Goodbye To American’s Fixed Upgrade Award Charts, Hello Dynamic Instant Upgrade Awards

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United announced 3 weeks ago that they would remove their upgrade award charts on 11/24 and start pricing upgrades dynamically.

And now American has announced they will also remove their upgrade award charts, on 8/12. You can request upgrades with the award pricing through 8/11 and if you’re waitlisted for an award, you won’t lose your request. However, you won’t be able to make new requests as of 8/12.

American points out that you can now use cash or miles to instantly upgrade your paid or award tickets from your itinerary with dynamic pricing. Don’t expect a good value, but these awards will clear into the higher cabin right away, versus award chart pricing, which may have to be waitlisted.

An award trip for 6 people from Cleveland to Nassau via Charlotte would cost 360K miles or $3,377.40 to upgrade instantly. That’s a poor use of miles at a value of 0.94 cents per mile, and it could be booked outright for less than that.

An award trip for 6 people from Nassau to Miami would cost 151.8K miles or $1,505.40 to upgrade instantly. That’s a poor use of miles at a value of 0.99 cents per mile, and it could be booked outright for less than that.

There are 2 months left to take advantage of fixed-priced upgrade awards. After that, you’ll be stuck with dynamic upgrade award pricing.