American Airlines Elite Upgrades Bottom Line
American Airlines Elite Upgrade Policy has finally been cleared up! For a while now, American has had Premium Economy on their 787-9s. They intend on adding the class to their A330s, 787-8s, and 777s. With Executive Platinum members having systemwide upgrades (eVIP upgrades), the question lingered as to how would they apply towards flights with P/E. Well, we finally have some word:
You can still Upgrade to Business from Economy
According to Gary Leff from View from the Wing, JonNYC, a reliable source of information on all things American, reported that you can still upgrade from Coach to Business with SWU. This means that there is no need to purchase a ticket in P/E in order to be able to upgrade to business. This is a huge perk, given that there was a strong feeling that the upgrades would only apply to one cabin of service. But wait, there’s more!
Executive Platinums and Concierge Key get free P/E at Check-In
One of the most exciting news that also came from JonNYC was that Exec Plats and CK members would be allowed free P/E at check-in. Space available upgrades would be only available for the Exec Plat or CK member, it seems. With this newly added perk, Exec Plat becomes even more valuable.
Landing Thoughts
I believe it’s a great addition to the benefits of Executive Platinum and Concierge Key to be upgraded to P/E at check-in. Assuming your SWU does not clear, you at least get a chance at a more comfortable seat and enhanced service. The best benefit comes in the form of the SWUs still bumping you up to Business class from Main Cabin. I hope that we get to see improved access to premium products (say, Platinum Pros getting upgrade certificates to P/E). Although Basic Economy is now part of the American line-up, we may see some paxex improvements elsewhere.
What do you think? Where else can American improve for their elites, asides from the Basic Economy fares? Should American offer SWUs to Platinum Pros?
