Jim90068

This has been a particular problem in just the last few months. I'm EXPLAT and when I book flights where my wife is traveling, I book us together. AA.com has my wife's info and automatically loads it into the ticket info, including her AAdvantage number (she is gold).

Domestic upgrades have lately been day of flight, at the gate. When I get to the gate, I'm #1 on the upgrade list and she may be #5.

I run to the Admirals club, explain the situation and the helpful AAngel resets things and then my wife gets on the list as #2. They invariably tell me that I should not include my wife's Aadvantage number when I buy the ticket, since the system picks up her status and downgrades her on the upgrade list.

This never used to happen. Something has occurred with the AA system, and no one wants to acknowledge it. Can anyone tell me if this has been their experience as well?

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Would that mean you would have to request mileage credit for your wife's travels after every trip she travels with you? Sounds tedious.

Jim90068

It definitely would be laborious. I was told at two different Admirals Clubs to enter her Aadvantage number prior to the flight. They didn't know how that would affect the upgrade priority.

I am really just puzzled, because it NEVER worked this way before.

Stripe

The way it was explained to me: if your companion has AA status and the stickers are coming from his/her account, the companion will go on the airport queue based on his/her own status. If the companion has no status, or is using your stickers, then you will be one after the other on the airport list. It creates a nonsense situation where no-status pax can trump those with status.

It is interesting that the AAngel was able to fix it. When my wife and I were in the same situation at ORD, the AAngel explained why it was happening but said there was nothing she could do about it. In the end it didn't matter, because F was sold out and no one got an upgrade.

rabtech

That makes sense. My wife has no status and I am Plat. She always gets my upgrade status (I.e., we show up one after the other) on the upgrade list.

Xero

Is this situation a bug or a feature? Is this something AA will fix or is the current way companion upgrades are handled the "correct" way?

Does it happen when the companions are on the same PNR or only when separate?

Upgraded!

I had the exact same thing happen recently on ORD-LGA. GA said nothing could be done about it (I knew she was just being lazy but didn't matter, PLT fiance was #4, I was #12 and F had been sold out for a couple days). For the return, I called AA to make sure we were listed together. Reservations agent said we were. I told her what happened at ORD a few days earlier and she said (paraphrasing):

"Let me clarify: in my system you show as her companion, the airport's system will have you separated and you'll have to ask that they manually connect you again."

Sure enough, at LGA, where we were trying to get an earlier flight, we made this known and when I checked at the gate prior to boarding I was told we were 11 and 12 on the list (so didn't matter, but at least AA did it right, unless we were simply the last two on the list due to standing by, also possible).

In this case, we wanted to make sure that the upgrades came from each of our accounts separately since my fiance didn't have enough for both of us, and she travels short hops (where she'll need them) more often than I do for work.

This hadn't previously been an issue before, but we haven't flown together where upgrades were requested and any of them cleared in almost a year and at the time we were both GLD.

Upgraded!

This must be a bug, given what the phone agent told me in the post above (that they are still properly linked, as they always have been, in the reservations system, it's only when things go to the airport list that this falls apart).

Stripe

It definitely happens when you're on the same PNR. Don't know what happens if you're separate.

Jim90068

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has run into this. Ironically, in years past, even if the companion was on the same PNR, the upgrades were taken from each flyer's account - meaning that the primary flyer would have them come from his/her account (or free for Explat) and the companion had to either buy upgrade stickers or have them in his/her account.

Knowing all this, I actually like that AA is deducting the somewhat useless upgrade stickers from my account for my wife's upgrade.....but find the whole procedure for requesting upgrades and ensuring that we are linked to be a bit of a pain.