Originally Posted by
whimsey21
...What I'm curious about is what happens in the 5 days leading up to the flight? Do any upgrades in that period follow the same heirarchy, such that they'll look to possibly clear CKs at T-120 hours, EXPs at T-100 hours, and not even look at her SWU until they've cleared any higher status pax into available space? Or is there any chance they'd upgrade the SWU requests before processing complimentary upgrades when they reach the T-5 day mark?...
I've tried to get an answer to this and don't feel like I've ever gotten to the bottom of it.
According to AA.com:
Before you get to the airport, requests for systemwide and mileage award upgrades are processed independently from 500-mile upgrade requests.
But what's not addressed is whether they will sometimes make R inventory available for comp upgrades while not making C inventory available for confirmed upgrades. Every time I have a SWU in limbo during this period, I feel like I am seeing R upgrades process while I'm still waiting for C. At the airport, it's all supposed to merge together on one list with confirmed upgrades prioritized within elite levels.
I have a flight tomorrow with a SWU request and can no longer view the reservation online ("We couldn't display trip details"). The agent said it's because the waitlisted segment hasn't cleared and that there's a note in the record not to remove the segment as the upgrade may process at the airport (I believe my travel agent called AA earlier, so that agent may have inserted the note).
Bottom line, within the comp upgrade period and especially between 24 hours and airport control (when the reservation goes fubar), it feels like a completely random and broken process. I really wish we could get some clarity about what happens during this time.