belynch

Okay -- now this is just weird. I'm playing around co.com and I see that for a different trip I'm taking in a few weeks they're offering me to upgrade for $88 for the outbound and $98 for the "whole trip." Funny thing about that is I'm already confirmed in F for the return. So what are they trying to sell me for that extra $10?

I log-in to my companion's itinerary who is booked exactly the same as me and her buy-up is $588.

What kind of fuzzy math is CO using here?

(For the record I'm well outside the EUA window for these flights so the buy-ups being offered aren't rattling me.)

sbm12

Mileage upgrades book into R.

She's not elite. She has to buy all the way up to a published first class fare.

FullTimeFlyer

I'm mostly still willing to buy CO despite the withering and despair-inducing trend because I can usually get reclining exit row, as a Plat. Then I still pretty commonly get upgraded - sometimes yes on cheap fares, sometime not on really expensive ones when I buy too late. It more or less averages out. I can handle some diminution of upgrade rate as they sell more paid upgrades. I don't like it, and it pushes me away on some flights if I think my chances are better elsewhere, but I can live with it because I know they need the bucks.

But if they start selling out the exit rows from under us, then I am done, as long as there is ANYBODY else that is willing to set them aside for high-value flyers. And I bet there still will be...

FTF

Laughable

looking at my flight SEA-IAH on Thursday. Nobody shows upgraded yet. Selling buy-up for me at $453 one-way (the return was $230, then $459 and now $280-all within 3 days). Started out with 7 available seats as of Sunday and now they say only 2.

I must assume they are being successful with these buy-ups (or miles are being used, although they showed wait listed).

belynch

Ahh. Makes sense.

FullTimeFlyer

I'm a plat and I am consistently seeing buy-up offers for flights on which I'm not upgraded, several days prior to check in or at check-in if I still haven't cleared. So at least on my experience they are offering them to elites too.

FTF

sbm12

Yes, for the difference in fare to a seat that gets an instant upgrade. This isn't new at all.

bocastephen

Buy-ups have opened my eyes to one of the greatest discoveries in psychological pricing exercises.

Joe Shmo logs on and looks for fares - he would never buy F (too expensive!), so he finds a coach fare for $480, and buys it, thinking it's a bargain. Maybe Joe even checked out a F fare for 800, but decided it was too expensive.

So fast forward a few days or weeks...Joe Shmo logs on and co.com says "hey, you can sit in FIRST CLASS for ONLY $160". Joe completely forgets the 480 he already spent, and figures he can get F for only $160 and jumps on it. Same thing on the way back.

So Joe thinks he got a great deal by sitting in F for only $160 each way, while CO just collected the same Z fare Joe could have bought from the get-go.

transportbiz

The only thing that bother me here is that we (elites) were assured this new policy would not affect our EAU's. CO seems to be taking plays from the DL playbook, tell em what you want them to think so they will stay, and then do what you intended to do all along.

bocastephen

Well yes and no. The buy-up policy will take our EUAs because they are selling the F seats. They may be breaking the Y-F pricing into two different transactions and taking advantage of consumer naivete and impulsiveness, but it's no different than selling the F seat outright.

The segment-fee upgrades should not affect our EUAs in any form - and I don't think we've seen any consistent concrete evidence that they area.

I do think they will sell far more buy-ups than ELR seats because the value-prop from the consumer's perspective is far different on a Y-F transaction (as is their price elasticity) than it is on a Y-Y seat change. Just my perception - I guess the ultimate numbers will tell us what's really going on with customers.

sbm12

:-:

Winner!