I recently reserved a flight on continetal that was a full Y fare class ticket. I thought i could be upgraded to first class for free given it was a full Y fare. But I was told that since I wasn'tan elite member they couldnt do so.

I went and also reserved a Full Y fare ticket on American. I was toldthat I would have to purchase upgrades to get into first class.

Does anyone know of any airlines that will upgrade you to first class if you buy a full fare Y class ticket?

TWA had such a program, but that went away with the AA merger. I don't know of any others.

Most of the programs favor elites. On AA, as an example, even elites have to either buy upgrades or earn them through flying. For non-elites, only full-Y has the right to even by the upgrades.

http://www.nwa.com/services/bustrav/conne.shtml
http://www.usair.com/promotions/trav...irst/index.htm

Often you see "YUP" fares, which is identical to full Y fare, but gets you into first class for no extra charge if seats are available. I helped verse99 get one of these a couple months ago.

Delta offers those so-called "YDLUP" fares, too - all you need is to be a basic SkyMiles member.

Even on the fares that don't provide automatic upgrades, the use of a full Y fare almost always allows you to upgrade for a nominal fee.

Probably no airline will allow you to upgrade just by buying a lower clas of service ticket, if they did then they would never sell a business class ticket.

WRONG! A lot of airlines play the buy a coach y fare and get first class for free so people can work around corporate "no more first class travel" rules.

It would be interesting to know how many 1st clas fares are actually sold. I think on most flights they are all upgrades for mileage/elite comp/overbook , etc

Depends on the market you are looking at. U.S. domestic - definetely, long-haul - definetely not, neither intra-European.

I am flying from NYC to Houston

Just upgraded a cheepo $254 R/T from LAX to HNL in First on American ..no problem

No wonder that many american airlines are under chapter 11 or having financial problems. When looked at all these mileage runs on flyertalk reading that some guys spend their weekends by travelling from the eastcoast to the westcoast on the cheapest fare (sometimes less than 200$) just to earn miles. After a few trips they receive Gold, Platinum or whatever status and they can sit in First Class on their next 200$ mileage run.

Please don�t misunderstand me: If you are one of these guys I don�t begrudge you sitting in First on a comp upgrade due to your status but the airlines made a big mistake. Nobody pays for F anymore (esp. in the U.S.) and they can�t make money with all those cheap Y fares.

When I travel to the U.S. in C or F I prefer travelling with LH or BA just because there aren�t that many people with upgrades sitting around me. It�s the same with CX and SQ: F and C are nearly free of employees and upgrades. I wanted to book a redemption ticket from FRA to SIN on SQ in First and I was told that there are no more seats for redemption available. I booked the flight in full fare C and I saw that the F cabin was less than half full.

[This message has been edited by Tirreg (edited 11-14-2002).]

I agree. US carriers have destroyed the First class brand to the degree that it is worthless. If I pay to fly in F on BA or CX, I don't want to have a cabin full of employees and shoe salesmen (apologies in advance to shoe salesmen everywhere). If you fill the cabin with these folks, I will go away...and at fares of $10,000+ a seat, the loss would be substantial.

Premium airlines know that there is a market out there made up of people who will still pay for the privilege of a premium product. Hotels, such as Aman resorts, have similarly run at 30-40% occupancy at $700+ per night rather than risk losing their elite clientele by filling beds at lower rates. US carriers have been extremely short sighted in this regard, and it is a long and arduous (perhaps impossible)road back.

American will upgrade their top (Platinum/Executive Platinum) members to first class domestically at 72 or 100 hours on full fares at no cost subject to availability.