Originally Posted by
Xrayman
the “elite” tax is sometimes in my opinion getting out of hand, upwards of $40 on a $159 ticket (saver 119-129)
I also agree. The saver fare is for those racing to the bottom for expectorations and need (unfortunately many travelers that don’t fly often don’t understand or appreciate the limitations of the saver class fares - no seat selection and thus separate from family and a middle seat in the back with added charge for bags etc and only see the rock bottom price. As result the saver fare really is a marketing tool to get masses to look).
Honestly, I could care less if AS gives 100k more flexibility with the saver fare and I agree that on short flights I don't really care about where I am seated.
I learned my lesson long ago with the saver fares - shortly after starting to fly AS, I booked a SEA-HNL rt using a saver fare and thought, how bad can it be? Well, in that rare time, I needed to do a SDC on the return flight, no luck (even though the flight was oversold and they were offering vouchers to change to a later flight, apparently they still could not standby or confirm me for the earlier flight even though it had plenty of capacity because their system wouldn’t allow it, thanks saver). We stayed on the flight and got separated and ended up in the last row in a middle seats by the bathrooms. Never ever again will I book a saver fare with AS (unless it is PDX-SEA or similar)...
Count me in for being willing to pay the elite tax, but give me something else (cough, cough free AS+ lounge membership). But, I guess in the end if they waived all restrictions for 100k with savers, I would get about the same value out of booking savers versus an AL+ membership or something similar.
Edit: My number one thing as a 100k is for AS to fix their broken upgrade processor. I'm sick of being skipped over because AS only releases one seat at time; this is not a good way to treat their "top tier."