Originally Posted by
ijgordon
So having a hell of a time with this as well.
Spoke to check-in agent and gate agent. Both equally clueless, and not particularly inclined to help. Spoke to a reservations agent (may have been OSO desk, as I called the number on a card the agent handed to me), who put me on hold for a while, and came back to tell me that I had to tell an airport (or AAdmirals' Club) agent to "re-link" upgrade request. Gate agent again looked at me like I had 2 heads. I made her ask a supervisor, and she came back and said "we used to do that but we don't do that anymore, the policy changed a few weeks or months ago".
By that point, first leg had boarded full in F and we were both far enough down the list it wouldn't have mattered anyway. But we have a connecting flight (too early to see upgrade list) and may not have enough time to sort this out at the layover.
I DM'd AA on twitter, who apologized for the inept agents at my origin and said I could speak to an agent at my connection city.
Really frustrated with AA now...
UPDATE
So spoke to an agent at the customer service center who had no idea of the new policy either. I insisted he try to "relink" the upgrade requests, but all he could figure out how to do was to remove us both from the list and then re-add us. (And in the process he screwed up our EXST seat assignment which led to tears and screaming on board (kidding) as we tried to sort that out...)
That put us exactly back in the same place, with my Platinum companion listed as UPG3 and myself as Gold as UPG4.
Then I went to the gate agent who was basically disinclined to help, as we were
#20 + on the upgrade list and "first has checked in full"*
There was another agent standing at the gate who overheard the exchange not (sure exactly what she was doing), who said she thought she knew what the issue was. The agent
should have removed us both from the upgrade standby list, first added the Platinum back, and then added the Gold as the companion to the platinum. That should have allowed the Plat to sponsor the Gold with Plat priority, but would result in the stickers being pulled from the platinum's account (which was fine for us).
Maybe this will help someone in the future.
p.s., AA couldn't get 2 checked bags in DFW from C15 to C33 in the 1h15m connection time, and sent them on a later DFW-LGA flight instead (and has to pay for home delivery now). I think I'm done with this airline.
*Anyone else hugely offended at how GA's try to brush you off with this language? So patronizing, like I've never heard of a no-show or mis-connect.