Free Upgrades - Best Program
 

What airlines allow free upgrades for elite members, other than NWA and CON? What about on international routes?

Thanks,

Chris

CO, DL, NW and US all offers space available free upgrade for elite members while AA also upgrades its top tier EXP members for free.

For international upgrades, I believe CZ offers some kind of free upgrade, but I may be mistaken.
Other than that, both AA and UA offers system wide upgrade certs for its top tier members.

Clarification: AA PLT and GLD also can upgrade using 500 mile stickers - which you earn by flying, so this to qualifies as "free." If you don't have enough stickers, then you can purchase the stickers for a nominal fee. All AA upgrades - regardless of status - are space available.

AS does as well, although they are essentially theoretical on transcons.

UA is the same.

Best program for upgrades
 

Depends on Domestic/International AND level of elite status.

DOMESTIC

All airlines only upgrade elites if there is space still available they don't think they can sell, often close to the flight time.

For 25K/year elite flyers:
US and NW, because this level is too low to get a high percentage of free upgrades on any other airline. US sells few F seats and NW tends to have a larger ratio of F making upgrades more frequent to 25K/year flyers on these airlines than others. The US and NW F product also tends to be a little lower quality than the competition. (DL, CO, and AS are the other airlines that offer unlimited free upgrades to 25K/year flyers. AA and UA also offer a limited number of space available upgrades to this level of flyer.)

For 50K/year elite flyers:
US, NW, DL, CO, and AS all offer an unlimited number of space available upgrades at this level. Of these, CO is the least likely to have unsold seats left to upgrade you but also tends to have the best domestic F product. UA and AA also offer a limited number of free space available upgrades as this level and you can buy more. On premium trans-con routes, AA and UA have by far superior premium cabin seats. On other routes, with the exception of those domestic routes operated by international aircraft, AA and UA offer a similar F product to everyone but maybe US, which is generally inferior in quality. AS would be a logical choice as this level if your needs match their route structure as you would now have top tier AS status at 50K/year of flying.

For 75K/year elite flyers:
NW, CO, and DL are the winners as you will have top tier status on these airlines but not on AA, UA, and US.

For 100K/year elite flyers:
AA is the clear winner as this level. Unlimited domestic space available upgrades with a clearance rate of 75%-100% depending on your route and days of the week. This is a higher clearance rate than on UA, which also has their top tier at this level but does not offer unlimmitted domestic upgrades. 1Ks get 500s and CR1s wich combined will cover you when flying domestic if you do a mix of international and domestic but you will run out if flying mostly domestically and have to buy more 500 milers to still upgrade. US, the third airline with a 100K top tier, offers an excellent clearance rate but the product suffers, making them a less than optimum choice at this level of flying.

INTERNATIONAL

For 25K, 50K, and 75K a year flyers:
- AA and UA are tend to have better clearance rates using miles to upgrade than DL, CO, NW, and US. Upgrades can be cleared right up to the last minute on UA and AA if there are seats available; not so on many others.
- AA advantage: lower fare categories qualify for the upgrade than on UA, but AA charges a $ copay of around $300 in addition to the miles.
- UA advantage: miles only needed, no copay, but one needs to buy up to mid-range fares to be upgrade eligible; low fare classes won't work.
- NW Miles only required to upgrade, but only highest fares qualify. B and Y fares, often several times as much as cheapest available.
- CO Lower fares than NW qualify, but they charge very high co-pays (ie $450 each way).

For the 100K level flyer:

- Only two logical choices:

AA - you get 8 certificates/year than can be used to upgrade most fares including cheap ones. Of course, it is space available only, for any AA trip up to three segments anywhere AA flies, including long haul international ie Brazil, India, Asia, Europe. Unlike free domestic upgrades, these system-wides can be confirmed at time of booking if there is upgrade inventory available.

UA - you get 6 certs/year than can be used to upgrade most fares but not the very cheapest ones. Of course, it is space available only, for any UA trip anywhere UA flies, including long haul international ie Asia, Europe, South America. Unlike free domestic upgrades, these system-wides can be confirmed at time of booking if there is upgrade inventory available.

DL give a number of international upgrade certs good only on very high fares.
US give a couple of fare resricted certs.

Great answers, thanks all and especially wanaflyforless!

(Emphasis added.) Not quite true. Some free domestic upgrades (namely CR-1s) can also confirm at time of booking.

AA operates three cabins (First, Business, Economy) on some routes. One important limitation of these eVIP certificates is they cannot be used to upgrade from deeply discounted Business "I" fares to First class.

Remember, the above is intended as a summary of the 7 largest US programs that each have fine points that I understand but are hard to put into a summary.
Good point.

VIPs can however upgrade AA D fares, which are also discounted business. In many markets the cheapest fare is the D fare, in others the D fare is similar to the I fare, and in some you do need to pay a lot more to go from I to D.

Another point revelent to anyone who can fly international paid business is that your upgrade choice is only AA and UA (of the US airlines). Only these airlines offer a 3 cabin international product with F to upgrade into. If one flies primarily international in paid business class I would generally suggest a non US 3 class airline; which one depends mostly on your primary routes.
Very true. UA does give its 100K level flyers a few advance confirmable domestic upgrades every year.
But for the sake of summary.....

Don't forget that UA 100k members also earn confirmed domestic upgrades (CR1s) in addition to the e500s.

Higher mileage levels at NW
 

To add to the above.

At 120k and at 160k Platinum members of WorldPerks have the opportunity to choose 2 one-way system-wides on any fare. Registration was required in 2007, not sure what 2008 holds in store. Not as good as UA or AA, but better than nothing.

Additionally Platinums can upgrade one other person on the same itinerary domestically automatically when the EUA runs.

AA also offers free upgrades, without use of (earned or purchased) 500-mile upgrade credits, at the 25,000- and 50,000-mile levels to passengers on Y/B (full economy or slight discount) fares.

Nice post. I guess I've seen all that information in pieces, but never all laid out together. As a UA 1K that's kind of fed up with UA, it's interesting how much AA seems to "win" on upgrades (both domestic and international) at the 100K level.

Can anyone offer some insight on a counter? I.e., why hasn't United matched the AA policy, or why haven't more UA 1K's who like sitting up front gone over to AA?

Is it true that there are many more AA elites than UA 1K's which makes competition among AA elites very tough, specially from AA hubs like LA?