Blueboys999

Welcome move but a very poor deal for such a short hop.

Why can't it be treated in the same way as a US domestic flight with sticker or free EXP upgrades where seats are available?

mvoight

Interesting, but it seems this means it would be possible to upgrade some flights that don't earn miles.

From the info on aa.com for earning miles on flights to Latin America in O

"Deep Discount Economy Class G, Q, N, O**, S 0.50
** Tickets between North America and Latin America booked in O are not eligible."

Shinikenshi

The timing couldn't be better! I called the EXP line this morning in Tokyo to ask about the copayment cost of upgrading from a Q class to something upgradable and I was pleased to know that such a policy change had happened. Absolutely perfect.

Normally I fly NRT-LAX and the flight is usually tolerable enough to get by in economy but this time I am detouring to JFK an onwards to DCA for a wedding so I was wanting to be mostly comfortable since it was a longer flight and because I need to be not jetlagged and sociable when I touched down.

I just hope this incoming typhoon will miss Tokyo so I can leave.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

This would have been amazing for the $300 ai Q fares from JFK to GIG that some of us booked (one more trip to go, have waitlisted but does not look good). But as brp mentioned the winter Europe sales will soon be upon us. And I am hoping the competition on the GIG route with DL, CO, and TAM will bring those fares down to sub $400 after February. I am getting really attached to Ipanema.

rockhound

You're right, although you put the EQP information instead of the miles one:

from
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pa...anAirlines.jsp

"Deep Discount Economy Class G, Q, N, O**, S 100%
** Tickets between North America and Latin America booked in O are not eligible for mileage credit."

And as you pointed, they neither earn EQP

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pr...quirements.jsp

DCAstudent

You'll probably have to wait til April for fares to drop that low. The deregulation of international airfares to/from Brazil is not completely phased in until April 23, 2010. Fares are currently allowed at 50% off the minimum allowed fare. On October 23, they can go down to 80% off. Then April 23, 2010, they become deregulated.

PresRDC

J/D fares are not purchased just for an upgrade. They are purchased because they are flexible and that flexibility is key when traveling for business (in over 25 paid J/D trips to Asia in the past 4 years, I don't think I flew home on my originally scheduled day more than 4 times).

Second, the main purchaser of business class fares are not leisure travelers, but business travelers and most of us are not paying out of pocket for our tickets. Some with a warped view of reality on FT might discount the views of this population, but I can assure AA knows who butters its bread.

I gather you've never flown AA in F, because being pampered is not part of the experience. I upgrade to F as a matter of course because I get an adequately-sized workspace that allows me to spread out and get the long term projects done that I never get to when I am in the office. My two most common routes are JFK-NRT and PRD-PVG, both of which allow me to put in a good 10-11 hours of uninterupted work, still allowing time for a nap, a meal and a movie.

Except there is no co-pay (and rightly so) for using eVIPs.

I don't care about F being exclusive. I care about there being seats available. When your travel is last minute like mine tends to be, there aren't always a lot of A seats left. IME, I haven't seen too many empty F cabins on AA transpac flights this year. Maybe it's more of an issue on transatlantic flights, but I'm an Asia guy, so I don't do too many of those flights.

FWAAA

I'm not all that excited about being able to upgrade I, O & Q with miles or SWUs, because I'm skeptical that the other shoe has fully dropped, but I'd be very happy to be wrong.

Of course, as brp mentioned, things have mostly returned to the way they were a couple of years ago (when O & Q were almost never used for extremely low sale prices to Europe and Asia) and predictably, we're all very happy. The ability to upgrade I is a new development and I agree with PresRDC's concerns about I upgrades.

A few years ago, when DUB was on sale for $300 all-in (and stayed that way for a while), it was a W fare. Same with SIN, where W or V was often used for the 3-day min stay fall sales. N was frequently used as the low sale fare, but never O or Q. South America fare sales more often used the Q bucket, IIRC.

The change to allow SWUs on ALL published fares does place AA far ahead of airlines that require much higher fare classes for SWU upgrades (like Delta). Wonder if it will prompt a response?

GTITAN

Yes, an excellent analysis (as usual)!! Deep S.A. at least from CLT and the other origins from the US Southeast that I tend to watch have priced deep S.A. in the "Q" bucket. This will be a nice change for me. It is a total YMMV situation though I completely agree.

Now, it would seem more likely that UA would respond given its relationship to AA.

As for DL, if you mean DL would increase the number of fares eligible for SWU use, I would rate it at somewhere between not possible and never, never, never, never. Most likely, given how DL markets, if anything, it can use the opportunity to further decrease eligible SWU fares.

Safe Travels

Blumie

Let's see. Before the change, you had no choice. You could not upgrade. Period. New, you're being offered a choice. You might view it as an expensive choice, but it's your choice nonetheless. How is that "an incredibly awful deal?"

ChrisRb

Hi, folks -- first time post, so please be gentle -- but I had to chime in on this. Unless I'm mistaken , the OP didn't get the details exactly right -- domestic upgrades will STAY at $50 co-pay, Canada/Mexico Carribbean are going to $75, and only Hawaii is going to $175.

So it's not so bad for domestic, for those of us that don't have e-vips to throw around (and aren't planning to upgrade to int'l F either?) please confirm.

http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/d...rade-chart.jsp


Quote:
Originally Posted by OverThereTooMuch View Post
So people that have some status with AA seem thrilled by the change.

But for people with no status, it seems like an incredibly awful deal.

15k miles (which they value at $375) + $175 co-pay to upgrade a domestic flight, in addition to what you've already paid for a coach seat? That seems a little hard to swallow.

Am I misunderstanding something here? Or do you guys see raising the bar for infrequent flyers as yet another benefit?
Let's see. Before the change, you had no choice. You could not upgrade. Period. New, you're being offered a choice. You might view it as an expensive choice, but it's your choice nonetheless. How is that "an incredibly awful deal?"

ijgordon

Actually, "I" fares were upgradeable with miles but no copay until about 4-5 years ago. Though I fares were less prevalent then, mostly just the deep-deep-discount seasonal Biz fares to Europe. Still definitely not "the way things were" as seems to be the case with Y->J upgrades.

PresRDC may have a valid concern about "A" availability to Asia, I never fly AA to Asia so I can't speak from experience there. Though I do see plenty of A inventory on all but a couple of flights over the next week to/from NRT. PVG does look more difficult. FWIW.

dstan

Except for EXPs, who have eVIPs, this has nothing to do with status. GLD and PLT will pay the same copays as non-status AAdvantage members. (And yes, GLD and PLT can also use domestic sticker upgrades, but that's not affected by this change either; in fact, it may make sticker upgrades marginally more difficult to clear, as more fares are now eligible for award upgrades). Bottom line, except for EXPs, no reason for elites to be more thrilled about this than non-status members. To me, both should be equally thrilled.

Also a correct correction. And welcome to FlyerTalk!

AAExPlat

I am Platinum on CO and flew 170k EQM from Jan to June. Routes I flew were mainly AUS-EWR and EWR-IAH-AUS. Upgrades were rare...I'd say less than 40% of the time. And AUS isn't even a prime time route. I know CO isn't DL, but the system is the same.

This is but one of the reasons I have been flying AA again since mid-July. Happy to have made the switch.

krazieman

I'm so thrilled that I might've peed in my pants.