Flyer_Brit

Looks like a fairly major change coming for AA Elites. Great for Plat Pros, less great for Golds who will probably be even less likely to get an upgrade!

cmtlatitudes

Also per JonNYC's tweet:

applies to upgrade one companion traveling on the same flight.

Upgrades to be confirmed by criteria:
-Advantage status
-Loyalty Points earned during the past 12 month

Will these upgrades be administered at the Gate, or confirmed in advance? It's increasingly difficult to purchase a first/business class ticket at the last minute (1-3 days before) as it is.

Antarius

Exactly the same as normal complimentary upgrades I would imagine. if AA releases R inventory, you can clear in advance.

What I am not clear is whether the criteria is only the 2 above or the existing EP/CK criteria where award tickets clear AFTER all paid tickets in an elite tier (ranked by LP). Currently an EXP with 500k LPs on an award ticket would clear after an EXP with 120k on a paid ticket. The above either may not be complete, or award tickets are now the same priority as paid tickets?

aisleorwindow

Nice. Gonna go rebook some short haul domestic award tickets to economy and roll the dice on this.

njvandy

The ability to upgrade award tickets was the only reason I've been scraping and clawing my way towards requalifying for EXP. It's the only meaningful differentiator vs Plat Pro for those of us who don't travel much internationally and don't value SWUs so highly.

Antarius

Upgrade priority too

A321T

Personally I'm still really motivated by the EXP phone line too.

njvandy

I'm fortunate to have the flexibility to fly at off peak times and pick/choose based on load factors, aircraft types, and other factors to maximize my chances at upgrades. I'm a low LP EXP and haven't missed a domestic upgrade in 2 years with roughly 1/3 of my flights on award tickets.

wutlol

They are now the same priority from 9th onwards.

2ndTOTY

Anyone have any idea if you will be able to apply SWUs on international award tickets now? Assume no but that would truly be a big game changer in some of the markets with expensive Y fares

JJeffrey

Of course not, this has nothing to do with SWU's or long haul international award tickets. Nothing is changing there.

jamiel

Phooey--might have pushed the issue last night. Gold here. Was flying LGA-DTW on a flight purchased with Avios (which means that the BA number sticks to the reservation and I couldn't change it). Was successful at getting counter agent to change to my AAdvantage number, then successfully changed seats to Main Select for both of us. (with no one next to me, what I had was a perfectly OK seat). Couldn't quite tell if F went out full but entire flight was pretty light (also 1 1/2 hours late; and service only on request in Y....they kept the lights off the entire flight).

nineworldseries

Wow, I am going to need today to process this information. My first instinct is outrage, as the award upgrades were the #1 reason I put so much effort, time, money into getting EXP (from zero) last year. Now, I'm not sure that for me, there's much meaningful difference between PP and EXP at all.

I'm a 100% domestic AA flyer and about 75% of my flights are on miles, so the award upgrades were my #1 reason to chase EXP. I don't care at all about SWUs. The extra 2 LPs for flying doesn't benefit me much as I don't pay for most flights.

The one other thing I value the most about EXP is the free SDC. Wow, have I used the crap out of those over the last six months or so. Almost every trip I am SDCing my return flights. But this is also free for PP. No difference there.

EXP line has been nice, but i've also found that Twitter is just as fast and reliable for what i want to do. I also already have an Admirals Club membership to help with IRROPS, but when things hit the fan, EXP standby priority would probably be good insurance. Enough to outlay more $ this year to get it? Meh.

For me, one positive change though: award upgrades for EXP no longer below paid upgrades. Maybe this might snag me one of those CMH-PHX upgrades, maybe? Not sure how valuable this will really be for me.

So it seems as if EXP's advantage over PP has been very much watered down, and now really the only possible calculus for me is do I push from 125k to 175k and then 200k this year or just stay at 125k. Probably I'll push just to get more RDMs, but I'm not quite as excited about it. Before this announcement, the question was 200k or 250k.

ikwia

This is unfortunate for those fond of grabbing last-minute inexpensive premium cabin awards.

fotographer

will it really make much of a difference.. F is it seems always going out full... so chances of any empty seat before flight seems very low