Originally Posted by
jay_dubya
I don't see the upside to AA giving PE pax upgrade priority. Especially once upgrade priority switches to EQD based later this year - what's aa's interest in upgrading an otherwise low spending gold over a high spending exp just because they happened to have spent slightly more on this flight?
Because it would incentivize both the Gold and the EXP to buy up to PE, which is likely to command more than a "slight" premium (probably at least 50% in most cases)?
The only downside is that on the margin it might incentivize the EXP to defect to UA or DL. But the "high spending" EXP should almost never find herself in the scenario described because, by definition, she generally buys high fares.