Originally Posted by
bocastephen
2) A segment fee upgrade (the infamous tens-of-dollars) will be offered and dynamically priced when the number of open/unsold FC seats is greater than the number of upgrade-eligible Elite customers who are still waiting for their upgrade to clear - ie, 6 unsold F seats, 5 Elite customers yet to be upgraded, therefore 1 F seat will be offered through a dynamically priced segment fee upgrade
I don't see how it could ever work like that: it would mean that they can never sell a segment fee upgrade on a popular route. Yet those are the routes that probably have more people who would actually be willing/able to pay. It's like United Clubs and not allowing first class passengers and elites in for free. It's an obvious thing to do since those passenger are more likely to fly more and be willing to part with the extra money to spend on a club membership.
And it almost even explains why they don't offer segment fee upgrades to elites: doesn't matter if you offer one to a non-elite flyer, it won't change their future buying decision. But if you consistently offer those to a frequent flyer, then they will be less incentivised to buy-up to 1st but rely on the segment fee upgrade.
christian