How to Upgrade Your Airline Seat with Miles: What Each US Airline Allows Now

Upgrading with miles means paying the airline in miles, instead of cash, to move from the cabin you booked to the one above it. Every big US airline handles it a little differently, and the rules changed in 2025: American and United threw out their published upgrade charts, so the price you see now is set flight by flight, the way Delta has done it for years. This page says what each airline allows, what it costs, which tickets can never be upgraded, and how to do it in five steps.

The short version

Checked 14 September 2026 on each airline’s site. Airlines change these rules without notice; the airline’s page governs.

Tickets that cannot be upgraded with miles

Three kinds of ticket are out at every airline, so check these before you get your hopes up.

• Basic economy. The cheapest fare bucket is built to be restrictive. No upgrades of any kind, with miles or with cash, at American, Delta or United.
• Award tickets. A seat you already paid for with miles cannot be upgraded with more miles. If you want a better cabin on an award, book that cabin as the award in the first place.
• Flights sold by one airline and flown by another. Codeshare and most partner flights are not eligible on the airline’s own site; at best you can ask by phone.

What is left is a regular paid ticket in main cabin or above, on a flight the airline itself operates. That is the ticket the rest of this page is about.

Airline by airline

American Airlines

• American ended its mileage upgrade chart on 12 August 2025. Under the old chart a domestic upgrade started at 15,000 miles plus a cash co-pay; that is gone.
• Now you see an “instant upgrade” offer on aa.com with a cash price and a miles price side by side. Pay either one and the upgrade is confirmed on the spot. There is no waitlist, and no cheaper “saver” upgrade space to hunt for.
• The miles price follows the cash price at roughly a cent a mile. Examples reported at launch: a Chicago flight at $291 or 27,100 miles; an Orlando flight at $76 or 7,100 miles.
• Basic Economy, award tickets and codeshares are not eligible. One cabin up only. You keep earning miles on the fare you paid, not the cabin you sit in.

Where to look: American’s page on using miles for upgrades.

Delta Air Lines

• Delta has never published an upgrade chart. The price is set for each flight and shown in your trip summary on delta.com or in the Fly Delta app, during booking or afterward.
• The miles price tracks the cash price at about 1.07 cents per mile, so a $60 upgrade runs about 5,600 miles.
• You can upgrade to Comfort, First, Premium Select or Delta One when the seat is for sale. If the online option is missing, a SkyMiles agent can check partner-operated flights by phone.
• Basic economy is not eligible. Miles spent on an upgrade count toward Medallion status.

Where to look: Delta’s upgrades page.

United Airlines

• United dropped its MileagePlus Upgrade Award chart on 24 November 2025. Before that, a US to Europe upgrade to Premium Plus was a flat 15,000 to 20,000 miles, and to Polaris 20,000 miles plus a co-pay of $300 to $550, depending on the fare you bought. Now the price moves with demand.
• To see the price on an existing trip, open the reservation and click the “upgrade cabin” icon, then choose miles. When booking, use the advanced search and pick “Upgrades, certificates and promotion codes.”
• If the seat is not open yet you go on a waitlist. Elite members, PlusPoints holders and higher fares clear ahead of you, then it goes by the date you asked.
• Basic economy is not eligible. Some routes still carry a cash co-pay on top of the miles.

Where to look: United’s upgrades page.

Alaska Airlines

• Alaska’s program is now Atmos Rewards (it merged Mileage Plan with Hawaiian’s program). Points cannot be used to upgrade a paid ticket to first class.
• What you can do: buy a cash upgrade when Alaska offers one, usually in the last 24 hours before departure once elite upgrades have cleared, priced by distance from about $23 one way; or book first class with points from the start.
• Elite members (Silver through Titanium) get complimentary first class upgrades by tier and fare.

Where to look: Alaska’s upgrade FAQ.

How to request an upgrade with miles, step by step

1. Buy an eligible ticket: a regular paid fare in main cabin or above, on a flight the airline operates. Not basic economy, not an award.
2. Log in to your frequent flyer account on the airline’s site or app. Join first if you have not; it is free, and it is the only way the upgrade option appears.
3. Open the reservation, usually under My Trips or your trip summary.
4. If the ticket is eligible and the seat is for sale, you will see an upgrade button. Here is what it looks like on a United reservation:

Click it and you get the choice of paying in cash or in miles:

5. Choose miles, confirm the number of miles and any cash co-pay, and complete the purchase. At American and Delta the upgrade is confirmed right away. At United you may be placed on a waitlist and told before departure if it clears.

If you would rather not do it yourself, call the airline. With a loyalty account on file, the agent can tell you what upgrade options the ticket has and price them for you.

When it is worth it

Now that the charts are gone, the math is simple: the airline is offering you the upgrade at a cash price and a miles price, and the miles price is usually about one cent per mile. So ask two questions.

• Would you pay the cash price? If a $76 upgrade to first on a short flight is not worth $76 to you, it is not worth 7,100 miles either.
• Could the miles buy more some other way? Miles spent on an award ticket, especially a long international flight in business class, often return two cents a mile or more. Miles spent on an upgrade return about one. If you have a big balance and a big trip coming, save the miles for the award and pay cash for the small upgrade.

Two things still help your odds. Book early, since upgrade space is thinnest on full flights, and watch your email in the last week or two before departure: airlines push cash and miles upgrade offers when premium seats are still unsold, and midweek flights have more of them than Fridays and Sundays.

If you have to cancel the trip

An upgrade bought with miles is refunded the way the airline refunds miles, not the way it refunds cash. Read the airline’s rule before you buy: on most, cancelling the flight puts the miles back in your account, sometimes for a fee, but a no-show can forfeit them. Travel insurance does not change this. A trip cancellation plan pays back the money you prepaid and cannot get back when you cancel for a covered reason (the fare, a cash co-pay, the hotel), and miles are not money. Some plans do pay the fee an airline charges to put miles back; the plan document says whether yours does. The trip cancellation guide covers what is and is not refunded, and how much trip cost to insure explains why you insure the cash part of the trip and not the miles.

Airline rules on this page were checked on 14 September 2026 against American’s, Delta’s, United’s and Alaska’s own program pages, with the August 2025 (American) and November 2025 (United) chart changes confirmed in industry reporting at the time. Example prices are the airlines’ own or as reported at launch and will differ by flight.