Am I the only one who finds it strange that American doesn’t count paid upgrades toward elite qualification?
In this post:
American doesn’t offer Loyalty Points for paid upgrades
Major US airlines have done a much better job monetizing premium cabins in recent years, as they try to decrease the percentage of passengers sitting in first class via complimentary upgrades. While I’d say American isn’t quite as aggressive as Delta and United in this regard, the airline does fairly consistently offer upgrades with cash after booking.
In some cases the upgrade costs are simply what the price difference would be between economy class and first class, while in other cases the upgrade is a better deal.
One thing to be aware of is that if you accept a paid upgrade after booking, you don’t receive the Loyalty Points or bonus AAdvantage miles that correspond to how much you spend.
I find it amusing how American displays this warning to customers. A comfortable seat? ✓! Priority boarding? ✓! No Loyalty Points? ✓! Shouldn’t that be an “X,” or something, because “No Loyalty Points earned” is a bit different than all the other things on the list. 
That’s a policy American should really change
Nowadays airline business models are so dependent on ancillaries and upsell opportunities, so airlines generally want to incentivize that kind of behavior. American seems like it’s behind the curve in that regard.
For example, Delta SkyMiles will award you Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) for paid upgrades, and United MileagePlus will award you Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) for paid upgrades. Yet American AAdvantage awards you… nothing.
I’m not sure I understand the logic? Many elite members would be more likely to buy paid upgrades if they knew that the purchase counted toward elite status. And since the people who care about Loyalty Points probably largely have elite status and are therefore eligible for complimentary upgrades, this seems like a smart group to further incentivize.
It’s especially odd when you consider how easy Loyalty Points are to earn, as you can earn them with everything ranging from credit card spending to buying flowers. Yet directly paying cash for an upgrade isn’t among those eligible opportunities, even if the upgrade fee is the fare difference between economy class and first class.
I’m not making this point because I have some personal incentive for this policy to change — I almost never buy these upgrades. However, it’s something many readers have mentioned over time, and I share their confusion about this policy.
Bottom line
For whatever reason, American doesn’t award Loyalty Points for cash upgrades purchased after ticketing. That policy has never made much sense to me.
It doesn’t make sense competitively, given than Delta and United have a different policy in this regard. It also doesn’t make sense logically, since you’d think American would do everything it could to incentivize cash upgrades, especially among those eligible for complimentary upgrades.
Lastly, while minor, I find the way American displays the information about not earning Loyalty Points to be strange. Shouldn’t the “No Loyalty Points” mention have something other than a check mark next to it?
What do you make of American’s policy of not awarding Loyalty Points for paid upgrades?
SSSHHHH!
Of course, you are correct but I’m thankful AA has this policy wrong. Once they make this change, upgrades will be harder to get then ever!
Folks are booking no show hotels rooms just to get LPs. If paid upgrades were to include LPs, AA will sell more paid upgrades then ever!
AA should allow upgrades from regular economy to premium economy!!!
Maybe this is a oneworld thing because Malaysia Airlines and Qantas are the same - no status credits or points awarded on paid upgrades.
I’ve wondered this too. Another one: when you earn 2x miles/$ on American flights using either the Citi or the Barclay’s card, the “bonus” mile doesn’t count as a Loyalty Point. But isn’t that purchase the very definition of loyalty?!
When I fly for work my employer pays for economy and I pay the difference to first. After I qualify for whatever psychobabble status with the airline, I would do this just because it’s cheaper. The last thing I really want are Loyalty Points. The last thing I want to do is fly more. I am exec p; it’s fine.
"American should..." bahahaha
Those First Class seats in your picture are not all that great. Take the window seat, recline the seat in front, and you really can't get out of your seat without asking the person to temporarily raise it.
I would never pay for a domestic upgrade if in an exit row.
@Lucky. I agree completely. I'm about 3000 LPs away from requalifying for EXP for the year. Yes, in May. Had a stupidly expensive ticket in April that earned 140K LPs. I was offered a cheap paid upgrade on my last trip and I thought, "a couple of these will wrap that up." But NO LPs, No Thanks. I'll take my chance on an upgrade, which I received. Incremental revenue lost.
Just from a UI perspective: my confusion is why they have a green check next to it. It looks like a benefit but it's a total stinker.
@Andrew, I suspect confusion is the point.
If AA mgmt is reading this, my feedback is that they should also allow upgrades on award reservations for credit card holders that have elite status (not just ExecPL). I went from 125k LPs last year to only 1k so far this year b/c they don't upgrade award tickets.
AA needs to fix this, and FAST. Also, they should give a 1 time LP bonus to all members for the last year of paid upgrades not counting. I know for sure that I paid for several upgrades thinking I would earn extra. It's not fair.
Prob just a tech build that the bean counters from Tempe don't see value investing in. Not a bad thing for elites in terms of upgrade space tho
I believe AC does the same: you get the Aeroplan points for initial booking class, not class flown in (i.e. paid upgrade, e-ups, op-ups, etc)
They want upfront paid first . They don’t want elites to wait to get a cheap cash offers to upgrade and get loyalty points . Regular people buy them , so there isn’t need for .
100% spot on! I’m an EP and see no incentive in a paid upgrade - I’ll take my chances on a complimentary upgrade instead. I see other valid arguments here but for me and my travel it doesn’t make sense to spend extra money unless I get some true ROI (yes the seat and soft product are nicer and still enjoy that part).
American should ABSOLUTELY NOT give LPs for paid upgrades on domestic itineraries. United and Delta give benefits to upgrades, and it is nearly impossible for complimentary upgrades to clear. If costumers want to fly in Business/First, they need to buy the ticket originally. I would often be tempted to buy-up a ticket to get J/F, but since I would not get a return on LPs or redeemable miles, I always pass. It would be good...
American should ABSOLUTELY NOT give LPs for paid upgrades on domestic itineraries. United and Delta give benefits to upgrades, and it is nearly impossible for complimentary upgrades to clear. If costumers want to fly in Business/First, they need to buy the ticket originally. I would often be tempted to buy-up a ticket to get J/F, but since I would not get a return on LPs or redeemable miles, I always pass. It would be good for American’s bottom line, but it would be bad for their frequent flyer program. And AA knows that their frequent flyer program is more profitable than simply flying. If you wanted to argue that LPs should be given on international routes where no complimentary upgrades are offered, I would agree.
It is absolutely absurd that they do not award such loyalty points on upgrades. It's our money that we're putting down for this option and they should respect that especially those who have remained loyal to American Airlines for so many years. Can't they return the
privilege to us?
Paid upgrades do 2 things for AA. 1. It gives infrequent flyers a chance to buy up to first that would be willing to do so. It also encourages, particularly lower level elites to pay for upgrades rather than hoping the elites will get upgrades free. Seems to me if AA found a way to enable credit card spending to count towards LPs so could upgrade fees but AA doesn't want to spend the money on this.
It seems like AA is getting more aggressive about accepting pennies for upgrades rather than offering them for free. I've seen a couple of recent cases of elites seeing $100 upgrades 24 hours before a flight with a significant number of seats still for sale.
It makes no sense to me either but also ripping out the IFE (in flight entertainment) in the seat backs made no sense either. AA doesn’t care to be competitive.
If you could peak around the curtain at the havoc those seat screens caused every night for maintenance, and also how much extra fuel they burned, you'd understand why they had to go.
There are a great many things that AA "should" do, but for me the number one point of unfairness in their program is the inability to redeem awards to Asia by flying East rather than West trying to find non-existent availability on their Asian partners now on life support like JL and CX. It's actually fewer nautical miles to many parts of Asia from many parts of the USA going east, and the world being...
There are a great many things that AA "should" do, but for me the number one point of unfairness in their program is the inability to redeem awards to Asia by flying East rather than West trying to find non-existent availability on their Asian partners now on life support like JL and CX. It's actually fewer nautical miles to many parts of Asia from many parts of the USA going east, and the world being round, this policy makes absolutely no sense except as a means to prevent us from using our hard earned AA miles.
Domestic first on AA isn't' worth paying for - via upgrade or outright purchase - so no, a few hundred additional LPs are not going to incentivize me to to pay for an upgrade (which around 75% of the time I get for free anyway). - signed, an EXP.
PS: I agree on principle that these should count as LPs. But it's not going to change my purchasing behavior either way.
I’m with you 100% Ben ; but ancillary fees are ancillary fees. It’s clear cut. Not only that ancillary fees are a massive monetizing stream of revenue for airlines.
I think too much credit is being given to AA leadership. They rarely do things that focus on their customers. They focus internally. I tend to agree there is a system limitation. Frustrating their eleate flyers seems to be their goal, as they do it regularly.
Its extremely aggravating that they do not!
BTW fairly certain (based on my experience last year) that UA ONLY gives you PQPs if you do an actual upfare - NOT the pop-up upgrade offers that occur at booking or at check-in.
Same thing goes for WiFi and Admiral Club memberships. You are buying these additional services from AA directly but can only get Loyalty Points if using an AA branded credit card.
The wording with the checkmark reminds me of Simpsons lawyer Lionel Hutz correcting the punctuation on his newspaper ad to:
"Works on contingency? No, money down!"
I think it's pretty simple. Paid upgrades can be substantially less than the difference in fare to purchase first class outright. If AA awarded LPs for paid upgrades they'd be incentivizing customers to buy coach then buy a paid upgrade instead of buying first which would dilute first class revenue by having one less reason (LP earning) for people to book it directly.
@dfw88
I think American would rather reward elite members with LPs for paid upgrades as opposed to complimentary upgrades. You can save money with paid upgrades as opposed to buying a first class ticket outright however you are taking on a risk of uncertainty that there won’t be any upgrades available.
It's annoying and I hope they change the policy. That said, I pay with my AA Citi credit card when I buy these things, so I do get loyalty points for them, in a manner of speaking.
I think what's under discussion is not the 1 LP per dollar from credit card spend but the 5 to 11 LP per dollar based on fare.
Yes I'm aware of that. That's why I wrote ".... i do get loyalty points... in a manner of speaking."
Same thing if you pay cash for an AC Membership. No LPs or miles You can get miles/LPs from the cc if you use a co-branded cc.
I bet it’s because they don’t have the tech to do it.
Yes, I suspect this is largely a technological issue that is very low on their list to fix since the fix would cost them money in miles paid out.
I believe DL awards MQD as well for taking FCM/PSM/D1M offers.
Note that if crediting to another program, since these don't reissue the ticket, you likely won't get extra elite credit if crediting to a program that's not SkyMiles.
It might be worth an article in the future about the difference between taking an upgrade offer and upfaring a ticket.
It's funny that as a BA frequent flyer, I earn tier points/Avios based on the upgraded cabin when I accept these AA in-app upgrade promos.
AA make incomprehensible decisions at odds with any objective tied to running a successful airline? That's unpossible!
Very well said!
I completely agree! AA is getting more money for the same ticket, so we should get more loyalty points for it as well. Greed factor… SMH
"For whatever reason, American doesn’t award Loyalty Points for cash upgrades purchased after ticketing."
They haven't invested in the IT to do it, that's all. It's not an intentional policy of saying 'we don't think paid upgrades should earn loyalty points' it's simply that awarding loyalty points for this would take effort, cost money.
Remember that tickets aren't re-issued, and no separate ticket number attaches to the paid upgrade, so there's no built in method...
"For whatever reason, American doesn’t award Loyalty Points for cash upgrades purchased after ticketing."
They haven't invested in the IT to do it, that's all. It's not an intentional policy of saying 'we don't think paid upgrades should earn loyalty points' it's simply that awarding loyalty points for this would take effort, cost money.
Remember that tickets aren't re-issued, and no separate ticket number attaches to the paid upgrade, so there's no built in method for reporting the spend back for awarding points.
This is the airline that went years printing different boarding times on boarding passes than they were actually boarding planes because Derek Kerr wouldn't sign off on the IT budgets needed to fix these sorts of things.
@Gary
Good point from an IT perspective.
The same probably applies to the green checkmark next to the "No loyalty points" "benefit". Much easier to add "No loyalty points" to some list somewhere rather than having to refactor the software to support separate "pros" and "cons" lists.
Agree with your point, but that's not what refactoring means. Refactoring is a conversion of code to streamline or change the language or OS without changing any fuctionality. It's often automated and (hopefully) checked by a human. They need to add or rewrite a section of code to credit the miles or to add an "x." I suspect, however, that the check mark is intentional.