American offers premium economy on Boeing 787-9s and is rapidly retrofitting its Boeing 777-200 fleet to add premium economy seating. We’ll see premium economy on more and more international aircraft and routes.
Think of premium economy as a domestic first class seat on an international plane, so something between coach and business class. And it’s modestly better than domestic first since you get a foot bar or foot rest. There’s upgraded meal service and free cocktails and amenities like pillow and blanket.
American’s IT backlog for things that benefit customers — like boarding passes showing correct boarding times — is long. IT resources have gone into the merger, and to things that extract revenue from customers like Basic Economy.
- As a result there’s still no way to redeem miles for premium economy (perhaps a good thing, since American might increase the price of business class when they finally do this).
- And there’s not been a way to redeem miles or upgrade instruments to go from coach to premium economy either.
Today however American has rolled out a formal day of departure upgrade program for going from coach to premium economy seats. They’re using the ‘Load Factor Based Upgrade’ (sometimes referred to as LFBU) system to offer upgrades at check-in if seats are available.
Those are paid upgrades for most customers. However they will be free for ConciergeKey and Executive Platinum members when offered (though any applicable tax for traveling in a higher class of service will need to be paid).
When more than one passenger is in the same reservation as a ConciergeKey or Executive Platinum member checking in at the same time and they receive an ‘LFBU’ offer to premium economy theirs will be complimentary as well.
Update: to clarify Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey complimentary upgrades if available and offered at check-in are temporary. Eventually I imagine we’ll see Premium Economy become a standard one category upgrade with miles or upgrade instruments and not something available on a complimentary basis at least for international flights and perhaps not for Hawaii routes that are served by a premium aircraft product either.
Not to be confused with lbfu
I can’t imagine someone who’s CK is actually flying in economy on a long haul. I did see a first the other day. I’m EXP and of course I have Global Entry. My friend has CK, and he doesn’t have either TSA precheck or Global Entry. I was so shocked that I had to wait for him at security
A more useful article would have been how to value and how much to offser to upgrade.
User your ninja finance skills to give us a formula or look up chart
Hey @Credit this isn’t bidding for an upgrade. And it just started today so we’ll have reports on pricing offered soon.
Gary,
Thanks for the update! I’m planning a trip about this time next year and was wondering about how AAdvantage miles or even a paid option to upgrade to premium economy at time of booking would work. I reached out to American last week and haven’t received a response yet, but will keep an eye out for pricing soon. Hopefully its not too much more than an upgrade to Economy Plus on United, even though it probably will be because this product is better
Is this offered at the airport, or offered at online checkin as well?
Does that mean that the systemwide upgrade will now only get you from econ to premium econ on long hauls?
A data point to consider:
In February 2022 the free DODU for ExecPlat still exists. I was able to get one on a 60% full Premium Economy cabin when I asked at the gate when heading back to the US recently.