Originally Posted by
cbn42
Yes, but I think the question is asking which airline gives them most easily, all other things being equal.
For example, if you have the 50,000 mile status on UA, DL and AA, and you fly LAX-JFK on each at the same day and time, which airline is most likely to upgrade you?
DL, since AA and UA don't offer complimentary upgrades on JFK-LAX (UA doesn't offer them at all, AA doesn't offer them to anyone below EXP, and 50,000 mile status is not EXP). All things are NOT equal in this particular case, on this particular route.
That being said, the question of "Just wondering which airlines programs offer complimentary upgrade easily?" is so vague and unclear we might as well be discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It's not answerable without knowing things like what status level, what route, what time, what airline; all of these things affect chances of upgrade.
Share your flying patterns, destinations, types of tickets bought, and people can tell you more. As it is, your question is like "which airline is best?"
Exactly. Or "what is the shape of water?"
OP, what precisely are you after? Because saying "Airline X offers the best chance for upgrades for 100,000 Kryptonium Überelites on the LIT-ELP route" is pretty useless trivia if you're not going to fly to ELP or LIT. If you're not actually asking about a particular situation, but have pure intellectual curiosity about some vague "what's the easiest airline to upgrade on" concept... it's really an impossible question.