FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - DM Observation: less complimentary first class upgrades in 2019

Apr 12, 2019, 1:14 pm

#55

SDQBound

Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. / Washington, DC

Programs: AA PPro/DL PLT, PPass, Marriott / Hilton Gold, JetBlue Mosaic, Hertz Presidents Circle, Amex Plat

Posts: 4,630

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethernal

It's pretty intuitive.. anything to/ex-ATL over 2 hours will be a tough upgrade except during very odd hours.

To expand on this, at larger hubs or during heavier business travel hours (commute direction matters - e.g. ex-ATL on a Monday morning is harder than to-ATL on a Monday morning), fare classes purchased will make a big difference. I am 0 for 8 on flights I booked more than two weeks in advance (generally a Q fare class) but am probably 30% (some of this is from RUCs) when booking B or Y fares. There will be at least 15-20 Diamonds on high demand long routes normally, so fare class makes a big difference in where you land in the stack.

The "Upgrade Success" thread is where you probably want to go if you want more detail.

I've never looked at it this way (anything to/ex-ATL over 2 hours), but it makes a lot of sense. Even on < 2 hours last year I saw very long upgrade lists on routes like ATL-RDU, ATL-DCA, among others.

JFK, surprisingly, is not bad for many routes.

Reply