Originally Posted by
JJeffrey
No program is going to offer free business class upgrades on long-haul flights just because you have elite status.
With AA, once you gain status and earn enough Loyalty Points you have the opportunity to select systemwide upgrades as an award. You can get 2 after crossing 175k LP, and another 4 after crossing 250k LP. But these SWU's upgrade you to business on a space available basis, and upgrade space is very hard to find to/from Tokyo.
Furthermore even if you were able to hit 250k LP and get 6 SWU's, and even if you were able to find upgrade space on those flights, that's only enough for 3 roundtrips out of your 12 annual trips, so you would still be spending lots of time in the back.
I'm not saying that it's not worthwhile to pursue status on AA (or one of the others) in your scenario but getting "free business class upgrades" is not the reason to do it.
Gotcha. Would united be a better program then? Or would you know of any programs that would best fit my situation? I could even switch to another airline in asia if they offer these sorts of upgrades and I can always fly out of somewhere like ICN and base myself in ICN. Goal is to be on business 50% of the time if possible.... or would it be better to just go the zipair route?