Originally Posted by
Dr Jabadski
“Stickers” refers to Americans 500 mile upgrades, which apparently used to literally be stickers which were affixed to paper tickets. Now they are electronic, or “eVIPs”. For JFK-LAX one would use 5 (five) 500 mile upgrades in each direction, once again cleared by the airline based on fare class, elite status, date of purchase, phase on the moon, your astrological sign and whether or not you were nice to your mother this week!
AA refers to them as "500 Mile Upgrades." eVIPSs are systemwide upgrades on AA.
AA's upgrades are prioritized by status and then time of request. EXP's require 0 stickers per 500 miles for their own upgrades.
Originally Posted by
Dr Jabadski
SWU = System Wide Upgrade or on United GPU (Global Premier Upgrade), same as above but may be applied to ANY one way itinerary, e.g. New York to Tokyo.
Importantly, UA requires a W fare or above (for coach travel) or J/C/D (for business class travel) to use a systemwide upgrade internationally. This can have nontrivial cost differences (with no guarantee that you'll actually clear). Most of my UA systemwides this year have gone towards domestic flights (where they work on any fare).
For now, AA continues to offer a comparative advantage as its systemwides work on any fare.