I haven't seen that happening at AA (at least yet). With the exception of one domestic segment that was booked solid weeks out (MIA-SFO), I've cleared every systemwide upgrade for 14 years, including 9 this year to/from Europe. Most of the inventory this year has been hidden and cleared by an agent - you won't see the inventory on sites like Expert Flyer.

Look at my current $700 Madrid trip. It's going to bring in 24,500 miles at both the Platinum (50K) and EXP level at AA with 100% miles and 100% bonus miles. The same price ticket at UA would bring in around 4,800 miles at Gold or 6,600 miles at 1K after you take away about $100 in taxes. Impossible for me to even consider UA when I'd get 25% of the miles I'd get at AA.

One fare I recently saw on UA was $500 SFO-HKG which AA did not match (though AA did have a $591 SFO-ICN out there this week). Even less UA miles in play there than MAD. AA's cheapest fare on that route, via DFW, has been around $800, and brings in 38,000 miles for Platinum/EXP flyers. A similar UA fare would have to be over $3,000 to bring in those kinds of miles at the 1K level and even more at Gold (over $4,000). I would pay extra to AA, as another FTer mentioned a few posts back, with that kind of miles in play.

Tom in Madrid