WiscAZ

Just read and article by TPG hat says AA has now come back and said that non MCE travel long customers will not be able to move to an open MCE seat. Seems they listened to the crews concerns.

ibrandsguest

Ugh, I see that Delta allows upgrades to Comfort Plus for my status level (50,000 mile/year level) 3 days before departure. So I assume AA will implement the same.

As Delta allows free unlimited upgrades to first class, will AA also do that? I'm guessing not.

I miss US Airways.

ijgordon

AA allows free unlimited upgrades to first class for 75k+ flyers. It used to be only 100k, but they expanded it with a new status level. Until recently sub-100k flyers always had to use earned or purchased "stickers" for first class upgrades. There's really NO reason to think anything will change in the near future. DL's elite upgrade program for first class didn't change. The more likely change, IMO, is on international flights once premium economy is fully rolled out. It's easy to envision AA (and/or DL) only allowing Y->PE and PE->J upgrades, or maybe Y->J for additional miles. But I can't imagine any significant changes in domestic first class upgrades.

ryan182

I saw this update on the MCE self-upgrade situation on Lucky's blog and...wow. I simply cannot fathom how someone in leadership wrote these words and didn't stop and realize how absurd it sounds:
What American Management Says About Self-Upgrading To Main Cabin Extra - One Mile at a Time

That was their number one priority!?! Not providing a higher value service to customers that paid a premium or who earned MCE due to loyalty or even finding ways to increase ancillary revenue through increased MCE sales...nope priority #1 was to make sure that any changes didn't add any additional work for the FAs. :facepalm:

Its so bizarre because in so many other areas AA is trying ways to squeeze nickels out of folks and yet in this case seem happy to be the sole domestic carrier that will allow folks to move into seats they would normally charge for.

Gig103

So now we're copying Southwest, too? No assigned seats for BE passengers, and a seat free-for-all after door close?

WiscAZ

This has since been reversed. AA is not going to allow customers to move into MCE if there are open seats.

Rebob

Hope that remains the case. I was just imagining myself on a flight where all H-E-double hockey sticks break out when people from the back start fighting for the empty MCE seats.

beachfan

Are you saying AA management has directed the flight attendants to enforce those rules?

beachfan

That isn't what the article said. It said that "they should not be able" and if a flight attendent is asked, they should say no. if the self upgrader doesn't, management doesn't expect anything from the attendants.

beachfan

Duplicate

DeltaFlyingProf

Going a bit off topic here but I agree.
About a year ago, I was in F on a transcon, and a young lady gets in, puts her bag in one of the first overhead. So I thought she was in F. But then she proceeded to walk all the way back to Y. After boarding was complete, there were only 3 pax in F. I mischievously suggested to the FA that I should move the bag to the rear F overhead and when the lady would look for her bag, she could inform her that it was moved. The FA agreed with the plan and I went ahead with it. 😈

WiscAZ

There is a new article:

https://thepointsguy.com/2018/01/aa-cracking-down-on-self-upgrades/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Ed itorial&utm_campaign=FACEBOOK-100000138464120

From the article: "A TPG reader who is also a member of AA’s cabin crew out of Phoenix (PHX) reports that crews are now “being informed that self upgrades will not be allowed onboard. Purchase must be made at the gate or during booking.”

beachfan

That's the one I'm talking about. There is nothing about enforcement in that memo.

beachfan

Duplicate

WiscAZ

Yeah I mean I'm just quoting what the article says. No idea whether any thing formal has been presented.