Originally Posted by
JMN57
I understand your reasoning but I don't think it holds true. Never did AA commit to a fixed pricing policy. They just said that if there were seats in F left over, you had status and enough stickers, you could get in line to upgrade and, based on some criteria, you may or may not get upgraded..
The problem is the last published policy regarding the issue is AA would NOT sell these upgrades until there were no elites waiting for sticker upgrades.. Whether or not AA has a legal obligation to notify people of changes is NOT the biggest issue. As the OP noted, the non-elite was offered an opportunity to pay for an upgrade, the elite was not. So, there are multiple issues, not only are the upgrades being offered before the stated policy of clearing elite upgrades first, but the alternative to buy them is not even being offered to elites.
Free upgrades are stated benefit of the program. and a pretty important benefit to a lot of elites. IMHO, this is NOT a good business move if an airline wants to keep elite loyalty.