Originally Posted by
bcm0830
I'm flying LHR>LAX Jan. 1, and there are currently 19 seats open in J. I'm pretty surprised our upgrades haven't cleared, given it's a holiday, and so many seats are available. I'd think that there won't be many business travelers likely to purchase last minute J on Jan. 1. Are folks seeing SWUs clear at the one-week mark in circumstances like this one, or is it all over the map?
I flew LHR-JFK last week on a 77W. While the seat map is not a surefire indicator of availability, when it shows over 30 empty seats in J, that IS to me a surefire indicator of availability, but even so, it was only about 30 hours prior to departure when my reservation showed the telltale "the details of your trip cannot be displayed." I gave it a few hours, but with T-24 fast approaching and the same legend still showing, I called the German number, which was picked up in England. The AAgent there could not see that I was being upgraded, so I then called the EXP line in the US, got the "our agents are busy, we can call you back between an hour and a half and an hour and three quarters from now" (which was not going to work for me) and gave up. At T-18, when I had Internet access again, I saw that I had been reticketed, and at least had a good choice of seats. (Even after my upgrade had cleared and a seat assigned, there were 32 others to choose from.) As it turned out, I was able to get my first (and only, as the other 3 options were appalling) choice of meal, so no harm, no foul, BUT it is absurd that AA would not clear UGs earlier for its EXPs in this case. Thanks a lot, Doug.
Just confirms my decision to leave.