Originally Posted by AAflyerORD

So a few days ago, I flew on a redeye from LAS to ORD. 30 minutes before boarding, there were 14 open first class seats and no one on the upgrade list. Economy had about 40 open seats. Of course, all the nonrevs cleared into first while I, being platinum, was in 15F. I found it ridiculous to use 4 500 mile upgrades on this redeye, which would be $160 total. I truly don't mean to be a DYKWIA, but I find it ridiculous that a nonrev is flying in first for free, while I would be charged $160 to upgrade on top of what I paid for the ticket.




The fact of the matter is, most airline situations that are good for nonrevs are bad for elites, and vice versa. It's time for AA to do away with the whole 500 mile upgrade system and switch to the United system, where all upgrades are complementary even though on busier flights it is harder to secure them. But putting nonrevs into an empty first class, when there are platinums and golds in economy who don't feel like blowing $160 out of their own pockets, is preposterous. It takes 12.5k miles of flying to earn 4 damn upgrades. I understand that nonrevving is an employee privilege but under no means should a nonrev have a first class seat over an elite. It's unethical for a traveller who spends $6k+ and 50,000 miles on American per year to be charged an additional $40 out of pocket per every 500 miles that we want to upgrade on. The 50,000 miler business traveler makes up a large population and I feel like we platinums are just straight up being completely ripped off. There are plenty flights I've seen where I could've made the upgrade but didn't because I didn't want to drop a ridiculous amount of out of pocket money on a first class seat when someone with my status on United is getting their seat complimentary and in addition the seat that I did not get upgraded into is occupied by a ramper or a check in agent or something. Am I wrong?




Rant over. Good day.