American Airlines tweaks upgrade process for elite fliers

American Airlines’ elite frequent-flier member will have some new calculus to crunch in figuring out how they’ll be upgraded. The carrier said that starting Saturday, it is tweaking the formula used for determining the priority for space-available upgrades given to elite members of the AAdvantage program. Among the biggest changes: American will give more priority than before to frequent-fliers who've spent a lot of money with the carrier during the previous year. That continues a shift by the USA’s “big three” carriers to increasingly reward fliers for money spent. The most notable change in that shift has seen American, Delta and United all move to "revenue-based" frequent-flier schemes. That means the carriers now dole out miles on a per-dollar-spent basis rather than by mileage flown, which had long been the hallmark of most airline loyalty programs. Alaska Airlines is now the last of the big US carriers on which fliers earn award “mileage” that’s actually based on the distance of its flights.<br/>