In your opinion, which airline program is the "best" for upgrading economy cash fares to either premium economy or business?

A question that has no answer. Or 1001 answers.
Depends on many things.

• Upgrade with cash for less than the full retail fare difference?
• Upgrade with ff miles?
• Upgrade with ff miles and cash co payment?
• Upgrade with ff upgrade instrument[e.g. SWU, etc](so no cost)?
• Upgrade complimentary due to status?
• Upgrade on another airline than the airline of your ffp?
• Upgrade because you have a friend who works for the airline?
• Upgrade because you are wearing smart clothes and have shiny shoes? (are people who still believe in this)
• Upgrade for another of the 999 reasons?

Upgrade policies on USA and non USA airlines is vastly different. With non USA airlines always expect to fly in the seat you buy.

And
Long haul vs short haul
Status
Same low cost fares do not allow upgrades (other than full cash fare difference)

Using miles and minimal or no co-pays without SWU.

Country - region - routes - status?
Are 1001 or more answers. And 10 times as many opinions

You seem to do this to me on every one of these threads. I was just looking for a discussion and I'm not necessarily looking for a new program to join. If you can't just throw something for discussion, then I think it would be great if you don't participate in this thread. Since you put it like that with so many variables out there, I mind as well not ask, but I want to.

OP has been on FT for over 10 years: I’d think that, by now, he/she would have realized how FT exemplifies “Newton’s Law of the Online Forum” — for every self-proclaimed expert opinion, there is at least one equal and opposite self-proclaimed expert opinion

I like Alaska's program because it's mileage based rather than dollars spent. But I am kind of a rookie traveler compared to many on here so take me with a grain of salt. I'm an oddball in that Covid meant me traveling 20X more than the 1-2 flights per year that I previously did. Most flights are west coast to Hawaii and once I made MVP status I started getting some good perks. Now that I'm MVP Gold I get somewhat frequent upgrades to first class. Always at least to premium. So, I'm pretty happy with Alaska but don't have much to compare to.

It probably helps that you're PDX based and not SEA based. You get better upgrade chances if you're at a minor hub or well served outstation than at a captive/fortress hub. I've done great with upgrades on AS out of (and back to) LAX, even before making it all the way to MVPG. People flying out of SEA complain of huge waitlists while I rarely see more than a few on the waitlist except at the holidays, and even then it's a dozen or so, not half the plane.

I think in this case, it is a valid set of questions. In this case, "best" is really a subjective evaluation by a given purpose... What might be best in your opinion might not be best for someone else. When you leave a question too open ended people will naturally try to narrow down the criteria.to form a direction to go.

Case in point... Some of the airlines in the US insist on making sure their seats are maximized, so they will push their elites (automatically) up a class or two so they can fill their value seats. vs. Air Canada who generally requires you to use an ecert to upgrade. Both have their pros and cons but depending on the reader, one is likely better than the other for that person. Or another aspect, If you are a member of a *A NA-based airline... then you want to fly inter-regional Asia... which membership works best is up for debate... the possibilities are very open for debate.

The person you are responding to might be annoying to you, but in this discussion, he does have a point (it's not as if the question is "which airline program is better for last minute upgrades, UA vs AA"... )

There's no stock answer. Much of it depends upon the airports you are traveling from/to. Also, your specific elite level. For the US3 being at the bottom tier basically means you will rarely ever see an upgrade. AA requires the 2 lower levels to use either earned or purchased stickers. While UA and DL do not that means lower elite levels will always request upgrades thus lowering the chances of getting upgrade.

Finally, in the US airlines are increasingly monetizing the domestic first cabin meaning less upgrades, even if you're at a higher elite level. I can very easily see free upgrades going away at some future points. Airlines are leaving too much money on the table.

Maybe I'll have to edit the OP. I meant using miles, minimal or no co-pays, and no SWU to upgrade the cash fare.

Then you need to talk about accruing miles


a lot of programs went to revenue-based earning. You may not care as much if you transfer miles from credit card

Redeeming miles: on same carrier, any specific routing, on partner carriers? Different programs have different strengths in different regions, and often it's dynamic. Usually it's not worth it to upgrade when flying a partner airline (only certain expensive fare classes qualify)



eg: japan airlines has standard PE cash upgrade.
https://www.jal.co.jp/en/info/inter/apopyug.html


UA had TOD options to upgrade with cash/miles/both for PE or J. Miles is usually standard while cash is dynamic, but it's harder to accure cheap miles on united by flying: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...rture-tod.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...united-48.html

I keep hearing that BA and Avios is pretty good at upgrading cash fares.

well, that would work if you fly with them (i.e. to/from europe)

Doesn't work if you fly usa to asia or usa to south america .

Hence the questions for you: there is no generic right answer, depends where are you travelling to/from mainly

Still good to know if there are any programs that makes it easy to upgrade cash fares as cheap as possible. Maybe it would help somebody. Not everyone is interested in a pure award redemption. There are people who flies Europe-Asia.