Cledaybuck

Can someone explain why AA doesn’t offer cash upgrades on award flights? If they are willing to an offer an upgrade after booking a cash flight, why wouldn’t they offer the same for an award flight? Surely the money is good either way.

KDCAflyer

I'm guessing it's a case of the system literally won't allow it. AA's IT is almost as ancient as WN's.

Cledaybuck

I could see that (I have a feeling most airlines IT isn’t exactly cutting edge), although you would think they would find a way when it involves more revenue.

Uzzar

The cash upgrade system is based upon how much you paid for the ticket. The system has no way of quantifying awards, so no cash upgrade can be offered.

Cledaybuck

That's crazy considering the way airlines monetize miles these days. The good news is, it still allows for sometimes great values on redemption on AA, unlike say DL.

And to be honest, who care what you paid for the ticket originally. If you are willing to offer F for x$, what does it matter? I realize many airline systems are not set up like this.

carlosdca

Airlines that have the bid for an upgrade system do allow to bid for an upgrade on award tickets.
It is definitely an issue with the IT system or AA's strategies not that they can't price it.
Everything has a price.

FlyFreakquently

Executive Platinums ARE eligible for upgrades on award tickets.

njvandy

Lots of inaccurate information in this thread.

AA allows free upgrades on domestic award flights for EXP and CK only. It's not an IT issue, just a perk they reserve for top tier elites only.

Cash upgrade offers in the app/on the website are offered based on load factors to all passengers, just as they are for revenue flights. As is always the case, they are not always available and the prices can vary widely.

355F1

Same reason I never get cash upgrade offers on AA tickets booked through AMEX travel, probably.

KDCAflyer

The post is about cash upgrades on award tickets. AA doesn't offer them, while other airlines do. The theory is that AA's IT is so bad that it can't handle it (more likely than AA simply being lazy and leaving revenue on the table on purpose).

ECKOA6

My understanding of the situation is that AA has taken the stance that if you want to upgrade an award flight you’re more than welcome call in, cancel the award and redeem more miles at anytime for a higher cabin. They feel that a mileage redemption is a mileage redemption and that if the customer wanted the higher cabin they would have booked it.

Take this info with a grain of salt as it came from one of those checkup calls from the executive liaison office when my companies spend dropped suddenly with AA and as I was the designated travel manager.

I asked why they don’t allow for example, an SWU to be used on an international award as a follow up and was told I wasn’t the first person they heard that from and it was technically feasible but again a business decision from their understanding.

They definitely are leaving revenue on the table but they seem content with the strategy. I asked the example as I flew my entire family to London in January 2020 on an 18k per person round trip websaver. Both ways had a wide open PE and business cabins and empty upgrade lists. At the airport both in PHX on the way and at LHR on our way back I asked agents if I could use SWUs or the buy up offer but was simply told it was policy to not do that.

steamboatdevil

Probably same thinking as having 1/4 full international flight and not having a single reward ticket available.

ECKOA6

I know there is a balancing act between seat spoilage and devaluing your product but it’s definitely a head scratcher indeed when you have non existent award inventory or simply under and over priced awards in the age of websaver. Part of me thinks if there is an IT shortfall, it is in revenue management software. The past three years must have destroyed RM capacity models but at the moment that is washed out by the high ticket prices currently. Eventually prices will drop as disposable income is going to household needs and staples and they will have to adapt. I feel this is big reason for the zombie scheduling across the industry and it isn’t isolated to AA.

weibelt

That is the official policy.

I have been on odd time low load regional flights where F has been empty and I have been upgraded to F when I was a Gold/PLT (I did not appear on the list) and even with my being upgraded the cabin flew 50% empty. I have also had some partner PE award tickets allow me to appear on the upgrade list. That being said, that is probably less than 5% of the award flights that I have taken. I wish I was EXP and could get on this list for all of them.

dc10forlife

Its possible this is one reason, but having worked at a large corporation setting corporate policy, it rarely boils down to just one thing. I suspect that the other main reason is that AA would also rather you buy the seat outright than use miles. While using miles reduces their future liabilities, that reduction is still less than the revenue generated by a purchased ticket. So if you hold back the upgrade benefit, it incentives the purchase of a ticket rather than using miles from the people who generally have the most miles to use (elites).