As much as travelers might hate them, upgrade co-pays are probably not going away. At up to $500 one way, at this point they have to be a significant revenue source, although the airlines are not releasing figures.
In the case of American Airlines, which charges the co-pay upfront, they also provide some cash flow, because the money isn’t refunded until the flight leaves if the waitlist doesn’t clear.
If there is any advantage from a consumer point of view though, it is in those cases where the upgrade does not clear, because then the money is either refunded, or not charged in the first place. No one was happy in the past when they paid for an upgradable ticket and ended up in coach anyway.
When the upgrades do come through, however, especially when it’s an international ticket, the ticket price plus co-pay is usually significantly higher than the old system.
Ironically, consumers who have the hardest time with the new system might be international business travelers. Because many of them save their miles for upgrades. Which might feel especially necessary on a short business trip to say, Asia or Europe, where the company would only pay coach fare.
In my experience, most corporations in the past have been okay with their travelers booking upgradable fare types for international trips. Especially as those fares often are a little less restrictive than the lowest nonrefundable fares.
The problem arises now when, for example, a fare to Europe is $700 – $1000 roundtrip to upgrade. A corporation might reimburse for a $100 or so “Economy Plus” seat, but most of them won’t pay that much for the business upgrade. The only international fares without co-pays are the very highest coach fares, which can easily be $3000-$4000 roundtrip to Europe, Asia or South America.
From the traveler’s perspective, it’s one thing to pay extra for a vacation, it’s another to pay a significant amount of personal money for a required work trip.
On the other hand, airlines still need to make a profit. But there’s potentially a simple solution, and it’s already in use for free tickets — a two tiered system. Want a “saver” type or lowest mileage award? You might have to book 11 months out or fly midweek with connections. Want to leave on popular dates or for a relatively last minute trip, it’s doable, but for double the miles.
What if the airlines had a double miles upgrade level? They could still be limited by availability, but besides potentially making travelers happy, it would get a lot of miles off airline books as liabilities. (Double miles to Europe would be about 80,000 miles per trip!)
Plus, it would allow travelers who had been saving miles to make a trip, say a honeymoon, really special, to afford the trip. (And the airline would get some revenue out of it too.)
Another advantage of the double-mileage upgrade, as opposed to just getting a double-mileage free ticket, means it allows frequent travelers to accumulate miles towards keeping up their status.
More pragmatically, a paid ticket is higher on the food chain in case of flight cancellations. So if it’s a critical trip, it’s a lot easier to switch flights, especially when any seat in coach is better than a later upgraded flight.
I know some airline executives read Consumer Traveler, so who knows, maybe this will seem like a good idea to someone who could help institute such a change. If anyone else is reading with a suggestion and/or tweak for this one, please add it in comments,
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
