joan24

I don't know if my post belongs under this thread of not. It's just a comment on booking BE seats today for next May, ATL/TLV. There was only a $200 fare difference between upgrading using 50,000 miles and cash or just paying without miles. It's been a year since I upgraded and was really surprised that a fare that I could upgrade was $3300. As someone said, we all have choices and we chose to save the miles for a domestic flight.

jonecasey

If BE upgrades were given away in the same manner as Domestic upgrades many fewer people would be purchasing BE and hoping for upgrades .... not revenue for DL.

Spiff

Funny how AA and UA manage those expectations quite nicely...

hfly

Funny how in the real world I only know AA fliers who book within 3 weeks who never ever get upgrades from those low fares.

Spiff

My last 3 flights in AA J have had empty seats.

Unlike DL's pathetic excuses for restricting Z class capacity, AA will happily fill the J cabin with anyone on a purchased fare who is willing to pony up the eVIP or miles + co-pay. The same is true of AA's F cabin which DL doesn't even have, for someone purchasing a J, D, or I class ticket and is willing to pay the upgrade currency.

hfly

Cute spiff, how long in advance did you purchase your tickets and in what season?

Spiff

Far and summer.

However if any passenger wanted to upgrade into J and was willing to pay the appropriate currency, AA would have happily upgraded them.

InTokyo

I've always just paid for Biz on whatever airline has the best deal for where I want to go. Now that I actually have some status here on Delta, I am slowly becoming obsessed with advancing to the next tier..........

Anyways, my question:

Can I purchase a coach fare and ask for a cash upgrade at check-in? This is very common at United. I've never tried it but I really need to start cutting back on the amount I spend on air travel.

This would be for travel originating in Tokyo.

PMMMDL

Not on Delta. Delta does not do same day business elite cash upgrades. The only B/E Delta upgrades are using SWUs or miles.

hfly

Ofcourse you can do a cash upgrade, pay the difference between your fare and the cheapest biz fare available. Spiff, different planets, those who travel frequently for business and do so with short notice do not get any advantage from AA's program.

Spiff

I don't agree.

My last international AA flight had several open J seats. If anyone bought a walk-up coach fare and was willing to present an eVIP or miles + copay, that J seat would have been theirs regardless of what that walk-up coach fare had cost or whether it was inside 24 hours.

AA does make it easier for EXP who purchase tickets in advance to upgrade but I can't agree that those who buy last minute are always screwed.

PMMMDL

I agree with you here Spiff, in that my problem with AA is the lack of available upgrade seats at the time of advance booking. I don't book last minute, but there is no way I can book 360 days in advance. AA's SWUs are normally only useful if you are willing to risk flying in coach.

hfly

Yes Spiff an the walk up coach fare would most likely be a full Y, so yes they could shell out $2-5k and get upgraded eVIP, miles or copay. Whoopee

Spiff

Maybe. Maybe not. Even if that person bought a Q or O fare, they would be able to upgrade. Not so on DL, regardless of time of purchase. I'll take that any day over pay for M/B/Y and take your chances.

And regardless of fare purchased or time purchased, every unsold seat in the J or F cabin on AA is converted to upgrade inventory by (close to) departure time rather than allowed to go empty or given to non-revs.

hfly

Spiff, you are correct in fact, but not spirit. I do not have the time to do it, but I would be able to wager money taht if you wait until midnight tonight and search Y avails for the same day on every Transatlantic flight that AA offers for tomorrow (same day) you will not find anything available but full Y fares or at best the top 2-3 fare classes which is of course the exact same as YBM on DL, which in actual fact ruins your point. DL also does same day upgrades now for these fares, and AA will stick non-revs in Biz, so I don't know what you are talking about.

Remember recently when some UA FF's were so "rah-rah" about their upgrade opportunities and a bunch of random samples showed that for flights within 21 days UA was more expensive about a third of the time, the same a third of a time and cheaper a third of the time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and all the differences were generally in the $200 range?? (oh yeah some genious used ORD-JNB as an example where UA was much cheaper........oh yeah, but you'd spend twice as much time flying, you would change planes three times rather than once, and most importantly for the last and longest leg, you'd be flying in Y)