Originally Posted by
Mehdron
Upgrade window question.
I’m an Alaska MVP Gold/OneWorld Sapphire. Agent at bag drop tells me that upgrades will clear 30 minutes before boarding. Which they did, but that seems awfully late in the process and does not correspond with the info on their webpage
https://www.aa.com/web/i18n/aadvanta...s-members.html.
What am I missing? Thanks in advance.
upgrade window just means the earliest you will be able to upgrade. US airlines are getting really good at selling upgrades where people who really care to fly in them will just pay the cash to upgrade. the rule of thumb lately has been holding 1 F seat for cash sale until D-40 from departure at which point either agent assist (the program AA uses to cut back on gate agents for not full flights to auto clear people) or the gate agent will clear based on status. in reality unless your top tier elite in your program(EP, 1K, DM etc) your upgrade will only ever clear at gate. since ur not flying AS metal theres quite a bit of AA elites that will clear before you do (and vice versa if AA elite was flying on AS)