Originally Posted by
AAFA
I have never seen an agent not process an upgrade if someone was supposed to get one and if a seat was not broken. I have experienced a zillion people who get on and tell me 20 times they are next on the list and where they are sitting, as though the upgrade list and seating chart are a mysterious secret. Those are usually the people who are 20th on the list.
A significant reason why first goes out partly empty is when GAs are under pressure to get the flight out. On a fairly recent SFO-JFK 762 redeye, the 762 was subbed with a 75L mid-day, but they got the 762 fixed and it was back by about 2 hours prior to the flight.
That flight went out with 3 pax in first (2 AA employees and 1 apparent paid pax) and at least 1/3 of the business cabin empty. There were many (maybe 20-30--a couple screens) of upgrade requests, but the GAs didn't process any--it seemed they were too busy redoing all the seat assignments to accommodate the switch back to a 762.