade into F. Winner: AA