As a wide shouldered tall guy, I value both legroom AND shoulder space. If Y+ had just a few more inches in width, it's in play. Otherwise I am a revenue F guy on almost every flight otherwise I have to get an Aisle seat and do the 30 degree lean into the aisle, which I know pisses off the FAs.

In no way would I ever put AS Y+ above AA F. Not even close.

I knew as soon as I posted that, someone would come up with this and say...SEE. Yes AA has a small number of premium cabin aircraft operating between like three cities domestically. And of course there are widebodies doing these flights due to the pandemic. That said, that is a tiny fraction of the F product out there. Most everything else was like my last two AA F transcons, cramped, no power, grumpy crew, and stale sandwiches.

In fact I had a friend flying with me who doesn't fly a lot. We had connected to AA from AS also in first. He wanted to know why we were not in F on AA....and we were!

Without veering too off-topic on the subject of this specific thread, I will say that I can commiserate with you on the cramped F seating found on a majority of AA’s domestic fleet. As an AA million miler, I yearn for the days of 40-42” pitch on the 738s. With the Kodiak retrofits nearly complete on these birds, you’re now looking at more like 37” pitch. Management is more interested in increasing seat count at the expense of personal space in F. But to say that “AA F is no better than AS premium” gives me pause.

I haven't checked west coast to east coast, but U space is showing up on the following:

4/8, 4/10, 4/12, and 4/13: DCA - SEA
4/14, 4/18, and 4/20: IAD - LAX

I didn't look beyond April, but space is definitely sparse from the few D.C. area to west coast flights queried.

Just received the following alert from Expert Flyer:This is a notification that your Flight Alert "11Apr21 SAN-HNL" has located at least 1 availability opening(s) at this time.

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For: AS895/First - Upgrade (U)

From: SAN to HNL

Date: 04/11/21 10:10 AM
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I've discovered that U space does start showing up within a week of some flights....just not a few months in-advance. If there is U space opening up a few days before my flight, I'm probably going to get upgraded without a GGU.

Agreed. 6 open F seats, few elites flying to HNL - not to mention I purchased an O fare.
Also interesting that Y+ is booked full.

Y+ being booked full and then clearing the upgrade list always throws me for a loop....I usually think I don't have a chance when Y+ is full before the elite upgrade windows.

More passengers are purchasing Premium for the blocked middle seat and not all of them are Elites. How full Premium appears isn't indicative of the number of Elites in those seats. On a few close in bookings, I selected Exit row because Premium was full but I still was upgraded to F.

James

This.

I wonder if AS would make more $ on PC buy-ups if they kept the middle seat blocked even after the pandemic. I know there is no way I would pay for PC if there were only middle seats available.

It also feels like the routes to Hawaii have more passengers treating themselves to Y+ compared to other routes. Vacation splurge purchase.

I could see a Eurobiz-style product doing well in the US, but not at current PC pricing. Once loads recover, I'd imagine they'd price anything like that at/close-to EU J levels on most routes. Something like a $250 per-direction premium for a transcon instead of the $50-$129 currently offered.

That being said, if they did that I'd fear they'd class it as a separate cabin and only do 1-cabin "upgrades"

I've met a shocking number of infrequent fliers in AS F to Hawaii (particularly ex SFO/SJC) who paid cash for the ticket - most seem totally happy with the experience/splurge. I never mention I'm on a $329 upgraded fare ;)

I think you could mention your $329 fare without making many fellow pax feel bad at all. After all, for many people, especially from the Bay Area, $1,329 and $329 are exactly the same price... nothing.