Is The Airline Upgrade List A Good Or Bad Thing?

The Flight Detective
a woman sitting in a chair eating food

Airlines in the USA have an upgrade list for their elite frequent flyers. Free upgrades are offered as a perk of reaching a higher status and once requested you are put on the upgrade list. The list is ordered by your status and is quite democratic. Any unsold seats in First Class are then allocated to those on the list at the gate before flight.

Frequent flyers from elsewhere in the world generally have to use their miles to get an upgrade. British Airways have a certain number of seats available for upgrade before the flight, you use your miles to pay and you immediately have a seat in the higher cabin. At Qantas it’s more a hybrid where you request an upgrade with your miles beforehand and it is granted sometime closer to the flight whereupon the miles are debited. Either way, the upgrades are not free.

Arguments For

Free upgrades are seen as a reward for loyalty. You were loyal to the airline, so the airline provides you with some free upgrades to thank you. This is the main benefit and people enjoy it.

At the airline it means first class seats will often be completely filled. This would make planning catering and drinks loads a lot simpler.

Arguments Against

Going on the upgrade list does not automatically mean you will be upgraded. Finding yourself number 17 on the upgrade list for a flight with 12 first class seats could result in a negative attitude towards the carrier.

Some people have speculated that first class in the USA is full of upgraded passengers so it is not worth paying to fly in first class. Certain people would be upset to know the person beside them paid nothing extra to be there.

Overall Thoughts

Trying to make up my mind on this is difficult. Upgrades make me happy but the uncertainty about whether I would get one or not would be irritating. The fact someone was upgraded to a cabin I paid for does not bother me. What are your thoughts? Are there other things I should consider in my argument for or against? Thanks for reading and please leave your comments below.

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GrabAsia

Good thing to have to reward frequent flyers. Singapore Airlines never upgrades unless they overbook in your the class your ticket is in…then you get upgraded based on your status.

Flight Detective

British Airways and Qantas are the same – you only get upgraded if there is overbooking. I think that is common on a lot of non-US airlines.

Kirit Patel

Upgrade

cahdot

when u are number 72 on the upgrade list its a little depressing!!!

Flight Detective

Wow! I didn’t know it could go that high! Now if they brought in another aircraft with all First Class, you’d be sorted! haha

cahdot

i have seen higher in atlanta and san fran and san diego….

Flight Detective

Scary stuff!

Lindsay

It’s good. Even if you don’t make it for the upgrade, it’s nice to know that the airline values your business enough to make you a priority. Every little bit helps when you travel a lot.

Flight Detective

That is an interesting perspective. I would never have considered it as being the airline acknowledging your business and making you a priority. Thanks for that! Interesting.

cahdot

how do they value u with a list of 80++++

dan luttrell

The upgrade list is OK. As a lowly AA Gold I’m usually like 24 on the list out of DFW but at least I know where I stand. What I don’t like about the list is that many of the gate agents don’t clear those that make the upgrade until a few minutes before boarding. They should be able to clear most of them sooner but I know that they hope they snag a walk up last minute buyer I’m sure. The worst is being #1 or #2 on the upgrade list and not having it clear.

Flight Detective

Yes, I would have thought that it would be weird to be so far down the list. Why even put someone on the list when it’s obvious they won’t have a chance? True, when I have flown within the USA it seems that the upgrades clear very close to boarding time. Thanks for your comment – it’s great to hear from someone who actually is an AA passenger and has personal experience with this.

cahdot

they should stop the list after they hit the 1st class number and then 5 like 22 seats at 27 give it up!!!

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