Am I right--I am still reeling from sticker shock!--that AA is now charging $700 for a round-trip upgrade from economy to business That's on top, of course, of the actual ticket fare. Are any other airlines charging such an outrageous amount?

And what's the difference between a normal economy fare and a normal business class fare. Bet it's more than $700

CO charges up to co-pay of up to $500 <b>each way</b> for mileage upgrades from economy to BusinessFirst, depending on fare class.

It is not outrageous. We are happy to pay that. Other airlines won't let you upgrade from cheap fare classes.

United currently doesn't charge a co-pay, but you have to buy a more expensive economy fare (H or higher) in order to use miles to upgrade an international ticket. It will be moving to the co-pay system in January for both domestic and international tickets. You'll be able to upgrade any fare class, but the co-pays will be up to $500 each way:

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,53079,00.html

The co-pay ($350 each way) is of course on top of the miles (25K miles each way) - for international longhaul upgrades.

Airlines are using one of two approaches for longhaul upgrades. The first is like AA's - mileage plus a co-pay, off of most economy fares. In those cases, AA's charges and mileage requirements are pretty standard.

Other airlines (e.g. Delta) don't charge co-pays, but instead only allow upgrades from certain economy fare categories. Guess which ones? Yup, the most expensive ones. So your out-of-pocket total with those airlines is <i>at least</i> as high as with the likes of AA.

Outrageous? You decide. If you upgrade a $1000 coach ticket to Europe with $700 and 50K miles round trip, and if you "value" your miles at 1c or 2c per mile (kind of a rule of thumb) then the business ticket would have to cost $2200 - $2700 for you to "break even." Most business class tickets cost a lot more than that, so "worth it" by the math.

Thanks. Now I just have to hope that once the airfares for October 2010 go up the combined cost won't be too much for us.

Just be sure that the fare you do purchase IS upgradeable.

I made that mistake back in May when I bought our IAH-FRA tickets online for the very low price of $580 RT. Fortunately, when I called the next day to get on the waiting list for an upgrade to Biz Class, the agent was extremely helpful and managed to get me an upgradeable fare on the return flight for an add'l $80 and a GUARANTEED upgrade to Biz Class. I was out of luck on the outgoing flight, however. She also got her supervisor to waive the normal $250 change penalty.

While we weren't able to fly Biz Class round trip, it was nice to have that upgrade on the 10 hr return flight from FRA to DFW. The entire ticket cost us $580 + 80 + 350 or $1100 plus 25k miles of which we recouped 11k for our flights.

Sorry, that should be the entire ticket cost us $1010 not $1100.

Bettyk,
That shouldn't be an issue anymore. Previously O and Q fares were no upgradeable on transatlantic routes but that changed last month and they're all upgradeable now. Also a few of the copays are increasing on Dec 1 (Hawaii and Caribbean/Mexico).

,, Previously O and Q fares were no upgradeable on transatlantic routes but that changed last month and they're all upgradeable now.>>


That's good to hear, Patty. DH has sworn he'll never fly overseas in Coach Class again. It was pretty miserable, especially with my bad back.

I am not 100% sure about AA etc, but in general "upgrades are subject to the airline thinking they can't SELL that seat for more money" So be SURE you know you can upgrade what you want.

(I have seen some screaming fits when folks realized that just because they were WILLING to pay did not mean there was a seat for them)

CarolA, of course you are correct. However, out of 4 round trips to Frankfurt, we've only been denied an upgrade on one segment on one trip due to Biz Class being full. It seems to be much easier these days with fewer Biz Class travellers, but that could change as the economy improves.