American Airlines Fixes A Bizarre Upgrade Glitch—You Keep The Seat, It Keeps Your Money

American Airlines has fixed a bizarre interaction between paid upgrades and systemwide upgrades. If a customer bought an Instant Upgrade on one part of a trip and later applied a systemwide upgrade elsewhere on the itinerary, American’s system would strip away the paid upgrade and issue a Trip Credit. Internal guidance to reservations agents says that’s now been addressed. The passenger keeps the seat they paid for. They can still use the systemwide upgrade on another part of the trip. And American keeps the upgrade payment. That’s a better customer experience. It also perfectly aligns with American’s new commercial strategy: once the airline collects an ancillary dollar, they’re not giving it back. American’s Old System Undid A Purchase That Had Nothing To Do With The Upgrade An Instant Upgrade is sold as a separate ancillary attached to a particular flight segment. It doesn’t reissue the ticket at a new higher fare. For a systemwide upgrade, earned as a Loyalty Point Reward starting at 175,000 points (and million milers receive them as they cross thresholds), one certificate can upgrade as many as three flight segments in one direction provided confirmable upgrade inventory is available. Status quo ante: Buy an Instant Upgrade on one part of the trip, later apply a systemwide upgrade elsewhere, and American removed the paid upgraded seat. The customer received a Trip Credit for the buy up. New behavior: The paid seat remains confirmed while the systemwide upgrade is applied elsewhere. There is no Trip Credit because American continues providing the upgrade that the customer purchased. A customer buys an upgrade for their outbound trip and then uses a systemwide upgrade on the return. Previously, American took away the outbound upgrade and gave back credit. Now the customer keeps both upgrades. Removing a product that someone specifically bought for certainty was weird. A Trip Credit is not cash, the customer may no longer find the same upgrade price, and there is no guarantee the seat will still be available. Fixing this is a real improvement. The Domestic Connection To A Long Haul Flight Is More Problematic Suppose I am flying Austin–Dallas–London. I pay $70 to confirm first class from Austin to Dallas while waiting for systemwide upgrade space from Dallas to London. When the long haul upgrade opens, can I apply the certificate to Dallas – London without disturbing the domestic upgrade? The summary at the top of American’s internal memo says that customers retain their Instant Upgrade when applying a systemwide upgrade to “any other segment of the itinerary.” The detailed language repeatedly limits the change to a different “slice,” which it defines as outbound or return. Austin – Dallas – London is one outbound slice containing two flight segments. So I’ll look forward to data points on this. Another wrinkle though is that retaining a paid Austin – Dallas upgrade while confirming Dallas – London means not being automatically refunded if there’s confirmable upgrade space for the systemwide to upgrade Austin – Dallas as well. That would need to be cancelled as part of a change to the booking, creating a trip credit, before being confirmed. This Is American’s Revenue Strategy In Miniature I increasingly view every American Airlines decision through the lens of, “What can we do to keep your money?” They’re making plenty of changes to get customers to hand over more in the first place which is great! They’re also looking for revenue leakage anywhere they can find it. American has finally recognized that its fundamental problem has been revenue, not costs. Its current commercial strategy centers on attracting high-value customers, expanding premium cabins, and selling more customers into higher-priced products. American eliminated fixed-price mileage upgrade awards last year and replaced them with dynamically priced Instant Upgrades using cash or miles. The airline now tries to sell every premium seat before giving it away as an elite benefit or releasing confirmable systemwide-upgrade inventory. That has produced $35 domestic first class offers and $350 long-haul business class offers. It has also made elite upgrades and systemwide upgrades harder to clear. American has even instructed agents to pitch a paid Instant Upgrade when a customer calls trying to use an upgrade certificate. Now its systems will ensure that applying a certificate elsewhere does not accidentally unwind an upgrade sale already made. Topics on this page