GadgetFreak

Yea, I agree, the ratio of frequent travelers to infrequent travelers is really skewed then. It usually isnt bad to get an upgrade.

mikeef

This is a huge point and one that often benefited me, since I fly from Boston with a connection, so I have priority over O&D traffic, which is typically higher RASM.

The new system is meant to fill as much of the plane as early as possible, to drive up pricing on close-in bookings. It is a disadvantage to those who book at the last minute and pay higher fares, but FTers are a self-selecting group. Obviously, everyone likes to sit up front, but not many people spend as much time thinking about it as we do.

Mike

ratnamg

I know I am going to be shot at but....

As a last minute purchaser of tickets I am not too happy with this change. I am 0 for 3 in the last week and half. The only equalizer here would be the fare basis code. If I am paying more $$ for a business trip than the EXP who booked his/her flight 180 days ago for a N Fare, I would like to see that be included in the equation to make the upgrade decision.

Yes it hurts me when I fly with my family on vacations but that is 1 trip in 100 that I make each year.

purpleskiesfly

I checked in online Saturday evening for my Sunday noon flight. I was not on the upgrade list even though I had selected the option online.

purpleskiesfly

You don't travel on business much do you? I've purchased tickets to various points in Africa the day before I left. Was this an option to plan it early? Yes, but then again, I didn't expect the clients office to get raided by bandits and have to go recover data either.

purpleskiesfly

No scientific basis on this at all but let me throw this out there:

20% of the traveling public accounts for 80% of the travel.

Bonehead

I too am mystified as to why AA adopted this policy. CO's makes much more sense as it is revenue-based; AA's seems to reward those paying the least (as has been noted ad nauseum).

Sam - DFW

if your clients force you to fly to africa in coach with no advanced notice you have a really crappy job and there are probably better places for you to complain. i would suggest spending more time on careerbuilder and less time on FT.

seat selection (exit rows, etc.) is on a first come first serve basis and no one seems to complain about that. the only reason that people here are complaining about upgrades is b/c they can no longer work the system to their advantage. people here were continually upset that the "loopholes" were being rehashed so extensively that their "secret" was getting out and would eventually limit their upgrade opportunities.

loopholes aren't equitable.

while it is very understandable why people here would complain about the system change b/c it really only affects them adversely, the new system makes more sense to the far greater percentage of AA's elite.

Deltahater

Well put.

Stop whining people and put more energy into finding new ways to work the system, rather than complaining about having lost this one....

Mark_T

Not a lot of sympathy here either.

I'm also in the position of rarely making long term travel plans but I can certainly see reasons why AA would want to give incentives to those who commit to flights early as it makes their revenue planning easier than if they have a lot of people booking late.

The old loop-hole was just that, a loop-hole and it allowed those who could exploit it to get an advantage over those who could not that had no basis in status, fare paid, age of booking etc. just the ability to speed-dial at the right moment

I'm still not sure how much of a difference this is going to make to EXP travellers though as if there is plenty of upgrade availability they will still be ahead of the gold queue and a lot of the early booked EXP will have had their upgrades cleared already.

If there isn't much upgrade availability then they just have to join the EXP queue and hope instead of pushing in at the front of the queue regardless.

Seems fair enough to me.

beachfan

This is all about a small group of EXP thinking they are more deserving of privelege than the rest of EXP.

Everyone of you late boolking EXPs jump ahead of us lowly Plats.

236Dakota

Quite a quandry, to share beneficial secrets with the FT community or to keep them secret.

vasantn

Never had a problem with sharing the knowledge; had a major problem with people bragging about their successes.

cordata

When I'm working on a MILLION DOLLAR DEAL I need an upgrade!

I'm helping the economy more than those of you on a visit to Grandma.

Let me propose a simple solution to this problem - when I get a last minute MILLION DOLLAR DEAL I will post a thread there on FT showing the route. For example, I just found a MILLION DOLLAR DEAL in Pittsburgh!

Once you see this thread, EXPs and PLTs will cease requesting upgrades so that I will have appropriate seating for my MILLION DOLLAR DEAL!

Easy!

billgrates3

what if i'm working on a $5M deal, or a 2M euro deal? then you'll have to give up that upgrade!