500 mile upgrades worthless? have 40 never been able to use any
 

Hi - wondering if 500 miles are worthless?

I have 40 and have never ever been able to use any of them.

Fly on cheap tickets with platinum status but usually fly on busy routes.

Wondering if others have a ton of upgrades as well.

Kind of pointless - wondering if its better for them to let you bid how many points to bid for upgrade (of-course Exec platinum policy would have to be different)

im also platinum and have had a little bit of success, mainly on late night flights or near empty ones. But similarly, on busy routes its impossible when only 1-2 people out of 50+ get upgraded.

Welcome to FT! I wouldn't call them worthless, but yes if you're flying ORD-SFO Monday and Thursday you're going to have a hard time using them. It all comes down to where you want to go and when you want to go there.

I have had good experience as a PLT using them on AE flights with an F cabin. Maybe its not the same bang for the buck you would get on a transcon but it beats having them languish.

can you sell them to the airline back for points?

I used to turn them in to AA -- the ones I've earned from flying -- at a rate of 4 500-milers for 10,000 AA miles. But then AA devalued the rate to such a low rate that I stopped doing that. But now that the usefulness of those stickers is so limited for me that I don't even try to use them anymore, perhaps I should look at cashing out the remaining ones before another devaluation hits the program (and/or program miles).

In addition to where and when you fly, aircraft type also matters. On an A319, sticker upgrades are highly unlikely.

What did they offer you for each 500 mile upgrade?

2500 miles for each 500-mile upgrade on average, but those days are long gone. Later, it became something like 500 miles per 500-mile upgrade, and that was the last I considered this.

Ahh ok, thanks. 2500 isnt bad, but 500 is ridiculous.

I've a 180 of the darn things... cant use them on international flights, so they keep piling up

I did get rid of a bynch of them a few years ago... ah... the good old days :P

I am EP on AA but have been platinum in the past. they are generally quite useless (I have 76). the only time they come in handy is on light routes when you are flying with family and they can get upgraded. this is unlikely but recently flew from LAX to CABO SAN LUCAS (quick 2 hour flight) and so my daughter sat with me in first (only required one 500 miler).

Welcome to FT! As others have mentioned, it's route, time, and aircraft dependent.

I qualify for Gold on segments with the occasional year as Platinum (could easily make Platinum if I put all my travel on AA but I go for timing/convenience/cost over loyalty). This means that I have low EQM earning so I earn them very infrequently. I do have good luck redeeming them (including recently on DCA-MIA for myself and a companion, which cleared at T-24). As a result I am the odd one out on these boards who routinely has a single digit number of upgrades in the bank. Currently I have 7 but only have that many because I wrote in asking for partial credit at the end of the year.