AA Ditches Fixed Mileage Upgrades: Goes Dynamic

Intro

For the past many years, we have seen American Airlines and United offer fixed upgrade costs (not Delta) on all of their flights. Whether you were flying internationally or domestically, there was a chart that displayed exactly how many miles it would cost, + how much the cash co-pay would be.

Well, for American Airlines, that has flown out of the window. RIP.

Uh Oh

Reports have recently come out that American Airlines has switched over to the Delta way of selling upgrades, and this has now been confirmed by the airline. Those looking to upgrade a flight with miles will now have to pay a similar equivalent to the cash fare, but in miles.

As an example:

If an upgrade cost from Los Angeles to Sydney is 900$ for business class, the miles price will sit around 80,000 miles for an upgrade, representing a significant downgrade.

You can say goodbye to reasonably priced upgrades

Yeah it sucks, and here is where it gets even worse:

• You will NOT earn LPs when it comes to upgrades, which is basically adding salt into the wound at this point.

• Prior to this development, those seeking to upgrade from economy would typically be able to skip over premium economy, which is now not a choice. You might receive an upgrade offer to business, but the point still stands.

• Concierge Keys used to have the co-pay waived when it came to upgrades, but that is now long gone due to the dynamic pricing.

However, if there is anything good to take out of this, it is this:

• They haven't touched the award chart (yet) for JAL/CX/QR, etc, which is where you get the most bang for your buck.

• Other than that, nothing else...

This was a fantastic redemption for 40K AA Miles (QR KTM-DOH-AMM-CAI (Royal Air Jordanian))

The Future

With American and Delta now switching to dynamic upgrade offers, this leaves only one out of the US3 carriers with a fixed upgrade cost: United. Frankly speaking, I would give it until the end of the year before United switches to a dynamic upgrade scheme, especially as they mentioned that PlusPoints will be changing in 2026.

A quick note from American Airlines: You have until 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on August 11 to request mileage upgrades, and even waitlisted upgrades will still be processed if inventory becomes available. No changes to fixed mileage awards can be made starting August 12. This does not change systemwide upgrades earned by status members as choice benefits, however.

So there is a little bit of leeway here.

Final Thoughts

For avid American Airlines flyers, you will be sad to hear that the airline has decided to switch its upgrade system from a fixed chart to a fully dynamic one. No more 25,000-mile upgrades to Europe, be prepared to pay at a minimum 45,000 miles, and more likely north of 100,000 miles. What a shame, and only time until United is the last carrier to make the switch.