Originally Posted by
JonNYC
No change it's been this way since the very introduction of AA LFBU-- they will sell them to non-elites as long as algrorithims tell them all elites waitlisted will eventually clear. They never said they had any intention otherwise (i.e. they never have stated that they would only sell load-based upgrades -after- (all) elites had cleared), nor has the policy changed.
One thing that did change was this, below, but, again, AA never made any commitment in any way to "clear elites on the list before letting the system sell upgrades to non-elites"-- has been that way since inception. This was the tinkering I mentioned:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ul-2016-a.html
This may be the case, but holding up Elite upgrades in favor of non-elite upgrade sell (at TOD prices) is still TOD in my mind. What if something changes - that makes the algorithm invalid - irrop, cancellation of another flight that day for the same market. This is different than UA- but TOD in my view, since they are selling at TOD prices prior to elite upgrades
UA originally said (at a DO event several years ago) that they were only going to sell upgrades after elites cleared - but we know what happened to that. And we also know what happened to UA with many UA elites moving over to AA. (me for one).