Originally Posted by TalkingPoint (Post 35810781)

Just had a pretty awkward experience. I had been #1 for an upgrade with 2 seats in F since T-72. Checked in at the 24 hour mark and was thinking I'd get upgraded any minute as my order and number of unsold F was unchanged. Checked again an hour or so later and the upgrade processor still hadn't run. It finally ran at about T-20 but to my surprise, I was still number 1 on the list and number 3 and 4 appeared to have cleared. Got to the airport for my transcon flight and just out of curiosity asked the gate agent why I was passed over, and if pax 3 and 4 on the list were 100k's and the list just wasn't ordered correctly as rumored. He looked into it and ended up calling the station manager over after not seeing how it could have happened. The passengers upgraded were just gold and lower fare class. They called the two passengers who were upgraded up to the gate and asked them if they had used a GGU or miles or paid for the upgrade (although they had already said from what they could see that this hadn't happened but wanted to make sure they weren't missing anything). The passengers had no idea and said they didn't use any upgrade instrument or buy up into F but had just seen they received complimentary upgrades. The gate then downgraded those passengers and put myself and #2 (who was a 75k) into first but one of those downgraded passengers was quite upset and started to make a little bit of a scene for just getting downgraded right at boarding.

It was slightly dramatic and I do not enjoy confrontation. To be honest I would have preferred for the gate to just let it go and leave everyone where they were as I had a backup flight anyway but they were very determined to "make this right." I really just asked out of curiosity because I've had this happened numerous times and thought the answer was going to be the list order was wrong or they used some upgrade instrument after U dropped but before processor has run. The #2 on the list said he has run into this before but just didn't know how the mechanics of upgrades worked enough to think much about it. Submitted an Alaska Listens but I doubt it goes anywhere.

Originally Posted by anteater (Post 35810852)

Sad, but kudos for handling it calmly.

IME, this was either a case of the upgrade professor starting at the bottom of the list or the pax simply being offered a complimentary upgrade at check-in (if U space was available).

Complimentary upgrades and the uh.. robustness of the system is a concern that has been mentioned to AS on innumerable occasions, including at the Loyalty Event in May 2023, to which AS responded that the system ‘is functional’. Observing that longstanding issues have remained unresolved, I cannot in good faith agree that it is functional nor agree that AS CARES.

p.s. I haven’t seen evidence of a WL display out of order case in a very long time, but it could still be a bug.

Originally Posted by TalkingPoint (Post 35810781)

It was slightly dramatic and I do not enjoy confrontation. To be honest I would have preferred for the gate to just let it go and leave everyone where they were as I had a backup flight anyway but they were very determined to "make this right." I really just asked out of curiosity because I've had this happened numerous times and thought the answer was going to be the list order was wrong or they used some upgrade instrument after U dropped but before processor has run. The #2 on the list said he has run into this before but just didn't know how the mechanics of upgrades worked enough to think much about it. Submitted an Alaska Listens but I doubt it goes anywhere.

Originally Posted by TalkingPoint (Post 35811062)

The professor didn’t start at the bottom of the list. I took a screenshot a little after checkin when there were 2 seats left and I was #1 and can see at least 9 on the waitlist and the people upgraded were 3/4.

Whether they checked in right after U dropped but before processor ran I don’t know. My EF alert for U never triggered but the drop could have happened and gotten picked up before EF caught it.

I appreciate how concerned and thorough the gate agents were but they had to call leads over to help so the 2 gate agents could handle boarding. Id rather not cause that much trouble for them in the future but at least I can submit a very clear example to IT of their professor failing. Whether they do anything with it is up to them but I’ll just live with whatever the professor decides in the future.

Originally Posted by anteater (Post 35811080)

Ah, didn’t see this WL length present in your original post. Sounds like upgrade professor roulette. That’s another uh.. feature of the system, sadly.

EF doesn’t have the best polling times and they won’t discuss it, but if their polling cycle happens to occur right after one’s desired state change alert, it’s an absolutely wonderful tool!

Originally Posted by TalkingPoint (Post 35811100)

In the end we’ll probably never know what’s really happening in their spaghetti code. And probably neither will they.

Originally Posted by TalkingPoint (Post 35811100)

In the end we’ll probably never know what’s really happening in their spaghetti code. And probably neither will they.

Originally Posted by lensovet (Post 35819541)

I wonder if this is specifically something about 100ks? Like if there’s one in the list it just barfs. Has anyone who’s had this issue seen it with an MVPG/MVP?

Originally Posted by rune87 (Post 35820972)

Well tonight the upgrade professor decided to upgrade my ticket with my companion, and proceed to completely bork the ticket. I can generate a boarding pass on the website, but not the app, and I was checked in prior to the upgrade but no longer. We both also now show on the awaiting seat list. Customer Care doesn't know and just told me to deal with it at the ticket counter tomorrow....which then makes me think...AS at Seattle is suppose to be going counterless and the ipads are suppose to fix everything right? I am so glad this is the last trip of the year. These IT issues have been exceptionally trying this year.

Originally Posted by TalkingPoint (Post 35821049)

Just wait until they try and integrate HA's systems.