This is just nasty. Did you at least write in to get your upgrade refunded? Although in this situation what proof do you have... they might just say "No, you flew in J" even though you didn't.

I had an interesting YBYL experience on AC123 on Friday. I was traveling with a coworker (both SE) and we were in 11 & 12 on the J waitlist (out of 40!).

The flight was 28/28 in J, and 23/24 in PY, so it didn't look good. At T-45, there were 2 no shows and the first 2 on the list were upgraded. The next person went to PY.

We decided to hang back just in case, as the GA said there were 6 people not on board yet. We eventually moved to 1/2 on the list as people boarded. At T-10, there were still 2 not on board, but they showed up at the last second and J was full. I asked the GA if PY had also boarded full, and he said yes.

When we got on board, there was one empty PY seat, and the app changed to 23/24 as the flight closed. I overheard the guy in the PY seat being surprised he had an empty seat next to him. I sat in Y on that flight.

Given the size of the waitlist, surely someone should have moved up to PY there? Was there anything I could have done differently? I boarded at T-9.

The big issue is knowing whether or not the seat is actually empty. They could be in the bathroom, visiting someone at another seat, etc.

If you're confident it's actually empty, just refuse to sit down until it's occupied. In these situations I don't even care if I get the upgrade, but SOMEONE deserves it.

Basically don't believe the GA :/

Sometimes it helps to be really clear what you want, and why you're waiting. But it sounds like you did that, and were still given incorrect information. You can try to see the boarding count by zone on their screen, as in your situation, there should have been 2 left in zone 1 (you two) and 0 in zone 2. Zone 2 can mean many things, but if it's not 0, there's a chance PY hasn't boarded full yet.

Yes, it was empty at boarding, and remained that way the entire flight. The count went down to 23, and based on overhearing the guy talk to the FA, there was never anyone in the seat.

I also didn't care if it was me sitting there or not (I'd prefer it to be me of course, but there were higher priority people on the list). I just don't like seeing the seat empty after that many people were on the list.

I was very clear with the GA what I was looking for, and he understood that. The first GA dismissed my question about being "boarded full" and just said "it's full", but eventually she removed me from being boarded so I was back on the list.

Also frustrating as I had already used credits on a connecting flight, so any upgrade on 123 would've been at 0 additional cost.

This is another one of those where they are trying to protect the OTP rather than to do a few extra small steps on the computer to reprint a new boarding pass and hand it to the SD so that the reseat can be done onboard.

Unfortunate especially given that this is not a short flight.

My next e175 is 12/6/6, to on the list already with a checkmark. 9 people on standby. J6/R6, Y0.

Can there be 6 people with higher status than I?

Time will tell.

AC gods had me in a ex-WOW Rouge middle seat getting here, so I'm due

OpUp secured, well before boarding started, and 30 minutes after the upgrade list when to full without me on it.

Great end to the story! Enjoy your flight RangerNS !

I was on an Ex WOW A321 last week between YYZ & YQB and those are great planes. Great legroom and lots of space. NO Internet or IFE but lots of space!

I just witnessed a battlefield upgrade on SFO-YVR. They came in and pulled someone from Y to J, with a new boarding pass, then closed the door.

And just like that, AC 7 had a decent list for J and PY, but they kept the flight open a suspiciously long time, and there are two empties in PY.

Works for me because one is beside a friend, but... Imagine being denied a 16 hour upgrade from Y to PY for no reason.

I�m paraphrasing slightly, but the gate agent for my flight at YVR just said if you are waiting for an upgrade and board, your upgrade will be cancelled.

The gate agent for a YYZ-YVR A321 flight said the same thing last night. My friend was top of the waitlist for a J seat but the flight did show them all being full. With no PY she waited at the gate hoping. I texted her that 4 seats were still empty after those who boarded with zone 1 and 2 had loaded and she waited for awhile longer but finally thought there would be no overhead space if she waited any more. As soon as she boarded her name disappeared from the waitlist.

All four J seats did fill but who knows if anyone who hung out at the gate longer grabbed on of them.

Your name has always dropped off the gate list if you boarded.

My understanding with the old system was that it was much harder to upgrade someone who had already boarded.

My understanding with the new system is similar.

If you want to sit in J, don't make their lives hard.

I've now personally witnessed a "battlefield upgrade", which I hadn't on AC when I started this thread. But I have now, and my opinion hasn't changed.

Do not board if your upgrade hasn't cleared.

I may have been a victim of YBYL shenanigans last week. My place on the upgrade list fluctuated between 5th-7th place and finally when I got to the gate I could no longer see my name on the J upgrade list but could still see it on the PY list. Weird. The gate agent announced to not approach the desk and she would page those whose upgrades had cleared. I didn't hear my name paged so thought, OK tough luck, and proceeded to board. When I scanned my boarding pass there was an error with an "Already Boarded" message. So I thought maybe a new boarding pass was waiting for me, but no luck. The agent boarding and the agent making the upgrade announcements conferred for a few seconds. I heard one of them say something to the effect of "I already asked you about that one..." and then they waived me through. So I sat in my economy exit row seat. To this day I firmly believe that I was upgraded to business - I just didn't get to sit there!