Not true unless he is a senior managment pilot. The numbers holding that level is in the single digits.

I'd have to ask the original poster, were you 3 feet away and absolutely sure they were AA pilots. Did you see actual AA ID's? I ask this because there are plenty of other companies with pilots traveling on AA with many times the identical uniform. I can't tell the difference sometime even a few feet away without seeing an ID.

Another question as mentioned earlier. Did you fulfill all the squares for requesting and getting on the upgrade list for your status? And were you listed on the gate screen?