Bullajami

I recently did a round trip From Djibouti to Virginia and back. 2 segments on Ethiopian and 2 segments on USAirways to Virginia, 2 segments on American Airlines and 2 segments on Ethiopian to get back. (Paid for by my employer, so all segments booked coach.)

I am new to frequent flyer miles building, so I asked USAirways about a cash upgrade to business for the Rome to Philly leg. Got it for $500. Asked Ethiopian for an upgrade from London to Addis Ababa. Got it for $510. Asked American for an upgrade to business from New York to London. $3,400. (I did not pay that.)

Essentially American Airlines does not want to sell upgrades at the gate. I am puzzled as to why. I thought it might be that they prefer to save those seats and give them out to loyal customers - some elite status members who are flying coach or something. But that wasn't it, because I checked during the flight and there were 11 empty seats in business class.

So my question is why would American not want to sell those seats at a price people might actually pay? They could have bagged another $5K to $8K on ticket sales for that flight.

JOUY31

Please continue to follow this thread in the American Airlines forum. Thanks for your understanding.

Jouy31
TravelBuzz moderator

brp

They do this sometimes....and not others. If you read here a bit you'll find that trying to apply logic (or asking questions about logical decisions) about American Arilines' decisions/policies is about as fruitful as looking for an honest politician in any party.

Basically, no one here will know the answers to such questions...everyone will just speculate and you won't learn anything useful

Cheers.

SeeBuyFly

It is common for people to feel that "If it's empty, why won't they give it to me?" But in addition to general arbitrariness, there can be logical reasons they won't do whatever you want.

For example, perhaps management might decide that it 'dilutes the product' to let passengers think that they don't need to pay normal price for first/business, they just need to get last-minute upgrades.So the airline may find that it makes more money by keeping the seats empty. On a different airline or on a different route (the market can be more relevant than the airline), it may be that they won't ever sell those seats anyway so they're glad to get your money.

In any case I doubt that you were really concerned about AA's financial health. You wanted an upgrade for yourself. But the airline doesn't have to do it.

Incidentally, on the topic of "why would [someone] do this?", why would you post with an uninformative thread title? That's inconsiderate. [Edit: thread title was changed by mod.]

gegarrenton

I think the route might have been part of the price. JFK-LHR is one of the most Biz heavy Int'l routes.

MCMAHONSMR

They very well may have offered UGs from Y to J for $500, it's just that cash UGs are not available at most airport ticket counters or at the gates. The exceptions are some international airports where UGs are offered by way of a sign posted at the counters.

But, for flights departing the U.S. domestically or internationally, Load Factor Based Upgrades (LFBUs) are only offered at self-service kiosks. During the check in process the system (namely, various algorithms) are used to check the amount of unsold inventory, whether there are any customers standing by for upgrades via SWUs or mileage, etc. If all requests have been accommodated the system will offer non-status passengers a cash UG opportunity.

It's unclear how you checked in for your flight, but asking at the gate won't yield a result. When I travel internationally on AA and I'm not already confirmed in J, I will always check in at a kiosk to see whether I'm offered a UG, and for me this has been successful in many cases, particularly on JFK to LHR.

JDiver

Every airline is arbitrarily different. Some might prefer the short-term cash by offering counter upgrades, often knowing their C cabin will fly with empty eats regardless, whilst others (often with fuller C cabins) believe it makes it an easier choice for customers to buy coach knowing they can probably upgrade at the counter, which dilutes income. Why sell at discount what you can sell full price? It's all about business... $500 or $3,400? I know which I would prefer.

With AA, in the OPs case, a LFBU, using an SWU (someone else's in this instance, but some folks know how to "borrow" one from an AA Executive Platinum,) or miles plus co-pay. (The co-pay is nearly as much as a counter upgrade on some airlines.) BA would not have offered a counter upgrade either, nor would many airlines, US to Heathrow.

I guess while we are all speculating, we can speculate: 1) is this a case of a passenger who is justifiably feeling injured, or/and 2) an airline astutely seeking to improve its bottom line, or/and 3) a passenger who made some assumptions and did not bother checking in advance for the rules, terms and conditions (e.g. LFBU, etc.)

Better luck the next time - that is a nasty long trip.

Moderator note: the thread title has been changed from "Why Would American Airlines Do This?" to a title more in sync with the TOS -

Create Descriptive Titles - link to this guideline
Make thread titles as specific and descriptive as possible. Sometimes posters will start a thread with a very general title such as, "Guess what?" or "Strange airline policy". Be as helpful as possible in your thread titles, and if you want to improve or change your thread's title after you create it, ask a moderator in that forum for help.

Not a criticism but a reminder to new and old... /Moderator

Seat 1F

I am one that does not favor the selling of upgrades at the ticket counter or the gate. I do this the result is a cheapened product and an inferior experience for the passengers. I see this on CO, where it seems they will put anyone in domestic F for an extra $50. Whilst the F service level on CO is better than AA, the overall experience is inferior due to all the Kettles that end up in F. Oddly, CO is quite strict about upgrades to Businessfirst on international flights.

wolf539

Interesting; the one time I flew CO domestic F back in 2010 I found it to be comparable to AA. As to the Kettle quotient; I've seen some real winners traveling in F on AA recently. ORD-LAS seems to bring them out in droves!

thetravelabstract

I am unsure why they were not selling upgrades for your particular flights.

My girlfriend just flew JFK-EZE and T8 is stocked with the self-service kisoks. Before she selected her seats she was offered an upgrade to business class for $550 and this was only an hour before the flight started boarding. Her economy seats were $700 each way and business class were ~$3400. But we decided to save the money.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

At least at one time GA sat USAir will push upgrades for empty F seats, even on award tickets. DL will post available upgrades on the screens at the gate for certain fare codes.

AA does not normally proactively push upgrades other than the occassion kiosk option. Of course most of us EXP like it this way. OTH, is AA not actively going after more revenue.

Mark_T

They probably were offering the upgrades via the Kiosks, but if the OP didn't know to look there and just asked at the gate or ticket counter then they would never have known they were for sale ...

eastbiz

God, I love this sentence. Everyday I get suggestions from customers in my business telling what we should do.. They want to vote what other services we should do, what should be offered for free or lower cost. And they can't understand why we do things the way we do. It just really reminds me about the same questions we are getting.

sica4

At first it might look like it makes no sense, just like when AA eliminated free same day standby.

I am booked on this 10pm flight, but there are open seats on the 5pm, why wouldn't AA let me switch? It opens up a seat on the later flight so if that mythical walk up arrives they can capture more revenue. It should only be in their interest to let me fly earlier, yet they charge $50 to do it.

Why? The issue goes back to when you were booking the flight, not when you're at the airport. Awkward flight times are usually cheaper. It is likely the 5PM was more popular than the 10pm so it had higher fares. If you're price sensitive, why not book the 10pm and then fly standby on the 5pm? I've done this countless times. Sure there was a risk that I'd be stuck on the 10pm, but to save the money I'd book it and more often than not, catch the 5pm. In order to nip this in the bud, they charge to do standby.

This is the same reason for why they don't always sell walk-up upgrades. If a route frequently has open business class, and upgrades cost $500, why would you book a $4000 business ticket when you can book a $1000 coach ticket and pay $500 at the airport? This helps protect their revenue from the J cabin.

formeraa

In the old days, there were also operational reasons why they would not sell upgrades. Depending on the load in the Premium cabins, they might have to add an additonal FA per contract or load additional meals depending on how the meals were packed. Often, they would limit upgrades/non-revs in those cases.