ChromePlanet

Help me understand something. If you want a guaranteed First Class seat, nothing in the entire convoluted AA tier system of levels and priorities will help you if buy a coach ticket. It’s all subject to whatever’s left after those seats are actually sold. So who in their right mind, even a lifetime executive platinum member, would risk booking a coach seat and rely on the luck of the draw to get an upgrade? You could have spent your entire life getting that status and still not get into First Class on a 6 hour flight from LA to New York? The people spending that kind of money are just going to book First Class to begin with. So this whole program is just smoke and mirrors.

Let's say I gamble on getting an upgrade because, hey, maybe I can fly First Class for ⅓ the price and who couldn't use some extra cash? Then If I’m put in a coach seat for a 6 hour flight at $350, you could approach me in the aisle before the door is closed and ask me and OF COURSE I would be willing to pay an extra $700 to get into First Class at that point, having lost the gamble. But by then it will be too late if I were to rely on upgrades and no seats were available, I’d be ....ed. So why would I ever not just buy a First Class ticket?

So in this sense, the entire system of getting you involved in some kind of game show by which you may or may not win a lottery ticket into First Class is really just a casino to get a "prize" and never a worry-free way to travel in comfort no matter how much you spend or achieve. The only way into First Class for sure is to buy a First Class ticket. So why play all the games with the levels and the rules and the upgrades and the segments and the qualifiers and the crowds and the waiting and the hoping and the praying? Isn't flying these days anxiety-inducing enough? Just to save a few hundred dollars, or over time, a few thousand a year? Anyone who spends more than $5000 a year anyway should be on AirPass... real First Class tickets spent from a pre-paid account with unlimited no-fee last-minute flight changes.

shaddie

So every FF out there is in same circumstances as you?

I am not going to go into every variety of FF that are in the sky’s cause I think you already know that.

StevenSeagalFan

If I want a guaranteed first class seat, I buy a first class ticket.

QueenOfCoach

1. Check Expert Flyer for C and A upgrades. Find a route and day that suits your needs, making sure you have enough miles.
2. Put that Coach ticket for that exact day and routing on hold.
3. Immediately phone and say "I have a ticket on hold. I will buy that ticket if there is a miles upgrade available." You already know there is a miles upgrade available.
4. Finalize the purchase.

Why have elite status? Because you have a higher multiplier when you are flying. Same number of miles, higher multiplier, more miles in your acct.

I've done that in the past, pre-pandemic. I haven't flown since March. I hope it still works now. I am open to correction or clarification.

anaggie

Lifetime exec plat?
You have been a member since 2003 and this is your complaint?

LondonElite

I find that if I want to sit in a first class seat, I will purchase a first class seat. It usually works out pretty well. If I purchase an economy ticket I have a slight hope that my shiny card will move me from the unwashed in the back to the front, but I find that I'm often disappointed. Whenever I point out the shininess of my card, and the privileges it presumes to confer, my protestations appear to fall on deaf ears.

donotblink

Executive Platinum give four systemwide upgrades per year that can be confirmed in advanced if there is C inventory as QueenOfCoach explained. If you book last minute, you can get confirmed when you book and see what's available. Some of us are ok with flying in coach.

Antarius

And some of us can't book anything but coach domestic for work. So upgrades are a bonus!

I've managed to sit up front on 95% of my flights, so if AA is scamming me, they're doing a pretty lousy job

AAExecPlatFlier

​​​​​​​​​​ ​​​​ Yeah big scam. Funny how it comes up after what 40 years of the program??? Wish we had all known. 😏😏😏

TravelerMSY

Newsflash- airlines would rather sell a seat than give it away

I got off the status treadmill ages ago as a self-funded leisure traveler. Status is great, of course, but actually flying a lot (in economy) to earn it? Not so much. When it’s important to me, I’ll scheme for the confirmed seat I want, either with miles or money, The days of high upgrade percentages on routes where a premium cabin is really worth it are a unicorn

The only good reason, IMO, to chase top-tier status, is if you’re going to have to fly anyway for work, which I imagine describes most of AA’s upper tier members.

Microwave

As this thread isn’t specific to American or AAdvantage, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere in any event, I’m going to close it down.

~Moderator