Empty First Class Seats
 

Good Morning All,
If after the upgrade list has been exhausted and there are still empty seats in first class, will American typically upgrade elite members based on proper ranking order without having to burn 500 mile upgrades or will they simply let the flight go out with empty seats in F?

They'll fill in any non-revs, but they aren't going to roll up economy passengers (without using upgrade instruments) unless economy is oversold.

F will go out with empty seats

sorry... no...

Indeed interesting. Thanks all, much appreciated!

B

If AA upgraded PLTs and GLDs into empty F seats there would be far less incentive to buy stickers at $40 per 500 miles.

It's all about the $ at AA.

I had been on domestic flights with empty F seats (but not lately). Best time to find a flight with empty F seats is last flight on a Saturday night. You might also get one on an RJ that has 12 F seats at off peak times.

With most flights full, non-rev'ers know the flights that are not going to be full (in coach or F) so they choose these flights.

Makes since. My two home airports (virtually the same distance from each other) have RJ aircraft and I am usually consistently upgraded with the 500 mile complimentary into DFW. When leaving JAX heading home on a Friday, its hit or miss. Didn't want to end up burning or buying stickers if I didn't necessary need to but it looks like that's want AA wants you to, understandably so...

cash is king for cheapo-Parker. Remember, he'll never lose money again.

This.

The last sensible thing to do is to sell UG's via sticker and then do them for free for the same people.

OPUP's to prevent an overbooked Y cabin from oversell are a different story, but that's the case on international flights where there are no freebies either.

And this is for non elites as well. I believe typically it will be higher than $40 per 500 miles. Years back I remember LUS selling upgrades at the gate.

It's a for-profit business run for the benefit of its shareholders. Bashing the CEO by name is a popular FT thing, but not in the real world, where generating revenue is a good thing.

Not to mention the use of stickers for GLDs and PLTs came from the LAA side of the business, or pre-Parker.