Quote:
Originally Posted by Noah930
OK, so out of curiosity, what does the airline charge you for the ticket? The regular coach class full fare? Or first class fare?
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This is kind of a lengthy explanation, but....
The "regular" full coach class fare is usually a much higher price than what it would cost to get a 1st class seat on expedia, etc. (For example....a full coach ticket from Indianapolis to Sarasota might be $2900. Yes, $2900. The airlines and expedia obviously sell it much cheaper than that.....maybe $290. You could get a first class ticket for, say, $900 on that same flight.
For example...back when I was working at the airline, I bought a buddy pass for my friend to go from Indy-Sarasota. (You know, the proverbial "free flights" if you work for an airline.) The way the buddy pass works, is that I paid 10% of the "full price economy fare." The airline "absorbs" the remainding 90%. These are called ID90 fares. Well, I had $290 taken out of my paycheck for his flight. I called US Airways to figure out what was going on, and they assured me that I was charged 10% of the full price fare. The full price of that trip, could be, at their discretion $2900. I was charged the $290. Pretty crappy.
Anyway, to answer your question....She'd buy a ticket to Paris, and would be charged the same price that the average person would pay for an economy seat...but Amex would arrange the free upgrade to 1st class. It was a neat benefit, but not worth the 250K annual minimum spending on the card.
To the earlier poster who mentioned getting an offer in the mail, with a $500 annual fee....these aren't quite the same cards we're talking about here. Her annual fee was $5K.