Upgrading Your Flight? Delta & US Airlines Are Overcharging You

Travelers relish the thought of upgrading to a more spacious seat – and, more than ever, they’re using their money or miles to bump themselves up. But you might be paying significantly more than you should for that upgrade.

We compared the cost of upgrading an existing economy flight against rebooking the flight outright in a higher cabin on more than 20 upcoming flights on the nation’s three largest airlines and found that the carriers were charging more for the easy upgrade in all but one instance. The savings for rebooking even some short domestic flights were significant, like $379 on a United flight or 10,000 SkyMiles for a Delta one-way trip. 

It’s a small sample size, but one with an undeniable conclusion. That alluring upgrade is likely costing you.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to save: Because airlines did away with change and cancellation fees, you can easily cancel and rebook your flight in an extra legroom or first class seat – so long as you didn’t book a stingy basic economy fare. Or, better yet, just change your existing flight and rebook yourself in the higher cabin instead.

Is this an inadvertent quirk in the complexities of airfare pricing and upgrades, which airlines set separately? Or are airlines purposely setting upgrade rates higher, betting they can squeeze more out of travelers who would never think to check the math on rebooking instead? 

Airlines have made it much easier over the years for customers to upgrade to a higher cabin after purchase using more money or miles – none moreso than Delta, much to the chagrin of flyers with Medallion status hoping for a complimentary upgrade. We first started digging into upgrade pricing after Thrifty Traveler reader Anthony F. tipped us off to some troubling pricing discrepancies on some of his upcoming Delta flights. 

For example, he booked a one-way flight in economy from Boston (BOS) to Atlanta (ATL) for 13,000 SkyMiles. The airline offered him a chance to upgrade to first class on that three-hour flight for 47,900 SkyMiles, which would bring the total cost to 60,900 miles.

But he could instead rebook that exact same first class seat on the same flight for just 34,000 SkyMiles. The convenience of that one-click upgrade would have cost him nearly 27,000 miles!

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He had other jarring examples, like a 26,300-SkyMile premium for an upgrade on his return flight to Atlanta and a 24,400-mile upcharge for upgrading a cross-country flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Atlanta instead of rebooking it outright. And Anthony isn’t alone.

We, too, found higher upgrade rates on nearly all our upcoming Delta flights … whether we booked and upgraded with SkyMiles or used a credit card.

For example, I’m set to fly to Newark (EWR) later this month on a fare I booked months ago for $193.48. Delta is offering me a first class upgrade for $375.18, which would bring my total north of $568.

But by simply clicking on “Change This Flight” instead of that upgrade offer, I could rebook into that same seat for an extra $355, saving about $20. That’s not a massive discrepancy, but the fact that it exists at all will likely be news to many travelers.

Thrifty Traveler is based in a Delta hub, so that’s where most of our upcoming flights – and therefore much of our research – are booked. But we also found a few telling examples on both American Airlines and United, including: 

• American Airlines was offering first class upgrades for a whopping 99,600 AAdvantage miles on a flight from Sioux Falls (FSD) down to Aruba (AUA) that originally cost 8,000 miles. But we could cancel and rebook in first class for 46,500 miles – less than half the mileage of the upgrade alone!
• United offered a $1,129 upgrade to first class on a $365 from Boise (BOI) to Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) roundtrip fare, bringing the total just shy of $1,500. But by canceling that main cabin economy fare and rebooking first, it cost $1,114 – less than the upgrade cost alone and a savings of $380.
• Southwest just began installing extra legroom seats across its fleet – and charging passengers more for them. On a pair of upcoming Southwest reservations, the upgrade rate was identical to the cost of rebooking that seat from the start. 

From charging solo passengers higher fares to the prospect of using artificial intelligence (AI) to set personalized prices, airfare is in the spotlight lately … and not in a good way. With unpredictable pricing that seems to change by the second, flight prices are an infuriating black box to the average American traveler, requiring them to resort to extreme methods to get a fair deal. 

Add this upgrade pricing to the list. 

Bottom Line

Take a pause and do some math before you splurge to bump up on your next flight, because you’re probably paying for the convenience of a one-click upgrade.

It surely won’t happen on each and every flight, but we’ve found the nation’s largest airlines are frequently charging more – and sometimes substantially more – to upgrade an upcoming flight compared to what it would cost to cancel and rebook (or simply change to) that bigger seat. 

While there’s an easy workaround to save on that upgrade, it’s just another annoying instance of the sneaky ways airlines can get more money out of their loyal customers … and another hoop for travelers to jump through to get the best deal.