Distilled

Hi All-
I've been reading this site for some time now, and appreciate all I have learned. I can't recall ever seeing anything about my current situation posted here, so I thought I'd ask.

I am booked economy to Scotland via LHR in a little over a month which I had done with the intent of using miles to upgrade to business, but due to my rush to get the itinerary I need I didn't confirm availability of miles upgrade. So I found myself on the upgrade waitlist, which when I was put on several weeks ago I was told I am #2 on the list.

However, in the meantime the credit card company issued me a new card with a new number as they do periodically (I think generally due to a possible security breach of some sort). When I called to update the credit card I want charged, the agent said I would lose my place in line and updating the card would put me at the back of the list. She said my best option is to call every 24-48 hours and ask, with the hopes of getting it after it has been approved but before they charge my card.

I don't feel like I can blame AA, in retrospect I probably should have just booked an award ticket in business or first instead of trying to upgrade, but thought I would see if anyone has been in this situation before or had ideas of how to save my place in line without calling everyday.

Thanks!

keloutwest

What an interesting question! From the AA side, I have no idea. But often when a new CC is sent, the old number will still work for a period of time even after the new one is activated (have you activated the new one yet?). Unless it was changed due to suspected fraud, then it may not work.

Assuming the old number won't work, what might happen if you don't change it with AA. If they try to charge it but it doesnt go through, I'd have to assume they'd call you at that point without dropping you off the list to get a working CC number.

wrxmom

What about just updating your credit card information online in your profile vs. calling?

VickiSoCal

They don't charge the card in your profile for an upgrade, they specifically ask you for a card number when you request the upgrade and use that card. Not sure what the OP should do- if it clears at the airport you are fine, as they will call you up, take your card there and process it.

QueenOfCoach

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Here's a suggestion. Every day look at the seat map for "your" flight and see if there are any empty seats on the day of travel. If you see empty seats every day for a week, then it stands to reason there will be empty seats on your day of travel and, thus, even someone at the end of the waitlist will get upgraded.

Might work, might not.

norf9

You might want to call back and ask the same question to another agent. I would think that they should be able to update your CC number without deleting the record. IIRC they charge your card before they grant you the upgrade, so you might lose your place in line anyways.

Distilled

VickiSoCal does seem to be correct, in that they ask specifically for my credit card when making the upgrade request. And when i talked to the agent, she said that if it clears and the card does not work, I'll just get kicked from the system, no phone call to get new card number.

I have been looking at the flight map, and coach is almost full but business is wide open, so I was thinking they may open up some upgrades soon. Unfortunately, I will be out of the country with limited phone access coming up soon, so will not be able to call frequently. I was hoping someone had encountered this and had a way around.

It looks like I'll just have to risk it. Since there seem to be many seats open, I'll hope I still get one.

Thanks for the replies!

Distilled

norf9-
Good suggestion as well. I was intending to call again tomorrow (and every other day thereafter) and present it as a new situation, see if any of the agents have another work around. Perhaps somewhere along the way, I'll find one that knows how to work the situation.

Thanks

aisleseatbob

You could sign up for a month of premium service from Expert Flyer Pro. It's $9.99 and will send you a notification when upgrade inventory becomes available for your flight.

In my experience, there's a 6-8 hour latency between then time I'm notified that an upgrade is available and my wait-listed request is processed.

Quite often, I'll call in and have it processed well before it would otherwise.

Ready2Go

If there is indeed a lag time between the clearing of your upgrade and the charge to your card, another thing you can do to increase the chance that you will learn of your upgrade promptly is use expertflyer.com to place a seat alert on your existing seat in coach. When your upgrade clears, that coach seat will become available and you will receive an e-mail from expertflyer. This "specific seat" type of Expertflyer seat alert costs 99 cents unless you are a member or on a free trial.

(Note: I do not claim to know whether the information you got from the agent is correct, i.e., that there is a substantial period of time between the clearing and the charge to your card.)

norf9

Interesting, so if you call during this period and ask for your upgrade to be processed can you jump the line? I had this happen once when I was at the airport, but I'm not sure if I actually jumped in ahead of someone, or if there was just no one on the waitlist.

alfagirl

Quote:

Quote from Aisleseatbob:

You could sign up for a month of premium service from Expert Flyer Pro. It's $9.99 and will send you a notification when upgrade inventory becomes available for your flight.

In my experience, there's a 6-8 hour latency between then time I'm notified that an upgrade is available and my wait-listed request is processed.

Quite often, I'll call in and have it processed well before it would otherwise. }}}

I have also done this quite a few times. I know AA says the waitlist upgrade will clear automatically when a seat becomes available but I think if someone calls before the upgrade waitlist is processed (cuz you see it on expertflyer), they get the upgrade. I have no idea where I was on the list, I just know the second I saw the availability, I called AA and grabbed them. YMMV

nomaadic

in december 2011 i was waitlisted for an international miles + copay upgrade, and in january 2012 the upgrade cleared, days before they attempted to charge my credit card.

when they did finally charge, the credit card was declined (due to some work expenses i hadnt been reimbursed for yet) and AA called me about it. i gave them a different card and they were able to successfully charge. i did not lose the upgrade.

Distilled

The expert flyer seems like a good route in this case. I am glad to hear that they called you nomaadic when your card was declined, but given that I will be largely unavailable by phone for about 5 days I will probably sign up for expert flyer so that I at least have the info.

As I said, I've been a long time reader (though I haven't made the jump into MRs, yet...) and thought about trying expert flyer before; this seems like a good chance to use it.

planetcub

I use this "tool" as well, but learned my lesson during the Chinese New Year last month.

The seatmap suggests at least 8 available seats in Business, but I ended up sit in the middle seat on my way from PEK-ORD. There were plenty passengers with confirmed seat but without seat assignment.

If you do not use expert flyer, another leeway is to call the hotline and check whether there is still available seats at certain cabin. The agent will not tell you the exact number, but will give you a ball park of how many seats are available for sale.