Originally Posted by
luv2ctheworld
It would be interesting to pull up a side by side comparison between the foreign carriers and their mileage/upgrade policy compared to US-based. I suspect we (US airline customers) have been relatively lucky compared to the foreign ones in terms of mileage earning and redemptions.
It is quite true that US airlines offer many more redemption instruments for upgrades. Lufthansa's e-upgrades for Senators (one of the few foreign airlines that have them)? Two.
That being said, most other countries don't have anything close to the competitive landscape that the US has- the US doesn't have anything close to a flag carrier.
Originally Posted by
arcticbull
And yet the charge the same amount of money, because it's "First" -- are you surprised nobody pays for it?
And yet Lufthansa is eliminating first class seats on their planes, and is switching planes to a C/Y format. So is Cathay Pacific- both airlines that get a lot of positive feedback on their F cabins. Singapore Air went to C/Y format on some longhaul routes years ago. It appears that even if you have a good product, in many markets, not enough people pay for it.