Originally Posted by
sts603
That doesn't really make sense though. The current system is done exclusively by time of purchase.
It's not time of purchase, it's time of upgrade request. Is it not possible that while the OP was on the phone to AA, splitting the PNR and making the individual upgrade requests, that "Other Passenger" (presumably also EXP) requested an upgrade? Since the splitting of the PNRs and individual upgrade requests are a manual process by the AAgent, it is certainly conceivable that the five upgrade requests have different time stamps. In the unlikely event that someone else's upgrade request happens to be after family member #1 but before family member #5 then they should be between #1 and #5 on the upgrade list. I'm not saying that's necessarily how it happened in this case, but it's a feasible and legitimate way that it could happen.