Thanks, makes a lot of sense. I' m definitely a "low" Platinum, so I would need to investigate the AA stickers further, as I'd be taking advantage of them, as well as the impact of cc spend on MQM/EQM accumulation. I may perhaps investigate JetBlue, and ultimately determine that standing pat with Delta may emerge as the best option...

Which bucket will the availability come from for regional and global upgrades? For regional, they said the priority will be before the complimentary ones. So I assume the chance will be pretty good. For global, is it last seat availability (doubt it), or Z, or O, or R, or something else? My concern is, it will be worth less if it needs to draw from the same 'low' award space, which is close to non-existent...

Any flyer (domestic or international) on low coach fares is not Delta's target customer these days.

David

Actually, by 1/3.

As one who takes about 6, it's roughly breakeven on the number of actual upgrades I expect. (Perhaps a slight loss.) On the other hand, if I get upgrades to Europe on cheap fares, that's a big win. But who knows if there will be actual inventory?

Why? Some Plats use SWUs successfully, and are complaining here. Most can't, and aren't (at least about that).

DMs who fly in NA will still lose out sometimes to Plats with regional upgrades.

If the seats are the lie-flat, then it's almost reasonable. On my recent flights, they weren't, so free upgrades (or regional upgrades) would make more sense. (Then again, my flight tomorrow is J0 anyway.)

You need 100k miles on American for EP or 100 Segments and American doesn't offer rollover and AFAIK you can't get EQM's on credit cards. If you can't achieve that kind of activity with American but can reach PM on Delta, I would stick with Delta. The upgrade program IMO is a lot better on AA than Delta for highest tiers, but if you can't achieve EP on American, at least you still stand a shot of a free upgrade on Delta and can rollover excess MQM's.

Do we know how upgrade priority shakes out between Traditional SWUs and the new Global upgrades? Will they be treated equally based on medallion level in 2014?

AA EQM can be earned via CC spend:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...=citiexecutive

You can also earn AA EXP with 100,000 EQPs, not just with EQMs or segments.

Yeah, I dont' understand this either. They really must think they're going to get people trading up from $300-400 coach fares to $2500-3500 business class fares by all but eliminating upgrades on this route. I think that's very unlikely because the fare differential is just too great for anyone who's paying with their own money (or a small business), and most business travelers fly where their corporate travel policy allows. You can be sure that if my policy allowed J on a transcon, I would NOT be buying Y and hoping for the upgrade. Even a few years ago when CO was offering confirmed-at-booking upgrades to elites on YB(M) fares, I'd still buy the first class because it was only $100-200 more and provided better protection in IRROPs, higher priority if I wanted to stand by for an earlier flight, and additional RDMs.

So DL is basically just pi55ing a bunch of frequent fliers off and it's not going to get them much more revenue. But it'll sure make the employees happy!

I think many of us AA fliers are trying to be optimistic, particularly that Parker will run the airline more like AA than US. US never had any opportunity to be run as a "world-class" airline that garners a big revenue premium, so he had to go the low cost route. But only time will tell.

Well, the difference on JFK-LHR and JFK-LAX is not that great, maybe a half hour. But the difference on LHR-JFK vs. LAX-JFK is huge, LHR is almost twice as long. LHR is 40% further by mileage.

Yikes, it sounds like the only improvement is the lack of fare restrictions on the new GUs, exclusive to DMs. Admittedly, that's big. And I guess Western US - HI upgrades. But every other change seems negative to me.

JFK DM here. I do about 20 JFK->LAX/SFO legs per year so this was a tough pill to swallow. I've always thought the transcon upgrade was one of the best benefit of SM and since on most days it went to high fare DMs and PMs at the gate, not one where Delta is gaining much by taking it away from us.

Any reason I shouldn't just go for EP on AA? Seems like I'll get my tcon upgrades plus some usable SWU for leisure international travel.

Thanks. Didn't realize you could earn EQM's with their credit card. They aren't nearly as generous as Delta is with MQM's on a credit card.

If you are doing 20 JFK-LAS/SFO trips a year definitely go for EP on American.

Hard telling what changes American will make post merger but right now you would probably be better off with American.

Of my dozens if BIS on these routes...

JFK - LHR = ~3451 miles, varies between about 7 and 8 hours
JFK - LAX = ~2475 miles, varies between 5h45m and about 6h30m
LAX - JFK = ~2475 miles, varies between 4h20m and ~5h IME
JFK - LHR = ~3451 miles, varies between about 5h50 and 6h45m

It really comes down to the wind...vice distance...and only in extreme circumstances has LHR JFK taken almost 2x the LAX JFK flight.

I mostly agree.

DL is trying to fill the gap with EC, but EC doesn't get you more lateral room or even the guarantee of a power outlet (IIRC it's 2 per 3 seats). If EC morphed into W on the TCONs that might keep me interested.

It's not like the current changes will get me to buy J. Just today I booked a (pre-March) TCON at $320 in Y. I got a buy up offer for "only" $1900 each way. I can't even imagine trying to pass that through on my expense report. I may as well just buy the whole row in coach.

Definitely EXP on AA given the current program options