Originally Posted by
Zeffer
I'm getting conflicting answers on this from AAgents. I know that when I stand by for a flight, every other passenger's upgrade request needs to clear before mine will, regardless of their status. But when I pay for a confirmed same-day standby, is my upgrade priority determined by when the original upgrade request was made, or when my standby booking was confirmed? (I had one agent tell me all airport upgrades are prioritized according to the time of check-in, which hasn't been the case for stickers since 2008!)
it's been a while since I've done this, so things may have changed, but once your standby is cleared by the GA, ask to be placed on the upgrade list. That list sorts by status, and by time of request/booking within elite status tier. You can't get onto the upgrade list until you've been cleared onto the flight.
In my situation, there was a long list for upgrades, and when my standby was cleared, and I was placed onto the upgrade list, I jumped to # 1, which annoyed those standing around waiting for the GA to clear the upgrade list. When the GA then cleared the upgrade list, I got a new BP, and a lecture from the now # 2 on how he was here first and how I was line-cutting.
I told him to take it up with AA, as they set the procedure, not me.