Remember, the above is intended as a summary of the 7 largest US programs that each have fine points that I understand but are hard to put into a summary.
AA operates three cabins (First, Business, Economy) on some routes. One important limitation of these eVIP certificates is they cannot be used to upgrade from deeply discounted Business "I" fares to First class.
Good point.
VIPs can however upgrade AA D fares, which are also discounted business. In many markets the cheapest fare is the D fare, in others the D fare is similar to the I fare, and in some you do need to pay a lot more to go from I to D.
Another point revelent to anyone who can fly international paid business is that your upgrade choice is only AA and UA (of the US airlines). Only these airlines offer a 3 cabin international product with F to upgrade into. If one flies primarily international in paid business class I would generally suggest a non US 3 class airline; which one depends mostly on your primary routes.
Originally Posted by
mahasamatman
(Emphasis added.) Not quite true. Some free domestic upgrades (namely CR-1s) can also confirm at time of booking.
Very true. UA does give its 100K level flyers a few advance confirmable domestic upgrades every year.
But for the sake of summary.....