Originally Posted by
TRAVEL4SCUBA
Well, I hit EXP on 10/29, a few days over 8 weeks since I started to get "status". I did this mostly with CC spend and AA hotels, only took one flight. As suspected, there are WAY to many EXP already, AA is going to have to raise the bar.
I booked a mid afternoon flight, LAS to DEN via PHX departed yesterday. As of Thursday there were 7 open First Class seats and the fare was really high to pay the difference. By Monday AM all seats taken and I was number 11 on the upgrade list! On the flight from PHX to DEN 6 seats open as of Sunday night, but Monday all gone and I was number 17 on the upgrade list, 17 as an EXP !
Maybe - and just bear with me here - you should fly more before making grand proclamations about how many elites there are, and the value of EXP.
Leaving aside the fact that there is much more to EXP than just domestic upgrades - I fly out of DEN, am a low LP EXP (currently just under 200K LPs)...and I'm currently running just under 75% clearance success on domestic upgrades. There are a number of reasons any one flight could have a large number of people on the upgrade list or in first class....