11.11.07

Upgrades update

The days of free upgrades may be coming to an end. It makes sense once you hear the reasons.

Having just received this information, it's fresh off the press. United is upgrading their business and first class product. Other airlines are doing the same. Even more others are buying new jets with beautiful new products.

In all this investment, there's no room for freebies. Typically, after about 5 years in service, the full fare passenger finds that the product has aged too much to pay full fare, at which time the airline tries to pull additional revenue by upgrading passengers.

For now, with the stiff competition in the airline marketplace, their best source of revenue is their business product. Even if the airline doesn't entirely do away with their upgrade policy, it would become increasingly difficult to upgrade if the plan works as the seats would have been sold out to full fare passengers.

No comments: