Jan 2, 2013, 4:01 am
Last edit by: Prospero
Glossary:
500 mile upgrades: earned by Gold and Platinum Elites, can be used to upgrade segments in 500 mile increments of North and Central America, Caribbean flights from Economy to the next class of service.. Read below.
e500: Occasional nickname used for 500 mile upgrades.
Electronic or 500 mile upgrades: non-expiring electronic instruments used for near Americas and Caribbean elite upgrades; please read below.
MTEU: Miles Toward Electronic Upgrades. The MTEU earning year zeroes February 28.
Stickers: Holdover name from when 500 mile upgrades were actual stickers applied to tickets when upgraded.
UDU: Unlimited Domestic Upgrades granted EXP and PRO members in lieu of earning or using 500 mile upgrades. (Consequently, they do not earn “stickers”.)
Related thread: End of Feb insufficient miles for 4 500 mile upgrade stickers (2017). (Requesting "stickers" for incremental MTEU threshold accomplishment.)
NOTE: CHANGES in effect as of 1 January 2017:
Upgrade priority:
Platinum Pro status holders join Executive Platinum members with complimentary "Unlimited Domestic Upgrades / UDU.
Companions:
ONE passenger traveling with you can “borrow” your status for upgrade purposes. They do not have to be on the same PNR. When this is done, you’ll not be upgraded unless sufficient upgrade seats become available to upgrade two (or more) people. This link often is broken when the flight control goes to the airport, and it can be reestablished there (e.g. at the gate). A good clue that the link has broken is if you’re #1 or 2 and your companion is significantly below that on the upgrade list, such as #11. Finally, because of IT flaws, the 500 mile upgrades for your traveling companion will by necessity come from your account, even if your companion has their own “stickers”. This has not been true for some time, if your companion has status, the system will try to pull the stickers from the companion's account. If there are not enough stickers, you will have to check-in at the airport to have stickers pulled from your account
For questions about whether to split or consolidate PNRs for itineraries involving multiple parties, please see this thread:
Companion upgrade issues including "link" / split PNR for status etc. (master thread)
Link to aa.com 500 mile upgrades (AKA "stickers") page.
Link to aa.com to "Upgrade your experience".
500 mile upgrades: earned by Gold and Platinum Elites, can be used to upgrade segments in 500 mile increments of North and Central America, Caribbean flights from Economy to the next class of service.. Read below.
e500: Occasional nickname used for 500 mile upgrades.
Electronic or 500 mile upgrades: non-expiring electronic instruments used for near Americas and Caribbean elite upgrades; please read below.
MTEU: Miles Toward Electronic Upgrades. The MTEU earning year zeroes February 28.
Stickers: Holdover name from when 500 mile upgrades were actual stickers applied to tickets when upgraded.
UDU: Unlimited Domestic Upgrades granted EXP and PRO members in lieu of earning or using 500 mile upgrades. (Consequently, they do not earn “stickers”.)
Related thread: End of Feb insufficient miles for 4 500 mile upgrade stickers (2017). (Requesting "stickers" for incremental MTEU threshold accomplishment.)
NOTE: CHANGES in effect as of 1 January 2017:
Upgrade priority:
- Elite tier
- Systemwide and Mileage award upgrades
- Business Extra and certain Agency upgrade certificates
- 500-mile / courtesy DODU / UDU upgrades on purchased tickets
- 500-mile upgrades on PRO, EXP award tickets
- Last 12 month rolling EAD spend
- Fare code
- Date if purchase
Platinum Pro status holders join Executive Platinum members with complimentary "Unlimited Domestic Upgrades / UDU.
- Usable to upgrade from Economy to next class of service (Not Business to First)
- Flights 500 miles or less: Unlimited, auto-requested complimentary upgrades*
- Flights over 500 miles: Complimentary "domestic" (North & Central America, Caribbean) upgrades
- Upgrade one companion traveling with you on the same flight with 500-mile upgrades*
Companions:
ONE passenger traveling with you can “borrow” your status for upgrade purposes. They do not have to be on the same PNR. When this is done, you’ll not be upgraded unless sufficient upgrade seats become available to upgrade two (or more) people. This link often is broken when the flight control goes to the airport, and it can be reestablished there (e.g. at the gate). A good clue that the link has broken is if you’re #1 or 2 and your companion is significantly below that on the upgrade list, such as #11. Finally, because of IT flaws, the 500 mile upgrades for your traveling companion will by necessity come from your account, even if your companion has their own “stickers”. This has not been true for some time, if your companion has status, the system will try to pull the stickers from the companion's account. If there are not enough stickers, you will have to check-in at the airport to have stickers pulled from your account
For questions about whether to split or consolidate PNRs for itineraries involving multiple parties, please see this thread:
Companion upgrade issues including "link" / split PNR for status etc. (master thread)
Link to aa.com 500 mile upgrades (AKA "stickers") page.
Link to aa.com to "Upgrade your experience".
AA "Sticker" / 500-mile & EXP "UDU" Complimentary Upgrade Policy / FAQ
Apr 3, 2018, 2:42 am
#31
Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
To be sure you understand the ins and outs of 500 mile upgrades, do take a look at https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...questions.html, particularly reading the Wikipost.
Apr 3, 2018, 6:19 am
#32
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AA Executive Platinum/Million Miler, Marriott Titanium Elite-Lifetime, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,217
If the fare difference is less than $600 and if you really want to fly First, I'd call ASAP to just buy up to First and forget about using 500 mile upgrades. (IMHO) I'm having a little trouble understanding how you're determining these prices, though. What is the F fare PHL-PDX? Not the F fare PHL-LAX and then LAX-PDX.
Apr 3, 2018, 7:31 am
#33
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: USA
Programs: Chase Sapphire Reserve, WFBF
Posts: 1,573
I'm curious about how people use their sticker upgrades. I've never used one.
I almost never flew AA before the merger, and when I was elite it was usually on US or DL, who both have unlimited free upgrades. Since the merger I've accumulated 11 stickers. They accrue pretty slowly, even not counting for the rounding-up you get stickers for 16% of your flown miles; used to be 20%.
In a couple weeks I'm flying PHL-LAX-PDX. Y was $183, F was $565, a difference of $380. It would take 7 stickers to upgrade, which would cost $280. By buying F I get extra EQMs, and I'd have almost no chance of being upgraded anyway on the PHL-LAX leg. Admittedly this is possibly an extreme example. I think paid PHL-LAX is about $220 in Y and $1020 in F, so that would be $800 fare difference vs. $200 worth of stickers. ("Hidden City" pricing is of course in play here, but no I'm not playing that game, I'm going to PDX.)
Unless you're EXP, or Plat Pro since there has been Plat Pro, you're going to earn stickers much more slowly than you will fly. I'm saving mine because I never know when I might have a really stressful trip and want to treat myself, or maybe have a traveling companion I want to impress.
Do people buy stickers and then try to upgrade as often as possible?
I almost never flew AA before the merger, and when I was elite it was usually on US or DL, who both have unlimited free upgrades. Since the merger I've accumulated 11 stickers. They accrue pretty slowly, even not counting for the rounding-up you get stickers for 16% of your flown miles; used to be 20%.
In a couple weeks I'm flying PHL-LAX-PDX. Y was $183, F was $565, a difference of $380. It would take 7 stickers to upgrade, which would cost $280. By buying F I get extra EQMs, and I'd have almost no chance of being upgraded anyway on the PHL-LAX leg. Admittedly this is possibly an extreme example. I think paid PHL-LAX is about $220 in Y and $1020 in F, so that would be $800 fare difference vs. $200 worth of stickers. ("Hidden City" pricing is of course in play here, but no I'm not playing that game, I'm going to PDX.)
Unless you're EXP, or Plat Pro since there has been Plat Pro, you're going to earn stickers much more slowly than you will fly. I'm saving mine because I never know when I might have a really stressful trip and want to treat myself, or maybe have a traveling companion I want to impress.
Do people buy stickers and then try to upgrade as often as possible?
On PHL-LAX-PDX I would be surprised if you clear PHL-LAX, although again it depends on the date and time-- Tuesday for instance would probably give you better luck than Friday. If you want to fly in F on your trip and you think it is worthwhile, I would strongly suggest just upfaring to F. As you said, you will earn extra EQM etc. If you are fine in MCE, then request the upgrade and there's a small chance you will be pleasantly surprised.
By the way one advantage of sticker upgrades is you can upgrade a single segment. So you could request the upgrade on PHL-LAX and not on LAX-PDX. That would only take 5 stickers and you might feel it is more worth it for the longer segment.
Apr 3, 2018, 8:00 am
#34
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,239
Do people buy stickers and then try to upgrade as often as possible?
Apr 3, 2018, 10:30 am
#35
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,551
If the fare difference is less than $600 and if you really want to fly First, I'd call ASAP to just buy up to First and forget about using 500 mile upgrades. (IMHO) I'm having a little trouble understanding how you're determining these prices, though. What is the F fare PHL-PDX? Not the F fare PHL-LAX and then LAX-PDX.
I've bought F fares for upcoming trips to both destinations on the daily A330. I'm sure a lot of people like me will consider it more worthwhile to fly F when you're getting an A330 Envoy Suite than a regular domestic F seat. And likewise I'm sure more people would try to use sticker upgrades.
I do understand how they work. I was just curious about the volume of discussion about them, because AA is fairly stingy about giving them out.
Apr 3, 2018, 11:17 am
#36
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, AS MVPG, HH Diamond, NCL Platinum Plus, MSC Diamond
Posts: 21,422
I'm working a little from memory here, but I think the F fare PHL-PDX is $565, and PHL-LAX is $1020. So it's much cheaper if you continue on to PDX. That's why I referred to the hidden city trick - this would be a prime candidate route for using it, although I'm actually going to PDX. PHL-LAS is also about $615, so again cheaper to fly PHL-LAX-LAS than PHL-LAX.
I've bought F fares for upcoming trips to both destinations on the daily A330. I'm sure a lot of people like me will consider it more worthwhile to fly F when you're getting an A330 Envoy Suite than a regular domestic F seat. And likewise I'm sure more people would try to use sticker upgrades.
I do understand how they work. I was just curious about the volume of discussion about them, because AA is fairly stingy about giving them out.
I've bought F fares for upcoming trips to both destinations on the daily A330. I'm sure a lot of people like me will consider it more worthwhile to fly F when you're getting an A330 Envoy Suite than a regular domestic F seat. And likewise I'm sure more people would try to use sticker upgrades.
I do understand how they work. I was just curious about the volume of discussion about them, because AA is fairly stingy about giving them out.
Apr 3, 2018, 1:01 pm
#37
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: AA Executive Platinum/Million Miler, Marriott Titanium Elite-Lifetime, Hilton Gold
Posts: 3,217
I'm working a little from memory here, but I think the F fare PHL-PDX is $565, and PHL-LAX is $1020. So it's much cheaper if you continue on to PDX. That's why I referred to the hidden city trick - this would be a prime candidate route for using it, although I'm actually going to PDX. PHL-LAS is also about $615, so again cheaper to fly PHL-LAX-LAS than PHL-LAX.
Apr 3, 2018, 7:44 pm
#38
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Live: IWI; Work: DCA/Everywhere; Play: LAS/SJU/MLE
Programs: AA EXP, DL PM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Ambassador/LTP, Nat'l Exec Elite, LEYE Gold
Posts: 6,675
The practice of hidden-city ticketing is one of many observations you could make in discussing your question, but it has zero relevance to your question, so it makes sense that now you're getting exactly the responses you probably meant to preempt rather than invite.
As for your actual question, when I was gold & plat (and when my wife was gold), we would always put in for the upgrades. We had pretty good success (better than the average reported success here on FT) but mostly because of the DCA routes we were flying. Thus, every now and then we'd have a shortage in upgrades and I'd buy whatever we needed plus 4ish more a person. When I went from plat to EXP a few years ago I ended up with 20 or so stickers in my account, but I've used many of them upgrading co-workers so I'm down to 5. Wife is PPRO and just has the 14 in her account that she accrued in her last ~45k miles of flying, which was all from one trip in J last December. She'll probably drop back down to gold or plat next year and revert to applying them on every trip. Advice above is good re: picking/choosing which segments are "worth it," but of course PHL-LAX is more "worth it" and less "likely to clear" where as LAX-PDX may be less worth it but more likely to clear.
Final point, I wouldn't save stickers for that one trip where you really want to treat yourself or will be stressed. That'll end up being the day where you're #48 of 60 on the upgrade list with the flight oversold. When you want to treat yourself, buy F or fly private.
Apr 4, 2018, 8:25 am
#39
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,239
^ This is an important point worth highlighting. Which is why some of us request all segments and take what we can get. And yes, when it's important, just buy F or request a mileage upgrade (although those have become more difficult to confirm at booking with the switch from A to C inventory).
Apr 4, 2018, 10:18 am
#41
Moderator: American AAdvantage, Travel Safety/Security & Texas, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: AUS / GRK
Programs: AA, HHonors, Hertz
Posts: 13,492
Envoy Suite is the business class product of US Airways, and is on the A330's.
As to using stickers...when I was Plat, I always requested upgrades, but rarely got them. They gave me a boatload when my account converted from US to AA, and just to maintain Plat I've received a bunch every year since. I have 46 in my account right now, but won't need them (since I'm EXP), unless I have a traveling companion.
As to using stickers...when I was Plat, I always requested upgrades, but rarely got them. They gave me a boatload when my account converted from US to AA, and just to maintain Plat I've received a bunch every year since. I have 46 in my account right now, but won't need them (since I'm EXP), unless I have a traveling companion.
Apr 4, 2018, 3:57 pm
#42
Join Date: May 2008
Location: PHL (kinda, no airport is really close)
Programs: AA Exp, but not sure for how long. Enterprise Platinum woo-hoo!
Posts: 4,551
My point about the envoy suites is that AA has a limited number of domestic flights on internationally-equipped A330's. These have sleeper seats and in some case "premium economy" seats comparable to domestic first class. But they don't have a separate pricing structure for them, so the sleeper seats are priced as first class, and the PE are priced as MCE. So if you purchase an "F" seat on these flights you're getting a much bigger bump in product. So I'd assume many more people (myself included) will purchase these seats, where they might not otherwise buy an F ticket.
Apr 6, 2018, 7:26 pm
#43
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 315
This week I had an Anytime award booked within 24hr of departure and I was offered "request 500-mile upgrade" options. Is this a new thing or some kind of system glitch? I didn't have chance to test it due to insufficient stickers.
Edit: I'm only Plat, not EXP.
Edit: I'm only Plat, not EXP.
Apr 8, 2018, 9:43 am
#44
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Las Vegas
Programs: DL DM, AA PlatPro, Hilton DM, Hyatt Glob, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC, National EE
Posts: 1,532
Apr 8, 2018, 10:06 am
#45
Join Date: Jul 2001
Programs: AA EP
Posts: 2,203
Started about a year ago.