GREAT NEWS Regarding American Premium Economy Upgrades

Funny post, since I've just talked to an AAgent regarding SWU or miles + copay to upgrade a DFW-GRU route in May. He told me that the upgrade would happen from Main Cabin to PY. He was pretty confident to tell me that this is what would happen.

Haha. Two thing I've learned over the years. Don't rely on desk agents and things will change.

For now this is a great perk to EXP members. The potential free upgrade is a great incentive. I personally feel that AA premium Economy is more comfy than CX which I've flown several times. So great news. But really not sure how long this will actually last. But again the number of exp will be decreasing in the upcoming years so waitlist will really go to those who "earned" it

relieved, for now

I can confirm that this is false.

OT, so I apologise, but I'm a NYC-based BA Gold holder reconsidering my loyalties after the recent AA F/J TP realignment. How much would I be looking at in minimum $ spend terms to gain AA EXP?

Wow so relieved. American is the best domestic airline........

Until tomorrow when I will change my mind like the rest of you for another day.

I'm sure Delta, AA, etc. will tell us for now that this is true. Heck they may even make exceptions for CK or ExPlats but for Platinum "Pro" and down things might be different. They make also change all this in the future.

Of course AA could prioritize PE->Business upgrades over E->Business.

"As far as I know, this will make American the first airline to offer complimentary upgrades to international premium economy."

Not true. Unless things have changed in the last few years, ANA Diamond, Platinum, and Super Flyers Card members and get free upgrades to Premium Economy on the day of departure.

Yeah this is not going to happen. The whole point of introducing PY is to cut on upgrades to J. This might just be an internal AA ploy to find out who JonNYC is since AA management is not very happy about this person leaking confidential information.

Perhaps he meant upgrades to J now that PY is not sellable yet. I highly doubt AA will want that to happen. Also, DL Economy Comfort is not really a PY cabin, but rather seats with extra leg room.

It would be even better if Gold, Platinum, and Platinum Pro could use 500 mile upgrades at a lower rate i.e. 250 miles per upgrade.

@Ben - Is there a way of knowing based on booking code, or who booked or anything, what the chances are of an upgrade? For example I am booked to fly British Airways World Traveller Plus in June. The booking was not paid for or booked by me however, it was paid for by a Gold Exec club member who is not part of the flying party. Does that increase my chances? I'd be interested to see a post on this.

Thanks for your always-in-the-loop posts!

Hopefully, AA will have a more reasonable award chart (like CX) for PY redemption. The near nonexistence of J seats on AA international long-haul makes AA miles worth less than SkyPeso, IMO. International long-haul PY at least gives us some opportunity to redeem those nearly unusable AA miles.

@Tony

Regarding JonNYC - There are definitely people at AA who know who he is or at least have a good guess (it doesn't take a whole lot of digging on the internet to find him). However, the more it goes on the more I think there is at least complaceny with the leaks. Just my opiniom though so take it with a grain of salt.

Actually I think day of departure is lousy, should be automatic upon purchase. It's just economy.

@Craig you'd be looking at $12k on airfare without a CC spending waiver or $6k if you spent $50k on the Barclay's Aaviator Silver card.

What about companions on same PNR (who are not CK/EXP)?

They'll never find me, they already have.
I hide in plain sight. I'm invincible.

Most importantly, YOU'RE WELCOME. 🙂

I saw JonNYC retracted on Twitter 🙂 As expected, no upgrades to J/F from Y anymore.

I DID??????? WHERE?!?!?!?!

I did no such thing.

This has all been confirmed.

I'm a delta diamond member and they recently let me upgrade to premium economy from main economy on an international flight at the time of booking.