Originally Posted by JohnnyP

I fly LHR-ORD and then onwards ORD-DEN. Well before the flights, I request an upgrade on the ORD-DEN segment online and it shows up as Upgrade Requested on AA.com. The day of the flight, I check in at LHR and my ORD-DEN upgrade has not yet cleared.

I fly LHR-ORD and then head to the gate for ORD-DEN. My name does not appear on the upgrade list on the sign behind the gate agent. I go up, he taps a bit and adds me to the list ... I rarely clear at this stage as just an AA Gold. One time the gate agent said, "Nope, sorry, you're not on the list ... oh, wait a second ... <more typing> hmmm .... <more typing> your upgrade did clear, here you go!"

So ... what happened? Do I drop off the upgrade list after I checked in? Or do I clear the list but the agents can't find me somehow?