Originally Posted by
videomaker
You're saying a TA at a small American Eagle outpost can upgrade someone to F international, with no status or any other reason to upgrade, just because he/she wanted to? That's interesting.
BTW, how long ago were you working for Eagle when you were handing out the upgrades like that? Just curious, since many of us assume they're not handing out "honeymoon op-ups" as often as they used to because of the current rules with status, etc.
Any American or American Eagle (actually any airline ticket agent) agent can change the class of travel with a few keystrokes. On the day of departure the available premium seats are free game as far as upgrades go. Prior to day of departure, premium agents in the hubs and AA revenue management monitor the premium seats closely and if a passenger is upgraded without permission from an AA executive, your station manager is called and you have to explain yourself to him/her, but as I said on the day of departure anyone could care less. That being said however, NO ticket agent is just going to give out premium seats just because. The pax will have to have a compelling reason (honeymoon) to stand any chance of getting an upgrade. If the ticket agent feels the reason is good enough they will go to their direct supervisor who will be the one to approve/deny the upgrade and document the approval for the upgrade in the pax record.
As for your second question, I worked for American Eagle from 07/2006-12/2007 as a lead agent. I never did have anyone request a transpacific upgrade. Most couples on their honeymoon were going to europe or the bahamas instead.