rumor : new upgrade co-payment effective 01dec04
 

Check AA.com very carefully on or about 06oct04. Not quite the /hokey/ process of CO,or the restricted fares of DL UA NW, but pretty close.

Any more on this?? source??

JonNYC have you heard anything?

Duh, I just switched from CO! :mad:

I don't like the sound of the title!

But, I don't see anything new on the aa.com site.

well the poster said Oct 6.. this should be interesting...

Usually JonNYC brings us the bad news :D

What exactly is an "upgrade co-payment"? :confused:

I don't know, but the title and information makes it sound like there will be an additional fee of some sort for upgrading off of discount fares.

I could be wrong and, to be 100 percent honest, I hope I am.

Mike

weeeell.... 24 more hours to go before we're supposed to see something on AA.com ..... /me keeps fingers crossed... :confused:

Does this pertain to VP, mileage, and/or sticker upgrades?

from the CO forum-here are the new CO "fees" to upgrade in business, as perhaps a model if AA is going to match competitor...

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In response to declining international fares, effective Jan. 1, 2005, Continental will raise fees to upgrade to BusinessFirst on discounted economy tickets. One-way upgrade fees for tickets booked in B or O class will increase from $300 to $350. Tickets booked in V or U class will see upgrade fees go from $300 to $400 and tickets booked in Q, I, S, W, T, X, or L class will rise from $400 to $450 each way. There are no fees for upgrades for tickets booked in H class (except for flights to or from Hawaii which remain at $200 each way) and the fee for tickets booked in K class will remain unchanged at $200 each way.

So what would the equivalent fares on AA be? How would this impact the EXP upgrade policy?

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I don't know that information--I was looking around the CO forum and found the info--

I don't know alot about CO--but I was really surprised to see that folks had to pay to upgrade to higher classes of service depending on the fares--although it looks as though it's international that is mainly hit--

Except for Hawaii--which gets treated like an international destination it appears.

I did research on CO as I have miles I want to burn. I wasn't able to find the Upgrades I wanted but I did learn a bit. The only good thing about CO is the miles needed is less than the other airlines, 40000 RT to Europe from US, whereas UA and AA are 60000 and 50000 respectively (but they don't charge a fee). The surcharges mentioned in the previous post only applies to BusinessFirst upgrades using miles. If you are traveling form here to Central America/Caribbean on Internaitonal Business (note that it is not "BusinessFirst") then there is not charge for upgrading using miles. CO has 3 distinct classifications for their front cabin, First (most domestic), International Business (short haul international), and BusinessFirst (long haul flights including Hawaii, and transoceanic international flights). The later is the one for which they require an additional fee. If they really worked on it they could have made it a bit more confusing.

I hope AA is not going this route as their current program is what distinguishes them above the rest. If they don't relaize that then I sure hope they read this MB. If they make their program as restrictive as UA or CO then I may have to switch to UA as I live at one of their hubs and flights are more readily available and their metal is better than AA's. I stay at AA because their program is better and their upgrades are easier to obtain. Looking at the rest of their operation they are better than UA on some things and UA is better than them on others. I like both airlines, but as I said twice already the AAdvantage program is better. HELLO, AA are you listening!!

The term "hokey" used by the OP refers to the nickname given to the original version of CO's pay-to-play international upgrade policy: Originally, a CO flyer needed to buy a H, K, or Y fare to be eligible to request an upgrade - lower classes of economy fares were not even eligible (this was changed later). In many cases, CO flyers needed to buy ~$1000 and higher transatlantic fares to qualify for the privelege of paying for their upgrade. :(

If this happens, I predict a 10+ page thread in the near future. :)