what percentage of all SWUs, CR1s, eVIPs, upgrade certificates, expire unused each year?

Exactly 17.2318%.

why do you ask?

don't know about the US, but here in india the airlines are pretty good to extending the expiry dates....i've got a few upgrades certs extended by upto 6 months....

AA and UA have been known to extend one or two SWU each year by exception for about 3 months. One certainly cannot count on it!

CO - just started giving 4 upgrade certs this year - no fare restrictions so I doubt many will expire. CO also allows them to be used for other people making them easier to use.

DL - 75K and above flyers can earn upgrade certs. Upgrade certs are only valid on full fare (M, B, Y) for intertnaional tickets so most expire unused as most flyers cannot buy unrestricted tickets. DL upgrade certs can also only be used if the person who earned them is flying. This year DL for the first time is offering flyers other options instead of upgrade certs instead of them - flyers who are educted/understand how hard they are to use will probable not earn upgrade certs with DL now unless they fly very high fares normally.

UA - 100K flyers earn 6 SWU. UA SWUs can be used by anyone so that halps. Many SWU will go unused because a good number of the people who earn them do not normally fly interntionally. More will go unused because some peoople don't normally buy W and above fare class tickets when they do fly interntional and SWU are only good on W and above fare. More SWU will expire because some routes seem to sell out in business and upgrades often do not clear. My guess is only about 45% of SWU will get used this year.

AA - 100K flyers earn 8 SWU. Some will expired because flyers don't fly interntional. AA SWU can be used by anyone and ALL AA fares qualify, making these the easiest to use upgrades (tied with CO). As all fares qualify and anyone can use, I think few will expire.

US - 100K flyers earn 2 US SWU. Person who earned them has to by flying to use them so they will expire if the person does not fly interntional. As few are earned, fewer will expire.

The smaller US ailrines don't have interntional upgrades.

good post crazymrer....

in india there are only 2 airlines that give out the upgrade vouchers:

9W gives out 5 vouchers to platinum, 3 to gold & 1 to silver members....they also give out 1 voucher when you sign up for the jet platinum visa from citibank, 1 voucher for renewal & i voucher each time you earn 8k miles on the card....plats can use the voucher against any revenue class of booking while other members have to buy a fare in 's' class or higher....the voucher can be used for international travel as well & the member can gift the voucher to anyone else....

IT also gives out 5 vouchers to platinum, 3 to gold & 1 to silver members....there is no other way to earn them....all members have to buy a fare in 's' class or higher in order to use these vouchers....the voucher can be used for international travel as well & the member can gift the voucher to anyone else....

AI is rumoured to introduce the vouchers as well but there is nothing available at the moment....

I put $$$$$$ on credit cards for business.

If I were able to get a 9W credit card, how many miles and upgrade voucehrs would spending $100,000 USD earn me?

that's pretty much what i end up spending in a year on my 9w citi plat card....

at the current exchange rate you would get 177,260 miles & 22 upgrade vouchers....

if you spent the same amount on jetairways.com then you would end up with 354,520 miles & 44 upgrade vouchers....

for a one way domestic trip anywhere within india you only need one upgrade voucher to upgrade an economy seat to business....between india & asia you need 2 vouchers....india & europe its 3 vouchers....india & north america its 5 vouchers....

I am jealous!

over the last 3 years, i have earned an average of 220k miles & 28 vouchers a year through my credit card....

No KIDDING!

Annual fee of $56. Lounge access for domestic travel. Excess baggage for free. Priority check in line. Roughly 8 miles for every $5 spent (1.79 mi/$). (Double that for JetAirways.com purchases.) (Is the redemption value of these points similar to other airlines?) Upgrade voucher for every $5000 spent.

I wonder if US citizens can get these...

I've been very seriously considering moving to India to start an IT outsourcing firm and this gives me one more reason.

the annual fee is waived if you are a plat member with the airline....with the current exchange rate it comes out to 1 upgrade voucher for every $4.5k spent....the redemption value is pretty good....about the same number of miles you would use for awards on aa....

not sure if US citizens can get this....but if you are in india on a business visa then i can hook you up with the citibank credit card division....they are clients of mine....

Don�t you guys think that $56 is not that reasonable price what it should be? If it would have been $40 or something like that, it would have been more better in my opinion. What do you guys think of it?

Of course $40 would be better than $56, but $56 is not bad at all for those of us living stateside...I believe the SPG is $65 now, Citis are in the $75-85 range, so this actually comes in at the low end.

i agree....& as i have said before, the fee is waived if you have plat status with the airline....