Originally Posted by acregal

Perhaps I should point out that airlines that make it hard to upgrade, such as BA, SQ, and CX make money. Not as much as US based airlines did in the 1990s, but they make a decent amount.

I'm not saying you should eliminate upgrades, but I feel they should be more difficult. There also needs to be a rationalization of pricing given the Business class product. Nobody in their right mind would pay what domestic carriers are asking for Business given the product. I came up with the following comparisons (From Travelocity, outbound 7/25, return 7/29, all in Business)
SFO-HKG SQ and CX are $4816. UA is $5605.
ORD-LHR BA and UA are $8525. AA has one flight at $7916 (rest at $8525).
Service aside (as it can be hit or miss), who would pay extra or the same for an inferior product? I doubt there aren't many who would. But it doesn't make sense that they charge this much, until you realize how many people upgrade (if you don't know, a ton do on International). If this were rationalized (a better product and better pricing to make up for lesser service), they would get more revenue from the flight. There was a statistic in the NYTimes Monday (or was it Tuesday?) in one of their Travel Columns that like 2/3rds of people traveling overseas and paying for a premium class won't travel on a US airline because of a worse product. If they had a plan to attract these travelers, they would be a lot better off.