Originally Posted by
northernlights1
Thanks for update. Strange thing this was a last minute almost full price fare and so I didn't have the benefit of advance notice when the fares are cheaper. I'd of think the higher fare would have helped my place in line. But who knows what the computer thinks. Missed the upgrade by one.
Fare price doesn't factor into the upgrade list priority between elite levels (EXP vs PLT). From the 500-mile upgrade thread's wiki: "Priority for upgrades depends primarily on status, secondarily on time of request"
There's a large number of things that could have happened here.
A) Another flight got cancelled or delayed, and EXPs with upgrade requests from that flight got pushed to yours. Even if you were EXP, if their original request was submitted prior to yours they would have hopped you in the list. Since you have a lower status, they are automatically above you.
B) An EXP (or PLT with earlier request) could have same-day changed to your flight and got in front of you.
C) An EXP (or PLT with earlier request) could have dropped off the airport list due to an erroneous manual check-in (or something else) and been placed back on. The PLT may have been placed back on the list in order of your original request time.
A lot of good info here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...questions.html