American Closes Coach-to-Business Upgrades on Six Domestic Routes

Starting August 25, AAdvantage elites flying American's small handful of three-cabin domestic routes will no longer jump straight from coach to business class on a complimentary upgrade. They'll land in premium economy first and can clear into business from there.

Here's how it'll actually work: Main Cabin passengers get bumped to premium economy if space opens up in their upgrade window, and premium economy passengers get bumped to business the same way.

Thankfully, this change only applies to the routes where premium economy is sold as its own cabin — right now that's BOS–LAX, JFK–LAX, JFK–SFO, DFW–HNL/KOA/OGG, PHX–HNL, and ORD–HNL/OGG. Nothing changes on other routes, including routes where premium economy exists but isn't sold separately

If your upgrade clears before August 25, it holds unless your itinerary changes.

Andrew's Take

While unfortunate for American elites, this change was bound to happen. Premium economy isn't a courtesy seat anymore — American sells it at a real fare premium, and letting status holders skip straight past it into business was always going to collide with premium economy being a true third cabin on domestic flights.