Why it’s getting harder to get a free upgrade on a first class flight

Cheap seats are no longer enough for airline passengers.

Since the pandemic, travelers have shown airlines that they are willing to pay to sit in the relatively spacious front of the cabin. That means many of the seats are already full, making it harder for frequent travelers to get free upgrades at the front of the plane.

And the lines of frequent flyers with elite status are growing from the airport lounge to the crowded first boarding group, which means more competition for those seats. Expect even more crowds during the year-end holiday period, which airlines predict will set another record.

Even in the off-season, in early 2025, executives have predicted strong demand. U.S. airline capacity in the first quarter will increase about 1% from a year ago, according to aviation data firm Cirium.

“We are seeing probably our best unit revenues in the liner [routes]for example, in the middle of winter,” he said Delta Airlines President Glen Hauenstein at an investor day in November.

The price difference between first class and economy varies, of course, depending on distance, demand, time of year and even time of day. For example, a round-trip ticket on united airlines from its hub in Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles International Airport during the first week of February was $347 in standard economy and $1,791 in the airline’s Polaris cabin, which has lie-flat seats but no access to the international business class lounge. .

american airlinesThe nonstop flight from New York to Paris during Easter week 2025 cost $1,104 in economy class and $3,038 in the airline’s Flagship Business class.

The billions of dollars in revenue that keep airlines afloat are at stake. Airline loyalty programs are a source of revenue, and striking the right balance between benefits like free upgrades and earning cash is key.

In recent years, airlines have changed the requirements to obtain the status, rewarding spending and not just distance traveled. They have also increased the amount travelers must spend to be anointed with elite status. Next year, customers will have to spend more on United to earn status. However, on Thursday American said it would keep its requirements the same for the next earnings year, which begins in March.

About 15 years ago, travelers paid for seats in only 12% of Delta’s domestic first class. Now, that figure is closer to 75% and rising, Hauenstein told investors last month.

“We give them away on a frequent flyer basis,” Hauenstein said of first-class seats in 2010 and earlier. “The incentive was to spend as little as possible, fly as long as possible, and upgrade as often as possible. That got us into a position where our most valuable products were the ones with the biggest losses.”

That’s now the opposite for Delta, he said, as more money goes to the front of the cabin. The airline generates 43% of its revenue from economy class main cabin tickets, up from 60% in 2010.

The trend is affecting the entire industry, from Delta, the most profitable airline, to discounters such as Border Airlineswhich is adding more spacious first class seats to the front of its Airbus fleet in 2025. On Wednesday, JetBlue Airways said it would introduce two or three rows of domestic business class on planes that do not have its highest-level Mint business class with lie-flat seats, calling it “mint junior.”

one day before Alaska Airlines announced it would retrofit some of its planes with premium seats as it prepares new international flights after acquiring Hawaiian Airlines earlier this year, and revenue from higher-priced seats will exceed standard economy.

“Airbus 330s and Boeing 787s are seen to be under-indexed in business class and lack an international premium economy cabin,” Andrew Harrison, Alaska’s chief commercial officer, said at an investor day in New York on Tuesday. “Therefore, we expect that beyond 2027 we will see our premium mix continue to grow.”

Airlines are now racing to add larger first class or international business class sections with larger screens and closed doors for platform seats.

“We’ve seen more paid demand for premium cabin than before the pandemic,” said Scott Chandler, vice president of revenue management at American Airlines. “More people want the premium cabin experience.”

Chandler said American has worked in recent years to make it easier for customers to purchase more expensive cabins, with post-purchase options to upgrade to first class or other cabins such as premium economy.

American is upgrading some of its longer-range planes to include more premium seats, as are other airlines, ditching first class entirely on some to add larger international business class cabins that will have new seats with sliding doors. Delta and United have also increased their premium offerings to keep up with customers who want to pay for more expensive seats.

“They’re doing everything they can to entice you to pay for their premium products. That’s absolutely what they should be doing,” said Henry Harteveldt, founder of the travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group. Customers do not buy a brand-name item at a department store and then expect that “the salesperson [to] Call that product and I’ll give you a free designer bag.”

Southwest Airlines has taken its own approach. In 2026, it plans to fly with multiple rows of seats with increased legroom, modernizing its standard tourist-only cabins that it has flown in for more than half a century and eliminating open seating.

CEO Bob Jordan said it’s partly a “generational shift.”

“What we’re seeing is that our younger customers are looking for a little more quality,” he said in an interview this week. “In large part this is due to a change in mentality, a willingness to spend more on travel and less on other things.

But the airline decided to keep the number of seats on its plane largely the same and will not add first class like other airlines, after surveying customers and weighing the cost of losing space for more seats on board.

For first class, Jordan said: “We’re talking about ovens, we’re talking about meals, we’re talking about provisioning. It’s a huge capital investment and a huge leap.”

“But never say never,” he said.