Originally Posted by
SpaceBass
hey y'all!
I feel like I often start with this preface: after years of being a good FTer, I've kinda checked out on following all of AA's regs and rules. So I apologize as I suspect (although I searched and didn't see much) if this has been asked 100 times.
I'm headed to CDG on a whim for a long weekend (I know, right?) in a few weeks. My routing is SFO-CLT-CDG on AA786. It looks like I'm in a Q fare (not quite sure what that means?). I booked about 5 weeks ago which makes the booking about 7 weeks out from the trip.
I called AA EP today and they said there wasn't any inventory at all. It was unclear if that meant biz is full, or just unopened for upgrades - regardless, she didn't think my prospects were good.
My questions are:
1. are there any good tips/methods for increasing one's odds for a SWU? (at least at this stage, post-booking). I know sometimes a flight schedule change can allow us to find another routing, but that's not the case for me on this trip.
2. I understand a lot of people use Expert Flyer to some advantage - what's the trick there? Is that all about booking the right flight in the first place? Or does EF provide some added benefit with SWUs post-booking?
Thanks for the patience - I know its kind of a noobie question for a multi-year EP.
You've already booked your flights so there's not much you can do other than call AA back and ask to be put on the waitlist (if you didn't already on the first call). Forget about whatever semantics the prior agent used, they were most likely saying there just wasn't any upgrade space at the current time (very common).
EF can help in 2 ways:
Before you book: Check lots of flights for any confirmable C space in advance, rare but it does happen. Can also check loads, seatmaps, etc. to gauge which flights might give you the best chances.
After you book: can set up alerts for your flights, if/when C space opens up you can call in and ask for the upgrade to be processed immediately rather than waiting for the waitlist to process. Sometimes, depending on the situation, you may be able to "jump the queue" this way, but some agents won't manually process your upgrade if you're on the waitlist, and other times it might not matter at all.